Bertha Gxowa

{{Infobox person

| title = Bertha Gxowa

| name = Bertha Gxowa

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1934|11|26|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Germiston, South Africa

| death_date = {{death date and age|2010|11|19|1934|11|26}}

| death_place = Johannesburg, South Africa

| nationality = South Africa

| citizenship = Germiston

| education =

| occupation = Women's rights activist

| spouse = Cecil Mntukanti Gxowa

| children = 5

}}

Bertha Gxowa, OLS, (née Mashaba; 26 November 1934 - 19 November 2010) was an anti-apartheid and women's rights activist and trade unionist in South Africa.

Biography

Gxowa was born in Germiston.{{Cite news |date=19 November 2010 |title=ANC Veteran, Bertha Gxowa, Dies |language=English |work=SA News |url=http://www.sanews.gov.za/features/anc-veteran-bertha-gxowa-dies |url-status=dead |access-date=4 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923114710/http://www.sanews.gov.za/features/anc-veteran-bertha-gxowa-dies |archive-date=2016-09-23}} She first attended the Thokoza Primary School in that locality before moving on to the Public Secondary School. She was sent to a commercial college, where she completed her shorthand and bookkeeping courses.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

Career

Gxowa started working as an office assistant in the South African Clothing Workers' Union where she engaged in wage negotiations and gathered factory subscriptions. Gxowa became involved in the African National Congress's (ANC) Youth League and the Women's League at a young age.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nelsonmandela.org/news/entry/passing-of-bertha-gxowa|title=Passing of Bertha Gxowa|date=19 November 2010|work=Nelson Mandela.org|access-date=4 September 2016}} She first signed up with ANC during the anti-Bantu education campaign.{{Cite web|url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/bertha-gxowa-mashaba|title=Bertha Gxowa (Mashaba)|date=17 February 2011|website=South African History Online|access-date=4 September 2016}}

Achievement

Gxowa took part in the Defiance Campaign in 1952. Gxowa was one of the founding members of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) . She also was one of the organizers for the Women's March on the Union Building in 1956 which protested pass laws. Gxowa, along with Helen Joseph, traveled across South Africa to collect signatures on 20,000 petitions which were presented at the march.

She was eventually accused of treason in 1956 in the Treason Trial and remained on trial until 1959. She was banned under the Suppression of Communism Act in 1960.

In 1994, she began to serve in Parliament as an ANC member. She was a member of the Home Affairs and Health Parliamentary Portfolio Committees in Parliament until 2004.

Personal life and death

Gxowa died in a hospital in Johannesburg on November 19, 2010. A hospital in Gauteng Province is named after her.{{Cite web|url=http://www.health.gpg.gov.za/hospitals/pages/Bertha-Gxowa-Hospital.aspx|title=Bertha Gxowa Hospital|website=Gauteng Province|publisher=Republic of South Africa|access-date=4 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910085607/http://www.health.gpg.gov.za/hospitals/Pages/Bertha-Gxowa-Hospital.aspx|archive-date=2016-09-10|url-status=dead}} She had five children and was married to Cecil Mntukanti Gxowa, who had died before her. Her grave site has been dedicated as a provincial heritage site.{{Cite news|url=http://germistoncitynews.co.za/75221/bertha-gxowas-grave-site-declared-a-provincial-heritage-site/|title=Bertha Gxowa's Grave Site Declared a Provincial Heritage Site|date=8 December 2014|work=Germiston City News|access-date=4 September 2016}}