Sally Motlana
*The birth of Sally Motlana is celebrated on this date in 1927. She was a Black African activist.
Born in Pilgrim's Rest in the then Eastern Transvaal, South Africa, Sally Maunye came to Johannesburg in 1931. She stayed in Vrededorp initially and moved to Sophiatown in 1933. After gaining her junior certificate, she was unable to further her studies due to a lack of funding. She was sent to the Diocesan Training School by the Anglican missionaries to train as a primary school teacher. While teaching, she obtained her matric in 1949 through part-time studies. She continued her studies at the University of Fort Hare.
It was at this point that she began to question everything in her life – her surroundings and her country – and in 1951, she was elected secretary of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League. She resigned from her teaching post in 1954 following the introduction of Bantu education. She married Nthato Harrison Motlana in 1953. Within seven years of her being in political office, the police ambushed Sophiatown on February 9, 1955, and forcibly relocated the people to Meadowlands, Soweto. In the battle that the system waged against its victims, Motlana proved to be an adept political activist and a spiritual human being with a passion for community-based development initiatives.
In the most difficult time faced by the church, she became an energizing ingredient in making the South African Council of Churches (SACC) take a stand against the apartheid system. The 1970s saw this voice elected to serve as national president of the Black Housewives' League (BHL) for 20 years and later became the organization's honorary president. Under her direction, the BHL built a six-classroom Primary School in Polokwane. In 1988, the BHL was given a piece of land in the same area and used it for growing vegetables. She arranged visits by students from the Potchefstroom Department of Agriculture to facilitate the transfer of skills from students to the Polokwane BHL Branch, focusing on improved methods for growing vegetables. Other areas that initiated vegetable projects under her direction included the BHL in Lebowakgomo, Bushbuckridge, and Kiblaren. In 1989, the BHL Mphahlele Branch built a crèche.
More crèches were built in other areas. She traveled extensively, raising the awareness of the international community about oppression and the dehumanizing effects of apartheid. Being constantly arrested by the police, Motlana had to find other means to supplement the family's income. She opened a grocery shop called' Sizwe,' which is still operational in Mofolo Central, Soweto. In 1976, during the Soweto uprising, she was detained. She was detained again in 1977 and 1978. During this time, Motlana still found time to serve on the board of Operation Hunger, the Johannesburg Diocesan Council, the Institute for Multiparty Democracy, and the Urban Foundation.
She was also an elder leader at St Paul's Anglican Church, where she teamed up with Bishop David Nkwe to start a candle-making project, the sales of which abroad injected much-needed income into self-help community initiatives. Sally Motlana's life is a story of a woman who found her spirit amidst of the combat readiness when Soweto exploded in June 1976. She enlivened all around her with the power of her profound spirituality and braved apartheid brutalities by taking on the system wherever life took her. Her voice is still greatly admired by young members of the Soweto-based choir, Isiphephelo Choral Society, of which she is a patron. Sally Motlana died on June 24, 2023.
