Myrtle Witbooi

Myrtle Witbooi (née Michels, 31 August 1947 – 16 January 2023) was a South African labour activist. She co-founded the first labour organisation for South African domestic workers, the South African Domestic Workers' Union, and served as general secretary of its successor, the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union, and as the first president of the global International Domestic Workers Federation.

Personal and work life Witbooi was born in 1947 in the town of Genadendal, the daughter of a carpenter and a cook. She became a domestic worker in Cape Town when she was 17 Other meetings were held in Witbooi's employers' garage and in churches in order to evade apartheid bans on gatherings of non-whites. Her efforts secured unemployment and maternity insurance for domestic workers in South Africa.

As general secretary of SADSAWU, Witbooi was also a leader in the international coalition of domestic workers that secured passage in June 2011 of the International Labour Organization Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, making an influential speech at the 2010 convention. Convention 189 was the first international labour standard to ensure domestic workers the same basic rights as other workers, and a watershed for involvement of informal women workers in the ILO standard-setting process. for 15 years she headed both the IDWF and SADSAWU.

Honours In 2015, Witbooi was one of three recipients of the Global Fairness Initiative's Fairness Award, which honors outstanding leaders who dedicate themselves to bringing economic justice, fairness and equality to those living in poverty and marginalized communities.