Josie Mpama

One of the first women to join the Communist Party, Josie Mpama was active in the campaigns of the late 1920s, mobilising the people against the government`s plans to burden them with yet more restrictions under the proposed Native Service Contract Bill, Pirow`s amendment to the Riotous Assemblies Act, and a new Urban Areas Bill. Demonstrations were held in many big towns. One such demonstration, in Potchefstroom, where she was branch secretary, was addressed by JB Marks and Josie`s husband, Edwin Mofutsanyana. A shot was fired at Mofutsanyana, missing him but killing Hermanus Lethebe, a local Party member. `For hooligans to shoot a Native is but to break a black bottle, and then congratulate themselves on being such good marksmen`, remarked Josie, who, together with the Buntings and Chapman, called a protest meeting in Potchefstroom after the trials, but had to demonstrate through the township before residents plucked up courage to attend.

Josie travelled to the Soviet Union with Mathilda First in 1935 to attend the 7th Congress of the Comintern where she presented a paper to the Congress on the position of women in South Africa. Her pseudonym was Red Scarf. In 1937, with JB Marks and others, she was very active in organising and mobilising the people on a nation-wide scale, including reorganisation of the ANC. The work culminated in a Conference of Transvaal African leaders in 1937, part of the process of reviving the ANC. The Non-European United Front Conference held in Cape Town in April 1939 passed resolutions denouncing segregation and calling for complete equality. Boycotts, active and passive resistance, strikes and demonstrations would be employed to free the people. The seeds of a non-racial alliance had been planted. All genuine opponents of class distinction or racial discrimination belonged together, said the communists. All sections of the liberation movement, though divided by race and social conditions, were working along parallel lines and must converge in the course of struggle into one great army. Speaking in Pretoria, Josie Mpama urged Africans to forget that coloured and Indians had failed to help them in the past, and to take the lead in the campaign for unity.

The ANC decided to embark on mass protest action. The National Anti-Pass Council, elected at a conference attended by 540 delegates, included Dr Xuma as chairman, Dr Dadoo as vice-chairman, Bopape as secretary and Mofutsanyana, Marks, Maliba and Kotane. Josie Mpama was elected as Trustee. She was banned in 1955 while serving as the Transvaal president of the Federation of South African Women. She was also detained in 1960.