FACT SHEET

FOR THE SOUTH AFRICAN HERITAGE RESOURCES AGENCY

DECLARATION OF

CHARLOTTE MAXEKE, LILLIAN NGOYI & HELEN JOSEPH GRAVES AS NATIONAL HERITAGE SITES

  • The declaration of the three Women’s graves kick-starts a five year project aimed at the identification of sites associated with Women who have made a significant contribution in different terrains of the liberation struggle including arts, business, education, literary writing, politics inclusive of mass campaigns and armed combat.
  • To date, The Grading and Declaration Unit has complied with the requirements of the National Heritage Resources Act No. 25 of 1999 requirements for l public participation through Section 27 registered letters and have published an advertisement in the Sowetan for broader participation, invitation of comments and registration of . In addition to a site nomination and declaration dossier, two incremental conservation management plans a government gazette notice was published on Friday the 30th July 2010, officially granting a national heritage site status to the two grave sites. The Burial Grounds and Graves Unit in conjunction with the Grading and Declaration Unit have liaised with the families of the deceased, as part of the consultation process to secure consent for declaration of graves and implications thereof, as well asthe proposed conservation enhancement of graves and headstones.
  • According to section 3 (2) g of the National Heritage Resources Act no, 25 of 1999, “graves and burial grounds”, form part of the national estate that has a significance for present communities and for future generations.
  1. its importance in the community, pattern of South Africa’s history

Significance lies in the history of the three women’s contribution to the defiance campaigns against oppression of human rights through Apartheid.

  1. its strong or special association with the life or work of a person, group and an organisation of importance in the history of South Africa.

Helen Joseph and LillianNgoyi helped organise and lead women in a successful protest march against pass laws that would be immortalized in the collective memory of all South Africans. CharlotteMaxeke was one of the first black female leaders in South Africa who advocated freedom for women from oppression and exploitation.

  • Significance of the Graves

The graves of Charlotte Makgommo Maxeke (1874-1939), Helen May Joseph (1905-1992) and Lillian Masediba Ngoyi (1911-1980), are a tangible representation of their outstanding leadership and significant cultural contribution to, education, cross-cultural exchange, African independent churches, and advocacy of non-racialism, trade unionism, women’s rights and participation in resistance politics.

The location of Charlotte Maxeke’s grave within a historical cemetery of Nancefield, proclaimed in 1921 as a first formal burial space designated for Africans within an urban setting of Witwatersrand, portrays a historical layering of urban segregation to which she was vocally opposed. The burial of Helen Joseph within the same grave as Lillian Ngoyi in Avalon Cemetery which was proclaimed in 1972 for the resettled communities of Soweto who were forcibly removed under the Group Areas Act of 1950; is a symbol of anti-apartheid defiance and achievement of a social cohesion they could not achieve in life, attained in death.