Soweto honours Ellen Kuzwayo
Ndaba Dlamini
13 December 2004
Soweto has honoured the legendary Ellen Kuzwayo with its prestigious Milestones Award, a tribute to those who played important roles in the township's development.
The award, an initiative of private company Soweto 100, was presented to Kuzwayo by Johannesburg Mayor Amos Masondo at her Orlando West Extension home last week.
"Kuzwayo represents all the good work done by her generation, and we will always remember her contribution to the mainstream of South Africa's wealth", Masondo said.
"We will always remember her contributions during the difficult times in Soweto, when there were marches, demonstrations and street committees. Ellen did most of the work during those trying times. She has taught us the need to serve the community in which we live."
Soweto 100 chief executive Pam Ndaba described Kuzwayo as a "truly exceptional woman".
"Some of Soweto's greats were honoured during a glittering ceremony on 29 October 2004,
but Ellen was not able to receive her award", Kuzwayo said. "Soweto 100 saw it fit to personally pay tribute to this remarkable 'history in the person of one woman'."
During the event, some of Soweto's great men and women were honoured with the Milestones Award, among them renowned singer Abigail Kubeka, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Albertina Sisulu, Dr Nthato Motlana, Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan, the late Gibson Kente and Simon "Mahlathini" Nkabinde.
The frail-looking Kuzwayo, born on 29 June 1914, said she felt honoured by the award.
"I thank the people of Soweto who have embraced the culture of the celebrations of the various roles played by people of Soweto", Kuzwayo said. "I also appreciate the image of Soweto that you are giving to the world. Ke a leboga."
Kuzwayo graduated as a lower primary school teacher at Adams College in Durban, and in 1935 as a higher primary school teacher. Her first teaching post was at Inanda Seminary in Natal in
1937. Between 1947 and 1953, MaKuzwayo taught at a school in Orlando East, Soweto.
Kuzwayo went on to train as a social worker at Jan Hofmeyer School of Social Work, where she shared a bench with Madikizela-Mandela. Her first post as a social worker was with the Johannesburg City Council.
Following the Soweto unrest of the late 1970s, Kuzwayo was appointed a member of the Committee of Ten, set up to formulate recommendations on the running of civic affairs in Soweto following the demise of the despised Soweto Urban Bantu Council. She was the only woman on the committee.
Kuzwayo later became a founding board member of the Urban Foundation, a business initiative which pressurised the apartheid government into introducing a form of land ownership in order to facilitate the flow of private sector funding into housing in Soweto.
For her efforts, Kuzwayo was detained for five months at the Johannesburg Fort in 1977 and was released in March 1978 without being
charged. She was subsequently appointed consultant to Zamani Soweto Sisters Council, the umbrella body of Soweto's women's self-help groups.
Kuzwayo was appointed a Member of Parliament in the constituency offices in 1994. She retired from Parliament in 1999.
Source: City of Johannesburg
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