Hettie du Preez has made an outstanding contribution to the struggle against political and economic injustice in South Africa. She was a prominent figure in the trade union movement and in the leadership of a number of organisations. Du Preez became the leader of the Garment Workers Union (GWU) in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1947, she worked on launching a left-wing, non-racial women’s organisation.
The youngest child of Mozambican immigrants, Sibongile (Bongi) Susan Mkhabela (nèe Mthembu) grew up in Zola, one of the poorest areas in Soweto, Transvaal Province (now Gauteng). Her mother never went to school, while her father worked as a painter but was exploited by his White employer. When her mother died in 1971, her father had to look after the family on a salary of just R20 a week.
This is known as; 'The Parish of Our Lady, Flight in to Egypt'. The German architect, Carl Otto Hager, was the designer. He also did numerous other religious Buildings including the Dutch Reformed Church in Stellenbosch: the 'NG Moederkerk'. The Cathedral was designed in the Neo-Gothic idiom, with the characteristic features such as a high nave and steep roof, side aisles with flat roofs and crenelated parapets, slender in shape, pointed clerestory windows on the inside and an oak screen separating the nave from the entrance porch.
