Tributes to feisty AnnMarie Wolpe

THERE were tears and giggles as friends and relatives of AnnMarie Wolpe paid tribute to the struggle activist at the Temple Israel synagogue in Green Point yesterday.

Mourners gathered to remember the life of the 87-year-old who was well-known for her work in pioneering gender equality in education.

Even more famous for her daring plan of planting blades in her husband, Harold’s, food to help him and other political activists escape imprisonment at the Marshall Square police holding cells in 1963, Wolpe has been hailed as one of many unsung heroes in the struggle for liberation. Harold was arrested alongside Nelson Mandela.

Wolpe died on February 14 after suffering from lung cancer. She worked for decades in academia and wrote books championing the rights of women.

Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor as well as Wits University’s vice chancellor Adam Habib joined family members as speakers delivered eulogies that painted a picture of a woman who was not afraid to speak her mind and lived life to the fullest.

Pandor said she remembered Wolpe from when they started working together in 1991 to draft the country’s education policy documents and described her as a fiercely passionate woman who was determined to improve education for the advancement of women.

“I want to thank the Wolpe children for sharing AnnMarie and your dad Harold with us. She was a really special person and I wanted to talk about her because we don’t actually talk often enough about such South Africans,” she said.

“For those who never got to meet her she was a very dynamic speaker.

“If you ever heard her recount the story of the plan she daringly executed to support Harold and his colleague to escape from the Marshall Square police cells, you would have followed her for life.”

AnnMarie Wolpe