1925 - 2015

uMhonto weSizwe Cadre, Teacher, Co-Founder of the Federation of South African Women (FedSAW), ANC Women’s League President, Member of Parliament, Ambassador, Mayor

Ruth Segomotsi (Comforter in seTswana) Mompati is said to have mothered a movement since she first became politically active in the 1950s.

Mompati started working for Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo in their law practice in Johannesburg in 1953 and a year later joined the ANC and was elected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC Womens League. In the same year she was a founding member of FedSAW, and was chosen as one of the leaders of the organisations 1956 Womens March.

Mompati went into exile in 1962 where she underwent military training in Russia. She held office as secretary in the ANC offices in exile and headed the womens section of the ANC in Tanzania. Between 1981 and 1982 she served as the chief representative of the ANC in the United Kingdom and became part of the delegation that opened talks with the South African government at Groote Schuur in 1990. In August 1992, Mompati addressed the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid in New York on the subject of womens issues.

In 1994 she was elected to the National Assembly and served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 1996.

Did You Know?

In 2000 Mompati was elected mayor of her hometown Vryburg. In 2007 the Bophirima District Council, with Vryburg as its seat, was renamed the Mompati District Municipality in recognition of her contribution over five decades of political work. Mompati is the name of her eldest son, which Ruth adopted when she went into exile, her birth surname being Seichoko.