Two Indian-origin women veterans of the freedom struggle in South African were conferred the highest National Order awards by President Jacob Zuma on 28th April 2017.
Fatima Meer posthumously received the Order of Luthuli in Silver; while Shantie Naidoo joined 21 others to receive the same award at the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria.
Meer, a lifelong friend of the late Nelson Mandela together with her husband Ismail Meer, started her activist career as a high school student aged 17 in 1945.
Meer mobilised high school students and established the Students Passive Resistance Committee to canvass and raise funds for the Passive Resistance Campaign.
Excelling as a historian and sociologist, Meer was a prolific writer, including a biography of Mandela, as well as the script for the film Taj Mahal, made by Indian filmmaker Akbar Khan.
In 1969, she published a book, Portrait of Indian South Africans, donating the total proceeds thereof to the Gandhi Settlement towards the building of the Gandhi Museum and Clinic at the Phoenix Settlement started by Gandhi.
After the advent of democracy in 1994 under President Mandela, Meer served as a member of the parliament before passing on in 2010.
Naidoo is a descendant of Thambi Naidoo, one of Gandhi's most trusted lieutenants during his tenure in South Africa at the turn of the last century.
She suffered frequent imprisonment as a member of the Transvaal Indian Congress and the African National Congress.
African National Congress: Know More- Abbreviation : ANC
- President: Jacob Zuma
- Chairman: Baleka Mbete
- Secretary-General: Gwede Mantashe
- Spokesperson: Zizi Kodwa
- Deputy President: Cyril Ramaphosa
- National Chairperson: Baleka Mbete
- Deputy Secretary General: Jessie Duarte
- Treasurer General: Zweli Mkhize
- Founder: John Dube, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Sol Plaatje
- Founded : 8 January 1912
