Interview Segment

Lettie Malindi interviewed by Ruendree Govinder
May 23, 2005 Cape Town, South Africa.
"The ANC Athlone Branch asked five of us women of the ANC each day to go and interpret for the Black Sash in the Advice Office..." [3:57]

Lettie Malindi worked in the Black Sash Advice Office to translate and interpret for Africans who came for assistance. The Black Sash was an organization of white women, but Africans also were needed in Advice Offices.

Lettie Malindi’s parents were active in the ANC in the Eastern Cape from its founding in 1912. In 1958, the ANC branch in Athlone (part of Cape Town) asked for volunteers to interpret in the Black Sash Advice Office. Malindi worked in the Advice Office for 28 years, volunteering five days a week for one year before the Black Sash began to pay her. She was charged under the Riotous Assemblies Act for leading a protest against the pass laws, but was acquitted. She spent five months in detention in Bindon Prison Farm.

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