Shulamith Muller (née Movshowitz, December 1922 - July 1978) was a South African lawyer,

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

, and anti-

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

activist. Muller was one of the attorneys for the

1956 Treason Trial The Treason Trial was a trial in Johannesburg in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956. The main trial lasted until 1961, when all of the defendants were found not gu ...

Biography

Muller was born in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

in December 1922 to a Jewish family. Muller attended the University of Pretoria where she studied law and became an attorney in 1948. In her practice, she worked with

Oliver Tambo Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo (27 October 191724 April 1993) was a South African anti-apartheid politician and revolutionary who served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1967 to 1991. Biography Higher education Oliv ...

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

Arthur Chaskalson Arthur Chaskalson SCOB, (24 November 1931 – 1 December 2012) was President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1994 to 2001 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 2001 to 2005. Chaskalson was a member of the defence team in the ...

and

George Bizos George Bizos ( el, Γιώργος Μπίζος; 14 November 19279 September 2020) was a Greek-South African human rights lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in South Africa. He was noted for representing Nelson Mandela during the Rivonia ...

. Muller allowed the

South African Congress of Trade Unions The South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) was a national trade union federation in South Africa. History The federation was established in March 1955, after right wing unions dissolved the South African Trades and Labour Council in 1954 to ...

(SACTU) to work secretly from her offices. Muller worked as Viola Hashe's counsel in 1956 and prevented her from being deported. Muller also did appeals for Sophia Williams-De Bruyn. Muller was also involved with the

as one of the instructing attorneys, taking the case on when she was seven months pregnant. Muller was arrested during the post-Sharpeville Emergency and was jailed first at the Johannesburg Fort and later taken to the

Pretoria Central Prison Pretoria Central Prison, renamed Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area by former President Jacob Zuma on 13 April 2013 and sometimes referred to as Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services is a large prison in central Pretoria, within the City of Tshwane ...

. In prison, she helped others with

legal assistance Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to co ...

. She was subject to bannings and harassment by the

Special Branch Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence in Policing in the United Kingdom, British, Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, ...

so that she could no longer practice law effectively. In 1962, she and her family fled to

Swaziland Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

. In August 1962, after she went to Swaziland, a gag order was imposed on her and 101 other South African activists, preventing the publishing of their spoken words and writings. South Africa struck her from the Roll of Attorneys in August 1971. She died in Swaziland in July 1978. After being struck from the list of attorneys in South Africa for more than 30 years, Muller was finally posthumously reinstated by the

Johannesburg High Court The Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law which has general jurisdiction over the South African province of Gauteng and the eastern part of North West province. The main seat of the division is at Pretoria, ...

in 2005. Her son, Arnold, had petitioned for the reinstatement.

References

External links

*
Juveline Delinquency and the Colour Bar
' by Shulamith Muller (1959) {{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Shulamith 1922 births 1978 deaths People from Pretoria Anti-apartheid activists Jewish South African anti-apartheid activists South African Jews South African women lawyers University of Pretoria alumni 20th-century South African lawyers 20th-century women lawyers

Biography

See also

References

External links