By: Nompendulo Ngubane
ANC veteran Gertrude Shope has been described as a matriarch who fought fearlessly to create an environment that was warm for other women within the party.
These compliments came from several ANC women who shared the stage at a memorial lecture in Pretoria North honouring Shope’s life.
Speaking as a guest, veteran ANC leader Naledi Pandor recalled moments from Shope’s life and her contribution to building a free South Africa, especially for women.
Pandor also highlighted Shope’s many roles in the struggle and noted how meticulously and honourably she approached every task she was assigned.
Born in 1925 and trained as a teacher in Soweto, Shope was only 29 when she joined the ANC and gave up her teaching career to protest against the oppressive Bantu Education system. As a founding member of FEDSAW, she helped mobilise the mass 1956 Women’s March.
Forced into exile from 1966 to 1990, she led the ANC’s Women’s Section abroad and later revitalised the ANC Women’s League in the early 1990s. After South Africa’s first democratic elections, she became a Member of Parliament, contributing to the foundations of our constitutional democracy.
Her legacy was formally recognised by the state. President Ramaphosa declared a Special Official Funeral (Category 1) in her honour, with the national flag flown at half‑mast. In his eulogy, he described Shope as a trailblazer for women’s emancipation, reminding the nation that freedom without women’s liberation remains unfinished.
