1918 – 2011

Nurse, Member of the African National Congress Women’s League, Executive member of the Federation of South African Women, Patron of the United Democratic Front (UDF)

Nontsikelelo Thethiwe was born in the Transkei and acquired the name Albertina when she enrolled at a Presbyterian mission school. At school she excelled in cultural and sporting activities and demonstrated leadership skills at an early age.

In 1940 she was accepted as a trainee nurse at the Johannesburg General Hospital. Albertina met Walter Sisulu in 1941 and they were married in 1944, with Nelson Mandela as best man. The couple had five children and adopted four others. They were married for 59 years until Walter Sisulu's death in 2003.

Initially, she had little interest in politics, attending meetings to support her husband, Walter. She became a member of the executive of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) in 1954 and joined the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) in 1955, also participating in the launch of the Freedom Charter in the same year. In 1956 Albertina Sisulu joined the march of 20,000 women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against the apartheid government's imposition of passbooks on African women.

In April 1963 Walter Sisulu skipped bail and went underground. Two months later Albertina was arrested while treating her patients, becoming the first woman to be arrested under the infamous 90-day Detention Act (the General Laws Amendment Act of 1963), which allowed the police to detain suspects and keep them in solitary confinement for 90 days without charge.

In 1964 Walter Sisulu was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island, leaving Albertina to raise their children alone by working as a nurse and midwife, saving for them to attend schools in Swaziland. She spent months in jail herself, harassed by the police, her movements often restricted by banning orders.

During the 1980s Albertina Sisulu was a key member of the United Democratic Front (UDF), a multiracial united front of opponents to the apartheid regime inaugurated in 1983. In 1986 she was awarded honorary citizenship of the Italian town of Reggio Emilia, and led a UDF delegation overseas in 1989, meeting British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and United States President George Bush Senior. She also addressed a major anti-apartheid rally in London.

In 1989 Albertina and Walter Sisulu were reunited after 26 years apart on his release from Robben Island. In 1994 she was elected to South Africa's first democratic Parliament where she served for four years. At the first meeting of this parliament, she had the honour of nominating Nelson Mandela as President of the Republic of South Africa.

MaSisulu has been internationally honoured for her commitment to the liberation struggle, her social and community work, and initiatives such as The Albertina Sisulu Foundation, dedicated to improving the lives of small children and the elderly. In 2011 MaSisulu, aged 92, died suddenly while watching television with her grandchildren at her home in Johannesburg.