Mary Thipe

Mary Thipe OLS (1917-1982) was a South African anti-apartheid and human rights activist who took part in the 1956 Women's March against apartheid pass laws, the South African potato boycott of 1959 and the Cato Manor Beer Hall boycott in the same year. Thipe was also the vice-chairperson of the Cato Manor branch of African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) during the 1950s.

Personal life

Mary Thipe was born in 1917 in a village called Ramhlakoane in the Matatiele district in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. She later moved to Umkhumbane in KwaZulu Natal and joined the liberation struggle in 1952.

Political work

Mary Thipe joined the ANC during the Defiance Campaign of 1952. Thipe went on to become vice-chairperson of the Cato Manor branch of the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL). She took a train from Cato Manor, KwaZulu-Natal to Pretoria to join hundreds of women who marched against pass laws on August 9, 1956. In an interview with the SABC, Thipe's daughter Maeketso said her mother refused to own a pass. "One day they [apartheid police] came to our house. It was in the middle of the day and they came and wanted to see her dompass. She didn't have it and she told them that she would not carry it. They arrested her. She spent two weeks in jail," Maeketso said. In April 2015, she was awarded the Order of Luthuli in Silver for her contributions to the South African struggle for freedom.