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Who is Sheila Weinberg

In an attempt to educate our readers on our rich cultural history, www.mobserver.co.za has decided to start a new series called “Who is?”.

October 3, 2018

Sjani Campher 2 minutes read

In this series, we will be talking about historic icons in both Afrikaans and English articles.
Our first series will consist of an Afrikaans article about Lilian Ngoyi, and an English article about Sheila Weinberg.

Who is Sheila Weinberg?

Raised by activist parents, Sheila grew up a freedom fighter, often helping her mother by painting political slogans.
Sheila’s childhood was interrupted after both her mother and father were detained, during which she was taken care of by her grandmother.

Also read: Who is?

She became politically active at a young age and at 19 she was detained for 65 days at the Fort Prison in Johannesburg.
Her parents moved her out of the country but she was arrested again upon her return, for painting a slogan for the ANC.

Sheila was sentenced to prison for 18 months but her term was reduced to six months on appeal.
She served her sentence in Barberton Prison and was released in 1966.

In 1970 she became a part of the Human Rights Committee, but by 1976 most of the committee’s members had been banned or detained and activities had stopped.
Sheila had also been banned during this time and was placed under house arrest for five years.

During this time, she was sentenced to nine months imprisonment after being caught talking to another political contact. The interaction was seen as a pre-arranged social gathering but the sentence was suspended for three years.

Between 1981 and 1983, Sheila was banned again until all bannings were lifted by decree.

Also read: Wie is Lilian Ngoyi?

In 1983, Sheila became a leading member of the Johannesburg Democratic Action Committee, through which she popularised the United Democratic Front (UDF).
It was during this time that she became involved with the Transvaal branch of the Black Sash and the Five Freedoms Forum.

In 1991 Sheila worked for the ANC’s North Eastern Johannesburg Branch after its unbanning. She served as a member of the Gauteng legislature from 1994 to 2004 and retired from politics after the 2004 General Elections.

Sheila Weinberg passed away after suffering a brain aneurism on the 11th of November 2004. She was 59 at the time.

References:
South African History Online
The O’Malley Archives