Women's League founder turns 97

The founding chairperson of the ANC Women's League, Violet Matlou, celebrates her 97th birthday at her home in Winterveldt. Picture: Bongani Shilubane

The founding chairperson of the ANC Women's League, Violet Matlou, celebrates her 97th birthday at her home in Winterveldt. Picture: Bongani Shilubane

Published Apr 5, 2017

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GOGO Violet Matlou, who turned 97 years old yesterday, said she wondered how the ANC Women’s League was doing these days.

“I do not have contact with my former comrades and anyone in the organisation,” she said.

“I think many of them are not aware that I returned from exile. But I have done my part and fought for the good of our country,” she said amid her birthday festivities surrounded by family and friends at her Winterveldt home, northwest of Pretoria.

There were speeches by former speaker at the National Assembly, Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, former Malawi ambassador Ntshali Pilane-Tsheole and others.

Matlou said she remembered the sufferings she went through while in exile during the apartheid era. She is recognised as the founding chairperson of the Women’s League.

“I worked hard for the country’s independence while I was in exile and I am now thankful for support of everyone gathered here today.”

Matlou said the aim of forming the league at the time was to support the Struggle and ensure that they were aware what was happening in South Africa.

“We knew that women in our country were facing struggles; the organisation was formed to continue supporting them and praying they would be free one day.”

She recalled everything she went through from 1961 and said she had endured and encountered a lot.

“I travelled through different countries with my six children, following my husband wherever he was deployed, and it was never easy. I remember one night where I spent the whole time killing bugs just so they could not bother my children while they slept.”

Her husband, Joe Matlou, who was an ANC Youth League member, was arrested with 156 others and was part of the 1956 treason trial. The family went into exile in 1961. He died in 1991.

At the time, he had been assigned to establish an ANC office in Botswana as a transit point for the liberation fighters.

Having fled from home meant she had no papers to cross borders, but that did not stop her.

When the ANC redeployed him to Tanganyika in 1963, the family joined him there and she became the only woman in the Luthuli Camp at Kongwa in Dar es Salaam. And it was there the ANC Women’s League was formed, with her as chairperson.

Matlou returned to South Africa in 1998. She has six children, 14 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

She lives with two of her children. “They take care of me, but say that at my age I battle with lots of things, including forgetfulness,” she joked.

And her secret to ageing gracefully?

“Being humble at all times and respecting for all people regardless of age. When you respect others, you receive the respect back.”

On April 27, 2011, President Jacob Zuma honoured Matlou with the Order of Luthuli in Bronze for the sacrifices she made in advancing the Struggle to achieve a free and democratic dispensation.

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