Helen Kotze, quietly courageous opponent of apartheid and injustice, staunch member of the Black Sash and the Christian Institute (CI), died on 21 January 2013 at the age of 92. A memorial service will be held on Thursday 7 February at the Roseband Methodist Church at 2.30 pm.

Wife of the Rev. Theo Kotze, mother of five children, she was steadfast in her support of all of them, and stood with Theo against all the threats and attacks on him and the CI, eventually following him into exile.

The Christian Institute opened its offices in Mowbray in 1969, opposite the railway station. At that time the Black Sash Advice Office was in Sybrand Park, where it remained until a petrol bomb was hurled into its premises. Not surprisingly, the lease was terminated since there had been previous attacks on the office. The Christian Institute offered space in its building, and the Advice Office remained there until the terrible day of 19 October 1977 when the CI was banned, along with many other organisations.

Helen and Theo left so much that they loved behind them, and met many difficulties in their enforced new lives, first in Holland and then in England. They continued to work for the anti-apartheid cause, and Helen was known for her calm and gentle personality, offering a welcome to others and comfort and help to Theo.

They returned to a newly liberated country for which they had sacrificed so much. Helen took up the threads of her life once more, renewed the friendships she had valued, many of them with other members of the Black Sash. When the Order of the Baobab was awarded posthumously to Theo in 2008, Helen was proud and delighted. It was generally believed that she had contributed to his achievements in no small measure.

She will be remembered for her commitment and her grace.

Mary Burton
Black Sash Trustee
_________

Read the Cape Times obituary, 8 February 2013
 

Anne Finsen, who was a founder member of the Black Sash, died this week at the age of 94. She joined the Black Sash in 1956. In the early days she was involved in the work of the organisation in all sorts of ways. This part of her life is shown wonderfully on the video that was made of the first Sashers. 

Anne had a great interest in what she called ‘the young’. She would fetch and carry, look after children during stands and was always generous in offering her home regularly for Wynberg Branch meetings. It was in this role that we knew her best. Anne never betrayed her principles. She was staunch and upright and always ready to help with the actions she proposed. 

Privacy was a great part of Anne’s personality. A quiet woman but not shy, Anne would argue with the best of us. She would raise her points with great dignity. Once a decision was made she accepted it wholeheartedly and never complained. In the Sash she contributed to the debates on all levels, both at Branch level and as a member of the Regional Council. Anne never missed a meeting, nor was she ever late. She belonged to the Sash Media Group which created and produced things to sell for funds but also made stickers and the like with political messages. It was Anne’s inspiration that resulted in the little T-shirt sticker that became so well known on car windows during the 80’s.

Anne has died, but she is carried in our hearts along with an affection that has grown up over more than 30 years. She will be missed for her kindness, wisdom, integrity and the elegance of her generation which made working with her so special.

Anne’s funeral service will be held at 10:00 on Monday 22nd October, 2012 at St Saviour’s Church, Claremont.

Beva Runciman
Ann van der Riet
Rose Meny-Gibert
Mary Burton

CONSTANTIABERG BULLETIN 08 Nov 2012 

by Beva Runciman

Anne Finsen has died. Sometimes the death of an individual sends echoes from a life which draws an end to an era. And for me there is a hole in the universe. Anne was a founder member of the Black Sash. She joined in1956. In the early days she was involved in the work of the organisation in all sorts of ways.

This part of her life is shown wonderfully on the video that was made of the first Sashes. Anne stood with placards, in groups in the early days but later, alone, as the government tried to muzzle the Black Sash. She sat in courtrooms, set up only to process people who had no "pass" for being in Cape Town, to witness this inhumane law and its application.

This was heartbreaking as so many of them were women with children, looking for their husbands or bringing sick children to hospital. Anne took part in many activities, all of which made for a very busy life.

Outside the Wynberg library, in 1979, I was lucky enough to meet Anne gathering signatures protesting about the removal of District Six.

We got talking and ended up with her inviting me to a Wynberg branch meeting. And so my life with the Sash started.

Anne had a great interest in what she called "the young". She would fetch and carry, look after children during stands and was always generous in offering her home for Wynberg branch meetings.

It was in this role that we knew her best. Anne never betrayed her principles. She was staunch and upright and always ready to help with the actions she proposed.

A quiet woman but not shy, Anne would argue with the best of us. She would raise her points with great dignity. Once a decision was made, she accepted it wholeheartedly and never complained.

In the Sash she contributed to the debates on all levels, both at branch level and as a member of the regional council, where all branches sent delegates to discuss Sash regional business. Here she took part in the political thinking which shaped the policies and actions of the Western Cape Black Sash region. These meetings were weekly and quite a commitment. Anne never missed a meeting, nor was she ever late.

Privacy was a great part of Anne's personality. One became aware that she was very proud of her father and had close ties to her sisters Peggy, also a Sasher, and Elizabeth, who went to the Aldeburgh Festival every year. Elizabeth loved Benjamin Britten. The four of us had merry times together.

Art was very present in Anne's life. She belonged to the Sash Media Group where we created and produced things to sell for funds. We also made stickers, and the like, to highlight political messages. Anne was the one who said "Why don't we put the message on a sticker cut in the shape of small Tshirt?" We did and it was a winner. These flashes of creativity made her a very welcome participant in any group work. And she had an awesome attic. Lots of things went on under that roof.

I have seen Anne during this year and on one visit she said, "I'm going to tell you a secret. I know you have been dying to ask for years." I sat riveted. "I am 94 years old and I shall be 95 on 30th of October."

She was right; I had been dying to ask forever. I owned up and we laughed and laughed. Anne is dead. But she is carried in our hearts along with an affection that has grown up over more than 30 years.

She will be missed. No more tea with Anne. Beva Runciman joined the Black Sash in 1980. She was the chairperson of the Western Cape region and the chair'person of the Wynberg branch, which Anne Finsen belonged to. The Black Sash was established in 1955 when they were a non-violent white women's resistance organisation.

The Black Sash campaigned against the removal of coloured or mixed race voters from the voters' roll in the Cape Province by the National Party government. They also demonstrated against the pass laws and the introduction of other apartheid legislation.

CAPE TIMES  01 Nov 2012

Sash stalwart dies 

A huge loss to ceramics in SA

Estelle Sinkins
Arts Editor
The Witness and Weekend Witness

Friends urged to celebrate a life lived fully with her infectious love of life and her championing of traditional Zulu pottery, Pietermaritzburg ceramicist, Juliet Armstrong, made the world a better place. Following a battle with cancer, Armstrong, a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Centre for Visual Art, died on Wednesday. She leaves her husband Mike, daughter Jessica, son Tom and stepson, Brendan.

In a note to friends and family, Mike said: "She would require you at the earliest opportunity to cook your favourite food, get out your best wine, listen to some music (opera, Abdullah Ibrahim, Sibongile Khumalo, The Fureys, classics, whatever) and celebrate a life lived fully and lived well. As I said to her, she made the world around her a better place."

Armstrong obtained her BA Fine Arts degree at the then University of Natal in 1972, before heading to England for two years to attend Leicester University, where she studied glassblowing and industrial ceramics. She later worked as a governess in Stuttgart, Germany, for the famous Porsche family and travelled across America before returning to South Africa and her alma mater, where she did her masters degree thesis on the well-known British ceramic artist, William de Morgan. Best known for her exquisite porcelain sculptures, several of which can be found in the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg, Armstrong also tried her hand at pencil drawings, wood carvings and photography.

During her years at UKZN, she did extensive research into the use of bone china as a sculpture medium. She developed a method of deflocculating the porcelain to cut down the percentage of water in the body, to create an exceptionally white, hard and translucent medium. As one of the artists in the All Fired Up exhibition, which took place in March and April 2012 at the Durban Art Gallery, Armstrong said she wanted to show that clay could be used in different ways and that it did not have to look perfect. One of her works from the exhibition has been acquired by the Tatham for its permanent collection. Titled Ridge Dog, it is partly original work, part found object. The dog's body was discovered by Armstrong when she was digging in her Scottsville garden, and she added a head and limbs to it, creating something unique.

This work, along with others made by Armstrong, have been installed in a special tribute display in the ceramics room at the Pietermaritzburg gallery. Armstrong and fellow academic, Professor Ian Calder, also helped raise the profile of Zulu pottery through a research project, which began in 1993 and involved them collecting pots, and meeting and working with potters like the celebrated Magwaza sisters from Mpbalane near Kranskop and the Nala family from the Oyaya area. In a tribute to her, Brendan Bell, director of the Tatham said: "She will be a huge loss to ceramics in this country ... when you look at our collection; so many pieces in it are connected to her through her work and her teaching ... her spirit wanders through our collection." It is no doubt also wanders through the corridors of UKZN.

Armstrong's colleague at the university, Faye Spencer, said the staff and students were feeling devastated. "Juliet was the warm heart at the centre of so many significant aspects of our practice: her involvement with rural potters, her interest and research on pottery and indigenous crafts, her compassionate mentoring of her students, herwise and wry counsel for new academics like myself ... we feel so sad because we feel the loss of all these things," she added. "I know UKZN has been lucky to have her for 30 or so years, and the mark she has left on this place is somethingindelible andwonderful."

Another friend of long standing and a comrade in the Black Sash, Mary Kleinenberg, said Armstrong's compassion for others would be sorely missed. She volunteered at the Black Sash's advice office in Pietermaritzburg, from the time it opened in 1975, offering help and advice and taking on various roles, including that of treasurer. "

Juliet had a huge sense of justice. She really cared for people who were battling; as evidenced by all the people she supported in the arts community," Kleinenberg said. 

WITNESS 24 Aug 2012

GROCOTT`S MAIL 17 Aug 2012

A QUIET FORCE WITH A WICKED SENSE OF HUMOUR

Peggy McCoy (1920-2012) Peggy McCoy... taught me a great deal about how one should live: with an open and engaged mind; a commitment to her community and social justice; a finely tuned hand at baking; and a wicked sense of humour." These words, posted by her granddaughter Sarah Sladen on Facebook, must sum up for many the sense that the well-loved Grahamstown resident who died recently helped make of life - her own and other people's.

A farmer's daughter from the Eastern Free State, Peggy went to school in Bloemfontein and graduated from the University of Cape Town with a BA in 1940. Her feisty mother, Maude Gilbert, was in the first batch of women students to graduate from Rhodes University in 1918. Peggy had said her mother and one of her own university lecturers, Professor Jack Simons, strongly influenced her thinking. Beautiful and vivacious as a young woman who loved parties and dancing, Peggy married general practitioner Jock McCoy in October 1942 and they lived in Port Elizabeth, his home town. A mother to four - Penny (Silva), Maureen (Sladen), Michael and Andrew - her children describe her as "a gardener, an avid reader, a maker of cakes and puddings and a knitter of beautiful fair-isles.

"But she was also a serious and committed activist during a time when this was seen as odd and dangerous," says eldest daughter Penny in her funeral tribute. Peggy was recognised after 1994 as a "Veteran of the Struggle" and along with others, travelled to Johannesburg for a reception with Nelson Mandela.

Peggy joined the Black Sash in 1958. "Her commitment to justice and to nonracialism, her courage and anger, made a huge impact on me," Penny writes. Peggy's activism ranged from running a co-operative from the family's garage to taking supplies to political detainees during the State of Emergency. "Mom and friends would go down to the East End Prison in PE in her VW combi (another very cool thing about Mom - people stared at us in that bus!) loaded with coats, blankets, socks and food. "The most sobering thing was the supply of baby clothes. We didn't think that much about the families of the political prisoners, but they were as much victims as those behind bars," writes Maureen. "Mom spoke beautiful, unaccented Afrikaans (I remember a taxi driver complimenting her on it in Bloem), so she was the one who spoke to the guards and policemen. I remember my fear - but her ladylike determination.

"Mom wasn't paid, but she most certainly worked. One of my earliest memories was finding a stack of small white and black flyers that read APARTHEID, NO! I think she had been putting them in mailboxes and I remember Dad saying in a very anxious way, 'Pegs, get rid of those!" Penny says, "She expected at times to be arrested and told us who to contact if this happened." On the other hand it was also through their mother that the four McCoy children learnt to appreciate theatre, classical music and cricket.

When Peggy and Jock retired to Grahamstown in 1976, Peggy joined the Cathedral parish, becoming a lay preacher in 1987. She volunteered for work with Gadra Advice and Community Work. Even in her later years she continued to volunteer once a week for the Grahamstown Advice Office, and well into her 80s she went with Michael Whisson to Fort England to lead communion services. Andrew Robert McCoy, Peggy and Jock's fourth child, died of cancer in August 2009. Peggy spent her last years at Somerset Place retirement complex and her last months at St Luke's Frail Care. "She was a person for whom friends were essential, and she was loved by many," Penny writes. "She was a complex person, energetic and frank and intelligent." And Maureen: "Mom was a force, but a quiet one, with very good legs."

Peggy died peacefully in Grahamstown on Saturday 28 July, aged 92. Information for this piece was compiled from tributes by her children for her funeral at the Cathedral of St Michael and St George on Thursday 2 August, as well as a piece by Adrienne Whisson titled "Super volunteer - Peggy McCoy".  

Obituary by Rosemary Smith, Black Sash Trustee

Peggy McCoy 1920-2012
Died 28.7.2012 aged 92

Peggy was a longtime member of the Sash, joining in 1958 and active first in Port Elizabeth where she played a prominent role in the campaign to support political detainees, and latterly in Grahamstown where she and her General Practitioner husband had retired. For years she worked in the Grahamstown Advice Office, monitoring and cleaning and sorting files. Prior to the first Democratic Election she travelled miles as part of the team educating first time voters. She was recognised as a "veteran of the struggle" in 1994 and along with others she travelled to Johannesburg for a reception with Nelson Mandela.

Peggy had many friends and she was a person for whom friends were essential. As one of her friends commented, "She taught us all how to live and latterly how to die." Peggy had a strong faith and was a lay preacher at the Grahamstown Cathedral. When her youngest son died of cancer in 2009, her faith shone through.

When she reached her 90s it was hard to realise that she had become old. She still had her patrician bearing, was well dressed with a lively and open mind and a great sense of humour. Never judgemental, she attracted many young friends.

A farmer's daughter from the Free State Peggy graduated from UCT in 1940 and married Jock McCoy in 1942.She was mother to 4 children. Her children described her as an avid reader, an excellent baker and a knitter of beautiful fair isles and a keen gardener.

But above all we remember her as a committed and serious activist.