Sister Bernard Ncube:

1935

2012 ISTER Bernard Ncube, who has died in Joburg at the age of 77, was a small, tough-as-nails, militant, Roman Catholic nun who organised and inspired a generation of women to stand up for their human rights and fight apartheid.

She spread the gospel of liberation theology, was a founding member of the United Democratic Front and, in 1989, was part of a UDF delegation of women who went to the US to brief then-president George Bush on the situation in South Africa.

She worked closely with other titans of the struggle, notably Albertina Sisulu and Winnie Mandela. When Mandela went off the rails and her “Mandela United Football Club” began terrorising Soweto residents, Sister Bernard was appointed to a crisis committee, along with the Rev Frank Chikane and Cyril Ramaphosa, set up to handle what had become an unmanageable situation. A powerful statement was subsequently released by the Mass Democratic Movement, in which Sister Bernard was a significant figure, calling for Winnie to be ostracised by the community.

In 1991, Sister Bernard was elected to the ANC’s national executive committee and, in 1994, she became an MP, chairing the ethics committee and supporting a bill allowing abortion. In doing so, she went against Catholic dogma and had to do a lot of explaining to her church superiors. She told them she’d seen the results of too many backstreet abortions. In 2001, she was redeployed to beef up local government and became mayor of the West Rand district.

Sister Bernard was born Zeille Nikiwe Ncube on March 9 1935 in Dindele on the East Rand, which had to make way for “white ” Edenvale. Her family was moved to Dube in Soweto when she was still in nappies. She was schooled at St Thomas College in Joburg, trained as a nurse at Edenvale Hospital and studied theology at Roma College in Lesotho. When she returned, she joined a new religious congregation, the Companions of St Angela, and became Sister Bernard, choosing the name of her favourite saint, who, she said, exemplified the quality she most admired — compassion.

In 1955, she went to live in St Angela’s convent in Kagiso township on the East Rand, where the effects of apartheid were as brutally evident as anywhere in the country. Poverty,

Scrime and unemployment were rife, there was no civic organisation, and schooling was limited.

She was sent back to Lesotho to obtain a teacher’s diploma and was posted to a Catholic primary school in Kagiso, where the present premier of Gauteng, Nomvula Mokonyane, was one of her later pupils.

Sister Bernard helped start the Kagiso Ratepayers’ Association and the Young Christian Workers’ Association, which became breeding grounds for a generation of antiapartheid and trade union activists.

She identified passionately with the frustrations that boiled over in the 1976 student uprising in Soweto. She hid students on the run from the police in her convent and arranged hiding places for those she couldn’t accommodate.

Christianity, for her, was not just about prayer, meditation, humility and hoping for a better life hereafter. It was about manning the barricades, fighting for justice and a better life here and now. She supported consumer boycotts and campaigns like the “people ’ s education for people ’ s power” campaign.

Admirers who had heard all about the escapades of this “commie nun” were amazed when they met her to see how physically small she was.

In 1981, she was recruited by the Southern African Bishops’ Conference to visit Catholic congregations around the country and prod them into a more activist stance.

In 1986, she was imprisoned for 12 months, including three in solitary confinement.

She is survived by eight siblings, including Dr Steve Ncube, chairman of the Independent Communications Authority of SA. — Chris Barron