Anti-apartheid activist, politician and writer. She left South Africa in 1976, worked for the ANC in exile and returned to South Africa in 1990. She was secretary-general of the ANC Women’s League from 1991to1993 and was elected in 1994 to parliament, where she became deputy speaker and then speaker in 2004 to 2008, and again in 2014. She was the ANC’s national chairperson for 10 years from 2007, and deputy president of South Africa from 2008-2009.