Emma Mashinini

Emma Mashinini is a South African trade unionist and political leader. Living in Johannesburg, her family was forcibly displaced several times during her childhood. She started working at ageand soon became a union organiser at her garment factory. She became active with the African National Congress in 1956. Mashinini served foryears on the executive board of the National Union of Clothing Workers and founded the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union in 1975. She was arrested and detained without charges for six months in 198182.

Mashinini was born in Rosettenville, a white suburb of Johannesburg. Her family lived in the backyard of a house where her mother, Joana, did housework. When Mashinini was six years old, her family moved to Prospect Township, a neighbourhood near City Deep. Prospect Township was a common destination for Black families who had been evicted from their residence in White areas. In 1936, this neighbourhood too was aggressively gentrified, razed under the Johannesburg Slums Act of 1934. Most of the people in Prospect Township were relocated to Orlando, Soweto, but Mashininis family was able to resettle in Sophiatown. Sophiatown was forcibly evicted in turn, several years later, and Mashininis family moved to Soweto.

Source: Wikipedia