The Black Sash in the 1980s
Di Bishop of Port Elizabeth who joined the Black Sash in 1978 played a significant role in the organisation. She was elected into the Cape Provincial council in 1981, a position that she used as a platform to challenge issues regarding apartheid. Together with Molly Blackburn she recruited actively for the resistance movement. The Black Sash was also concerned with the monitoring of pass law courts to expose injustices. The organisation also set up advice offices in various parts of the country; problems handled by these offices included employer/employee issues, unemployment insurance and pensions. The Sash, as it was sometimes known, worked with a number of organizations in the 1980s including the (UDF) . After the 1994 elections, it shifted focus from being a protest organisation and became a professional body, still upholding the same principles of making submissions to the government in the shaping of social welfare.
Black Sash more...
A Blacksash Protest. 1960's. © Jurgen
Schadeberg
