Viola Hashe

Viola Hashe (1926-1977) was a teacher, anti-apartheid activist and trade unionist in South Africa. Hashe was also blind.^[1]

Viola Hashe addresses the crowd in a poster designed by Thami Mnyele.

Biography

Hashe was born in 1926 in the Orange Free State.^[2] She started working with the trade unions and joined the African National Congress (ANC) in the 1950s.^[2] She became a member of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) in the mid-1950s.^[2] In 1956, she worked on the South African Clothing Workers Union (SACWU) where she became the first woman leader of an all-male South African union.^[2] Hashe spoke at the SACTU conference in Durban where she discussed passes for women, since women weren't allowed to hold passes.^[3]

Hashe became the first woman to be threatened with deportation under the Urban Areas Act in 1956.^[2] She had the counsel of Shulamith Muller, and the order to deport her was rescinded "barely seven hours before the order was to take effect."^[4] In 1963, Hashe was banned under the Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 and then "restricted to Roodepoort" until her death in 1977.^[2]

Hashe influenced many people who became activists or who were already working as activists. These included Bertha Gxowa,^[5] Mabel Balfour, and Mary Moodley.^[6] A branch of the African National Congress Youth League is named after Hashe.^[7]

See also

• List of people subject to banning orders under apartheid