Annie Sillinga - English Version

In Langa, after the Second World War, she took part in meetings on ways to improve community conditions. In 1948, she joined the Langa Vigilance Association to improve living conditions and protect residents from the apartheid laws that were gradually taking hold.

Annie Silinga was born in 1910 in Nqqamakwe in the Butterworth district of Transkei. Until the age of 27, she lived in her native region and worked in the mines, but the deterioration in living conditions associated with agriculture forced her to leave Nqqamakwe. With her family, she moved to Cape Town, where her husband had found work, and then to Langa.

Youth and first militant experience

Political movement and fight against the pass

When the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) was founded, Annie Silinga was elected to the executive committee. Despite her near-illiteracy, she became one of the leading figures in the women's anti-pass campaign. At a FEDSAW meeting in Cape Town, she famously proclaimed, “I can never wear a pass. I'll only carry one like it for Mrs. (Susan) Strijdom. She's a woman, and I am. There's no difference." In 1955, she was arrested for refusing to comply with the rules of circulation and, after a series of appeals, she was banished and sent under police escort to the Transkei. Still refusing to comply, she returned illegally to live with her family in Langa and, in 1957, finally appealed her decision, successfully, on the grounds that more than 15 years of residence in Cape Town gave her the right to stay.

Annie Silinga joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1952. Shortly after joining the ANC, she took part in the fight against the pass, a device designed to limit freedom of movement, and in the Defiance Campaign. She was arrested and given a short prison sentence for civil disobedience.

Militant to the end!

Annie was elected president of the Cape ANC Women's League after her trial for treason, and was imprisoned in 1960 during the state of emergency which involved the dissolution of the ANC. Leaders were imprisoned (notably Nelson Mandela and Walter Sizulu) and the ANC went underground. At the end of her life, Annie Silinga settled in the township of Langa, where she died in 1984.

On August 9, 1956, she led a demonstration of 20,000 women organized by FEDSAW, who marched in front of the Prime Minister's offices in Pretoria to protest against the issuing of passes. Annie Silinga was arrested for treason and taken to Johannesburg in December 1956. She was the only African woman from the Western Cape to be charged.