By Nco Dube | 09 August 2026

We have a very rich history and legacy of courageous women who fought against apartheid, built their communities from nothing and contributed immensely to the free and democratic society we live in today, against all odds. Yet the focus is always on a few names. On this National Women’s Day, as we commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the women’s march on the Union Buildings, I would like to place the spotlight on one of the lesser mentioned heroines of the struggle. The Lioness of Mbumbulu. Florence Mam Flo Mkhize.

Florence Grace Mkhize was born in 1932 in Umzumbe on the Natal South Coast. Her political awareness began at sixteen while attending a Roman Catholic school, where she first recognised the cruelty and injustice of apartheid. She joined the Congress Movement soon after, choosing resistance as a lifelong calling. In 1952 she took part in the Defiance Campaign. A photograph of her burning her passbook, taken by Ranjith Kally, remains one of the most striking images of women’s defiance. The state banned her, but she refused to retreat. She used her workplace, a sewing factory in Durban’s Lakhani Chambers, as a covert organising space where messages, plans and courage moved quietly between women.

Her commitment to building a democratic future placed her at the centre of the Freedom Charter campaign. She was appointed as a volunteer to help gather the demands of ordinary South Africans. On her way to Kliptown for the Congress of the People, police stopped her bus and sent her back to Natal. The same happened in 1956 when she organised women for the historic march to the Union Buildings. She was turned back again, yet her organising ensured that thousands of women reached Pretoria even when she could not.

In 1954 she had become a founding member of the Federation of South African Women alongside Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Fatima Meer and others. She helped lead the Potato and Tobacco Boycotts in 1959, exposing industries that profited from exploitation. After the ANC was banned in 1960, she continued the fight underground and arranged legal representation for many young people arrested for political activities. She participated in the South African Congress of Trade Unions until its structures were also destroyed by the government. In 1968, she was banned again under the Suppression of Communism Act.

During the 1970s she became a key figure in the Release Mandela Campaign in Natal. Her home became a refuge for activists hiding from security forces. In the 1980s she confronted the education and housing crisis in Lamontville. She travelled to Amsterdam to raise funds for students who had been denied schooling because of their parents’ political involvement. Phambili High School was founded partly as a result of her efforts. She was a founding member of the United Democratic Front in 1983 and mobilised women across racial lines through the Natal Organisation of Women.

After democracy arrived, Mam Flo served as councillor for ward 75 in eThekwini from 1994 until her death on 7 July 1999. The Florence Mkhize Building in eThekwini stands in her honour.

Florence Mam Flo Mkhize lived a life of relentless courage. She fought, organised, protected and built. She was a lioness not because she roared, but because she never surrendered her ground.