ANC struggle hero Gertrude Shope dies aged 99

ANC stalwart Gertrude Shope has died at the age of 99. According to the party, Shope — also known as MaShope — died peacefully at her Gauteng home on Thursday morning.

“A lifelong revolutionary, MaShope was a leader of profound discipline, courage and humility. From her early activism to the dawn of democracy, she served the struggle with unmatched commitment in the underground, in exile and in the democratic parliament.

“As former president of the ANC Women’s League, head of the ANC Women’s Section in exile, and a member of the ANC NEC, she played a pivotal role in shaping the political direction of our movement and the emancipation of women in SA and beyond,” said the organisation on Thursday. 

Shope, who was one of the oldest members of the party, was a former trade unionist and the first Women’s League president. She had been exiled in Botswana, Tanzania, Czechoslovakia, Zambia and Nigeria, where she fought for the rights of workers and women. 

“Even in retirement, MaShope exudes an air of majesty and dignity as a sage of the age, belonging to the same illustrious historical galaxy of revolutionaries that includes Charlotte Maxeke, Ruth First, Fatima Meer, Helen Joseph, Sophia de Bruyn, Ruth Mompati, Lillian Ngoyi and many more,” wrote former minister Naledi Pandor in celebrating Shope’s life a few years ago.

Shope was born in 1925 in Johannesburg and grew up in Zimbabwe. She was 29 when she joined the ANC, leaving her work as a teacher in protest against Bantu education. As part of the Federation of SA Women, she fought to make women’s struggles part of the wider struggle for a free society.    

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