PIONEER
Frances Goitsemang Baard
Unionist | Human Rights Activist | ANC Women’s League founding member
Born: 1 October 1909 Died: 2 June 1997
“Africa is my home – I cannot be banished.”
Who is
Frances Goitsemang Baard?
Organiser of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL), trade unionist and anti-apartheid activist.
Professions
and Roles
Trade unionist, political activist, local secretary of the African Food and Canning Workers’ Union, founding member of ANCWL in Port Elizabeth and member of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW).
Best Known For
Contributions to the ANCWL, FEDSAW, and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU).
Life highlights
- Baard worked as a domestic helper for almost 15 years and then as a teacher before becoming involved in the anti-apartheid movement.
- From the 1940s, Baard became a trade unionist and women’s leader.
- In 1948, she was recruited by Ray Alexander Simons to join the African Food and Canning Worker’s Union. She became the union’s local secretary and came into contact with the ANC.
- Together with Florence Matomela she formed an ANCWL in Port Elizabeth in the 1950s.
- In 1954, Baard and Matomela built up the FEDSAW, where they both became executive committee members.
- In 1955, Baard became one of the few female executive committee members of SACTU.
- Baard was among the 156 people charged with treason in December 1956, but the charges were dropped in 1958.
- Baard received her first banning order in 1960 and was arrested but not charged in 1963, kept in solitary confinement for an entire year without visitors or reading materials. She was eventually charged and given a five-year sentence for her involvement with the ANC.
- In 1969, she was released and banished to live in the outskirts of Pretoria.
- In 1983, Baard was one of the honorary patrons’ speakers that launched the United Democratic Front.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
“Africa is my home – I cannot be banished.”
– Frances Baard
IN THE WORDS OF OTHERS
“She held strong beliefs and was very brave. This in itself led to many clashes with the SA Police as she made herself vocal in expressing her dissatisfaction against the deterioration of men’s single hostels, the rejection of Bantu Education, the opinion of women in the governing of South Africa, and refusing to carry a pass, etc.”
– Hazel Jenkins, former Northern Cape Premier, 2009
In 2001, the district of Kimberley was renamed after her as the Frances Baard District Municipality. In commemoration of her role in the Women’s March on 9 August 1956, a bronze statue of her was also unveiled in Kimberley in 2014, with the inscription on the granite plinth reading, “My spirit is not banned. I still say I want freedom in my lifetime.”
References
