Indian-Origin South African Activist Maniben Sita Passes Away At 94

Indian-origin South African activist Maniben Sita who was part of the anti-apartheid movement died of COVID-19 complications on Wednesday. The 94-year-old veteran activist had been admitted to the hospital a week ago after she contracted the virus.

One of the greatest influences in Sita's life were Mahatama Gandhi and her Indian father. She opposed apartheid in all its forms throughout her life. Born in 1926, Sita was brought up in a family which engaged in political resistance both in India and South Africa.

Her father, Nana Sita is known to have spent prison time with Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa. He had joined Gandhi's resistance in the country when he went to South Africa for a case. Even after Mahatma Gandhi came back to India, Nana Sita continued his fight and was jailed many times. Maniben Sita follows after her father, she too had been sent to jail many times.

Maniben Sita in one of her interviews had said that she got engaged in political activism at the age of 13. At the time there were growing violent tensions between the two sections of the Transvaal Indian Congress. She was a qualified teacher and an activist who stood against the authorities in South Africa during the apartheid. She was sent to jail for three months in 1952 when she occupied a bench in a railway station. That bench was reserved for people with white skin only.

When South Africa became a democracy in 1994, Sita became municipal councillor at African National Congress. She served a term of five years and refused to contest for the second term.

Sita was the recipient of the Valliamma Mudliar Award given to exceptional women leaders in 2013. She believed that women in the current times have the opportunity to take action against the social evils and they should do so more vigorously.

Maniben Sita was also given the Ahmed Kathrada Award of Excellence by the Congress of Business and Economics in 2018.