Mary Turok: A life of defiance, activism and unyielding commitment to justice

Mary Turok, 20 October 1932 – 9 August 2025

Struggle stalwart Mary Turok sadly passed away on 9 August 2025 after a short illness. She was 92. Mary led a very full and varied life as a political activist, journalist, social worker, medical researcher, member of Parliament, campaigner for older persons, unstinting wife to Ben Turok and mother to their sons Fred, Ivan and Neil.

Mary Butcher was born in 1932 to upper-middle-class parents who were Christian Scientists. After a sheltered upbringing in Natal, she went to university in Cape Town in 1950 aged only 17. Her privileged background had a lasting effect in that she knew what it meant to be different from your peers, and that your beliefs really mattered.

The National Party had just come to power and was rolling out harsh and repressive laws. Mary’s exposure to growing racism and social injustice, and her involvement in student life, were radicalising experiences, leading her to rebel against her establishment background. Her friends had more radical ideas than anyone she had ever known, and she immersed herself in several progressive causes, from political campaigns to community work and trade unions.

For example, she helped Helen Joseph run a feeding scheme on the Cape Flats, where she witnessed the forced evictions of people living in shacks. On another occasion she joined a small group who painted a large slogan on the rock face below Signal Hill saying “DOWN WITH MALAN”, the prime minister.

Modern Youth Society

Mary studied social work at UCT with Becky Lan and Shulamit Derman. They would hang out together, and through these connections Mary joined the Modern Youth Society (MYS), which was aligned with the ANC and, for some of its members, the underground Communist Party.

It held meetings in the Mitra Hall, Mowbray, which was centrally located enough that people could get there from townships on the Cape Flats and suburbs like Oranjezicht. Other members included Denis Goldberg, Amy Thornton, Albie Sachs and Ben Turok.

MYS members regarded themselves as socialists and called each other comrade. But promoting socialism was dangerous because of the Suppression of Communism Act passed in 1950. You could be imprisoned for years for what were very widely defined communist activities.

At the time, Modern meant critical, avant-garde — breaking taboos, non-conformism and challenging art, literature and architecture. MYS members were disrupting the reality of bourgeois life. Modern couldn’t be penalised under the Suppression of Communism Act, yet it symbolised something revolutionary.

The MYS was exciting and full of people who argued and debated. More than half the members were women. It was wonderful to be in the company of energetic women who spoke their minds and were not thinking about their appearance or finding a husband.

Mary was sparky and bright, and more independent than the others in many ways. She loved the energy of rebellion and the spirit of breaking the mould, alongside the very serious mission to bring down apartheid. She never just went along with what was expected.

One day, she startled everyone by appearing at meetings smoking a pipe — it was such a masculine thing. She also wore black nail varnish. She later became openly friendly and affectionate with Fuad Behardien. They were defiant, because they could have gone to jail under what was called the Immorality Act, just for a white and non-white being caught kissing.

Defiance Campaign

The Defiance Campaign Against Unjust Laws was launched in June 1952. It involved volunteers peacefully breaking apartheid laws, and led to more than 8,000 arrests in the first few months.

The picture below shows Mary and Albie on a platform at the Drill Hall in Cape Town in December 1952, together with Joseph Nkatlo, Western Cape Chairperson of the ANC. They had just announced that they were joining the Defiance Campaign.

This was the only time Albie wore a suit in those days, showing what a special occasion it was! They were later joined by Hymie Rochman and Arnold Harrison. Thumbs up was the Mayibuye salute in the ANC. Doing a thumbs up was later banned and made a criminal offence. Amandla with a fist became the new salute, and, ironically, despite being more revolutionary than a thumbs up, was not unlawful.

The four of them went into the general post office and sat on the non-white seats to break the law. The police explained that they couldn’t sit there but they didn’t want to arrest them. The four explained that this was the point, and that they were writing telegrams to then President Dr DF Malan protesting against cruel and unjust laws.

A big crowd gathered and eventually they were arrested. They were taken to prison cells at Caledon Square police station. As a woman, Mary was on her own.

The police brought two charges against them — sitting on seats marked “non-whites” and creating a disturbance. Their attorney, Sam Kahn, argued that the disturbance wasn’t created by them, but by the police and the crowd. If Marilyn Monroe was walking down the street and a crowd collected, you wouldn’t say she was guilty of creating a disturbance.

He also successfully argued that the facilities for “non-whites” were grossly inferior. Despite being discharged, Mary’s parents admonished her and threatened to stop her monthly allowance.

As a result of this case, and at the very time that the US Supreme Court was declaring that separate but equal facilities for black people were inherently unconstitutional, the racist South African Parliament actually passed a law saying that separate facilities for “non-whites” did not have to be equal to those created for whites.

Members of the Modern Youth Society lived dangerously on the verge of breaking the law all the time. You could have a party with black and white where they danced together, but black people couldn’t have liquor. When the banning orders were issued, people often broke them, risking arrest.

As the government clamped down on opponents and banned many leaders, Mary found herself slotted into vacant positions in youth, peace and other committees. She was willing to accept leadership responsibilities, even though she felt ill equipped. On one occasion she was asked to address a memorial meeting when Joseph Stalin died! There was no internet in those days to swot up quickly.

Marriage to Ben

Towards the end of 1953 and still only 21, Mary formed a relationship with Ben. It started when Brian Bunting, editor of the pro-ANC Guardian newspaper, asked Ben to accompany Mary to the ANC national conference in Queenstown. By this time Mary was a reporter on the newspaper.

Ben came from a completely different, Jewish background, but was secular and cosmopolitan. He was the shortest man in their circle and Mary was the tallest woman. Ben later wrote: “Despite the cultural gulf between us… nature’s chemistry soon overcame the obstacles.” Both sets of parents protested, but in another act of defiance they got married secretly in the hope of averting further conflict.

Shared belief in social values and in emancipation bound them together. They were fully committed to the Struggle against oppression and doing it side by side. There was a sense of comfortable mutuality. Ben was more argumentative, delighted to be engaged in a polemic. For her part, Mary would be forthright and would intervene to speak her mind, but she would also be more likely to seek reconciliation.

There was a strange tension running through the movement. Revolution meant changing everything — the law, culture and fundamental structure of society. It was huge. People from privileged backgrounds were rebelling against the system and against their whiteness, willing to give their lives for the cause. Yet while rebellion was total, it also required concerted action, cohesion and strict discipline, including a respect for leadership and a degree of conformity.

Mary and Ben were revolutionaries at heart, not just in their ideas but in their practical actions. They were willing to face the harsh consequences of being involved in the resistance movement. They were also very independent and more rebellious than most comrades. Indeed, they were sometimes criticised for being too independent and going their own way.

Mary didn’t withhold her views and never stopped trying to persuade others to be more active. She wasn’t spiteful or nasty, but firm, direct and quite hard in what she expected of herself and other comrades.

Conditions for people within the movement became more difficult and disruptive in the late 1950s, with mounting state persecution, banning orders and arrests. Mary really battled to juggle her political activities with caring for their three young children. Meanwhile, Ben was totally immersed in the Treason Trial and work for the movement, and could spend little time at home.

Imprisonment

National tensions escalated with the campaign against the pass laws, the Sharpeville massacre and the resulting state of emergency in 1960. When the banned ANC initiated the armed struggle in response to Sharpeville, Ben was instructed to participate in an act of sabotage, unbeknown to Mary. She only found out when a story about the bungled post office bomb appeared in the newspaper.

Ben spent three years in prison — the most arduous period of his life, much of it in Pretoria Central. Here he regularly heard black male prisoners singing with anguished voices as they walked down the prison corridor to the gallows.

A few months after his 1962 arrest, the ANC launched a poster campaign warning that there would be repercussions for Sharpeville. Mary was banned from attending meetings by this stage, but secretly met with three other women to paste up posters across Joburg’s northern suburbs.

They were discovered, arrested and charged with furthering the objects of an illegal organisation. Mary was convicted and sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, with 12 months suspended. She spent most of her sentence in Pietersburg Rehabilitation Centre, under a hostile Afrikaans manager, but made friends with a sex worker and a woman who, after being frequently assaulted by her husband, had killed him with a shotgun.

Life was extremely tough for Mary after her release from prison. She was given another banning order, placed under suburb arrest and experienced constant surveillance and harassment by the police. She found it difficult to handle the tensions between her three boys and spent sleepless nights fearing that Ben wouldn’t be allowed home after serving his sentence. She had few friends in the area and could only write to him every three months and visit him every six.

Leaving for exile

Shortly after Ben was released, there was a rumour that Mary would be arrested for being a member of the Communist Party, which carried a minimum five-year sentence. With three children dependent on her, they had to do something because her parents refused to help. The only realistic option was for Ben to skip the border and leave the others behind in the hope that the police wouldn’t arrest Mary if she had sole custody of the boys.

Their assessment proved correct as Ben escaped overland to Botswana in early 1966, and then went on to Kenya. Mary and the kids followed six weeks later on an exit permit, meaning that she couldn’t come back. The government froze their assets, so they left with very little money.

The family spent three happy years in East Africa, mainly in Tanzania, which was enjoying a resurgence following independence. The atmosphere was relaxed and the sense of liberation was palpable. However, the education system wasn’t easy for the boys to navigate, so the family reluctantly left for the UK.

Mary and Ben spent the next 20 years in exile in London, excluding a three-year stint in Zambia to be closer to home. Mary worked as a medical researcher and then a social worker, all the while maintaining close links with the ANC office and Anti-Apartheid Movement. Both of them were critical of the ANC leaders in London for not doing enough to support the burgeoning Struggle at home, and they were periodically taken to task for their independence.

Member of Parliament

When Mandela was released in 1990 and the ANC was unbanned, they were among the first to return home. Mary made it onto the ANC’s election list for Parliament and spent five years as a backbencher. Although she didn’t find being an MP a rewarding experience, there was a spirit of excitement and hope about the new South Africa and she did contribute to drafting the Constitution.

As a result of people like Frene Ginwala, Baleka Mbete and Mary being there, South Africa has the most gender-sensitive Constitution in the world. Non-sexism is made a foundational value equal to non-racialism. It was women who pressed for socioeconomic rights and the freedom clause, including the right to bodily integrity and to take decisions relating to reproduction.

It is the only Constitution in the world where freedom is not just freedom from restraint by the public authorities, but also the right to be free from violence from public or private sources.

Extra-parliamentary activism

After leaving Parliament, Mary played a key role over many years in establishing the SA Older Persons Forum (SAOPF), and she was elected its first chairperson. The forum emerged from a wide-ranging inquiry into the neglect and abuse being suffered by black older persons at the hands of their families, communities and government officials. The investigation led in turn to an act of Parliament, a national convention, a steering committee and ultimately the creation of the SAOPF in 2005.

The main purpose was to give older persons a platform and a unified voice, as well as to engage the government on the hardships and distress affecting them. Mary believed that raising public awareness and persistent lobbying of the authorities would result in tangible progress in conditions for older people. However, she reflected later that this was naïve because a more powerful organisation was required to improve things on the ground in a meaningful way.

Mary was also committed to working at a very local level. For example, she set up the Muizenberg Housing Savings Scheme to assist domestic workers who were forced to travel long distances each day from the Cape Flats. She identified potential sites for self-built housing and then systematically engaged all the key local, provincial and national authorities to secure access to at least one of them. However, after years of lobbying, these efforts were largely unsuccessful.

Throughout her life Mary remained firmly committed to the cause of social justice, and to doing whatever she could whenever she encountered adversity, unfairness and inequality. She was a person of unrivalled integrity and always determined to make an active contribution to improve the lives and dignity of those subjected to misery and marginalisation, and for this she remains an inspiration to many people.

There was a vitality and sparkle to Mary right to the end. At Ben’s memorial in 2020 she spoke out about the unfinished struggle for emancipation, and gently reminded people to get more active: “We have to spend the last years of our lives fighting for what we’ve neglected. And looking round this room, I can see that many of us don’t have much time left.” DM

Professor Ivan Turok holds the Research Chair in City-Region Economies in the Department of Economics and Finance and the Centre for Development Support at the University of the Free State. Albie Sachs is a South African lawyer, activist, writer, and former judge appointed to the first Constitutional Court of South Africa by Nelson Mandela.