Documenting Women Activists
Mavis Mthandeki was born in Qoboshimfene (Bellville) squatter camp in 1947. Later under the Group Areas Act her family was moved to Gugulethu. Mavis was sent to the Transkei to live with her grandmother and returned to Cape Town in 1964.
Mavis Mthandeki was working as a domestic worker when she became involved in the United Women’s Congress, an organisation that empowered and supported marginalised women, taking on social issues such as women’s healthcare and childcare.
In 1989, she was offered the chance to represent the organisation on a media course run by the Community Arts project. After she attended the course, she quit her domestic job and started taking pictures.
During her years of activism in the 1990’s, Mthandeki was instrumental in establishing a Women’s league Crèche in Tambo Square, Gugulethu. She also completed a pre-primary teacher’s course. In 1993, Mthandeki obtained a diploma in photography at the Cape Town press centre.
Later that year she took part in an exhibition titled “The Way We Live” held in London, Britain. Mthandeki was part of the African National Congress Media Unit during the 1994 election campaign. She currently lives in Gugulethu.