Mildred Ramakaba-Lesiea

Mandu Mildred Ramakaba-Lesiea (; born 28 January 1933) is a South African politician and veteran of the African National Congress (ANC), which she joined in 1954. After the end of apartheid in 1994, she represented the ANC in the National Assembly from 1998 to 2004.

Ramakaba-Lesiea joined the ANC in the early years of the struggle against apartheid in order to participate in the campaign against the Bantu Education Act of 1953. In subsequent decades, she was a prominent figure in women's activism and community organising in Cape Town; she was imprisoned under the Suppression of Communist Act in the 1960s and was detained for her activism on several other occasions. In 2005, the South African government awarded her the Order of Luthuli in Silver in recognition of her contribution to the struggle.

Early life Ramakaba-Lesiea was born on 28 January 1933 in Langa outside Cape Town in the former Cape Province. Her father, Sello Ramakaba, was originally from Lesotho and grew up in the Orange Free State; her mother, Francina Pretorius, also grew up in the Free State but was racially mixed, with an Afrikaans mother and a Sotho father. Two years later, the apartheid government began implementing the Bantu Education Act; Ramakaba-Lesiea's opposition to the legislation drew her into anti-apartheid activism, first through the Elsie's River Civic Association and then through the African National Congress (ANC), both of which she joined in 1954. She was re-elected in 2004. After her retirement, and as of 2017, she remained a member of her local ANC branch in Gugulethu.

Personal life Ramakaba-Lesiea married James Lesiea in 1952; he was from Aliwal North but worked in a hotel in Sea Point. They had three daughters together and divorced in 1971.