Mary Moodley (also Aunty Mary; 1913 – October 23, 1979)[1] was a trade unionist and anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. Moodley regularly shared her home in the black district of Wattville Township with her family and homeless people, both black and white.[2] She was generous with the little money she had and was a "regular churchgoer."[1]
Moodley was involved with the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), the Food and Canning Workers Union, the African National Congress (ANC), the Federation of South African Women, and a founding member of the South African Coloured People's Congress (SACPO).[1] She was working with the Food and Canning Workers Union in the 1950s in the East Rand.[3]
In 1963, she was banned under the order of the Suppression of Communism Act.[4] Because of her ban, she was not allowed to participate in trade unions or attend meetings and was confined to her magisterial district in Benoni.[2] In 1964, she was detained under the 90-Days Act.[5] She had been helping people who had become fugitives leave South Africa.[1] Her Ban, which was to last five years was consistently renewed and in order to go to the hospital, she had to request a permit from local authorities.[1] She died on October 23, 1979.[1]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e f "Mary Moodley". South African History Online. 26 March 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
- ^ a b Luckhardt; Wall. "Organize... or Starve! - The History of the SACTU". South African Congress of Trade Unions. South African History Online. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
- ^ "60 Iconic Women — The people behind the 1956 Women's March to Pretoria (41-50)". Mail & Guardian. 25 August 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
- ^ Human Sciences Research Council (2000). Women Marching Into the 21st Century: Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo. HSRC Press. pp. 33–34. ISBN 978-0796919663.
- ^ United Nations Centre Against Apartheid (1969). Opponents to Apartheid Subjected to Banning Orders in South Africa (PDF). United Nation. p. 30.