Winnie Motlalepula Kgware (1917 – 1998) was a South African

anti-Apartheid activist The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid, apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-White population who were persecuted by ...

within the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). She was elected as the first president of the

Black People's Convention The Black People's Convention (BPC) was a national coordinating body for the Black Consciousness movement of South Africa. Envisaged as a broad-based counterpart to the South African Students' Organisation, the BPC was active in organising resis ...

(BPC), a BCM-affiliated community-based organisation in 1972.

Early life

Winnie Kgware was born in Thaba Nchu in the Orange Free State in 1917. Growing up in the

racially A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

divided Free State, before the institutionalisation of racism through Apartheid, she was politically inclined and encouraged the youth to be active in political structures. Heeding her call, the youth formed a branch of the South African Student Movement and established a School Representative Council (SRC) at Hwiti High School, where struggle icon Peter Mokaba was elected SRC President. As a result of this, when he was only 15 years old, Kgware recruited Peter Mokaba to join the underground movement. Mokaba was subsequently expelled from Hwiti High School because of his involvement in the struggle for liberation. After completing his matric as a private candidate, he did not have funds to pursue tertiary education and as such opted to teach mathematics and sciences at a local school. Kgware intervened and assisted her political mentee with funds to study at university, where he enrolled for a Bachelor of Science in Computer Technology.

Political life

Kgware (then still Winnie Monyatsi) was trained as a teacher and later married Professor WM Kgware, who was appointed the first black rector at the University of the North (Turfloop), where she then took up residence. With the campus being the heart of Black Conscious ideas, Kgware became involved in supporting students in their protests against the Government's restrictions on campus. One of her earliest acts was to organise a Methodist prayer group in defiance of an order that banned students from worshipping on campus. Beyond this, she gave sustenance to the student movement and allowed her and her husband's residence to be used as a meeting place for the ''University Christian Movement'' (UCM), an organisation that was banned from the campus at the time. Regardless of the age gap between her and her fellow activists, she played a leading role in the launch of the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO) in 1968, after its breakaway from the UCM, due to discontent by black activists (including

Steve Biko Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known ...

) with the UCM's all-white national executive committee. In 1972, the Black People's Convention (BPC) had its first national conference in Hammanskraal from 16 to 17 December, with over 1400 delegates in attendance representing 154 groups. At that conference, Winnie Kgware, Madibeng Mokoditoa, Sipho Buthelezi, Mosubudi Mangena and

Saths Cooper Sathasivan "Saths" Cooper (born 11 June 1950) is a clinical psychologist in South Africa who was born in Durban of Indian-South African background. He began to identify with the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) and joined the South African Stude ...

emerged as president, vice-president, secretary-general, national organiser and public relations officer respectively, making up the inaugural national executive committee of the BPC, an umbrella body of the Black Consciousness Movement then led by

. On 19 October 1977, a few weeks after

’s murder in police custody, 18 BCM-affiliated organisations were banned by the South African government, with BPC amongst these. One incident that stands out in the portrayal of Kgware's sheer determination to render the Apartheid system ungovernable occurred in 1977 when the bus-taking mourners to

’s funeral in Ginsberg, outside of

King Williams Town Qonce, formerly known as King William's Town, is a city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa along the banks of the Buffalo River. The city is about northwest of the Indian Ocean port of East London. Qonce, with a population of around ...

, were stopped by security forces. Kgware, then 66 years old, evaded the police and hitched a lift all the way to

to attend Biko's funeral. Some of the lesser-known women with whom Kgware led and served with in the Black Consciousness Movement include Mamphela Ramphele, Deborah Matshoba, Oshadi Mangena, and Nomsizi Kraai. After a long life of teaching and activist work, Kgware died in 1998 at home in North West- Bophuthatswana.

Accolades

In 1998, the Umtapo Centre in Durban, which claims to be inspired by the

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

of Black Consciousness and founded in memory of the BCM and

AZAPO The Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) is a South African liberation movement and political party. The organisation's two student wings are the Azanian Students' Movement (AZASM) for high school learners and the other being for university leve ...

leader

Strini Moodley Strinivasa Rajoo "Strini" Moodley (22 December 1945 – 27 April 2006) was a founding member of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. In 1976, he was convicted of terrorism in a trial involving members of the South African Student ...

, awarded the Steve Biko Award to Kgware in recognition of her role in the liberation struggle. Later on, in 2003, then President Thabo Mbeki conferred, post-humously, the Order of Luthuli to Winnie Kgware for outstanding leadership and lifelong commitment to the ideals of democracy, non-racialism, peace and justice.South African History Online/ http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/winnie-kgware

External links

The PresidencySteve Biko Foundation

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kgware, Winnie 1917 births 1998 deaths South African activists South African women activists South African women in politics 20th-century South African politicians Members of the Order of Luthuli Black Consciousness Movement Apartheid in South Africa Racism in Africa

Early life

Political life

Accolades

See also

External links

References