Nomkhitha Virginia Mashinini

Nomkhitha died on September 25, 2008. Former President Kgalema Motlanthe paid his respects to her during his first State of the Nation Address on September 28, 2008.

Due to increased police surveillance, Nomkhitha travelled to Swaziland (since 2018 renamed to Eswatini) in an effort to protect her younger children. Upon her return from Swaziland, she was detained by the South African Police in Standerton on July 1, 1977. Two of her younger sons and Mpho Mashinini were detained on the same day. One of the detained sons, Sydney Mashishi, who was 14 at the time, was tortured and beaten by the police due to his siblings' involvement in the protests.

In 1976, her son Tsietsi Mashinini and daughter Mpho Mashinini led the student uprising against Bantu education in Soweto. As a result of the riots that occurred, four of her sons had to flee from the country. One of whom returned and was tried for conspiring to sabotage the government via a military coup.

She was fired from her job at Guys and Dolls, due to concerns over her influence on other staff members. She struggled to find employment after her detention in 1976. However she later found employment with Meals on Wheels.

Nomkhitha met Ramothibi Joseph Mashinini in Kliptown, and they got married in 1955. Ramothibi was a devout Christian man who came from a poor Sotho family in the Free State (province). The wedding took place over two days, with both a Christianceremony in a Presbyterian church in Johannesburg, as well as a traditional wedding where they slaughtered a goat and performed a ceremony more in line with the historical culture of the area.

Nomkhitha Virginia Mashinini (May 9, 1935 - September 25, 2008) was a South African apartheid detainee, the mother of political figure Tsietsi Mashinini, and a community worker.

Nomkhitha Virginia Mashinini was born on May 9, 1935, in Bengu, South Africa, a settlement near Lady Frere in the former Transkei. Her father, Daniel Boto, was of royal descent and an Imbongi for the royal court. He had fifteen children from his first marriage. After the death of his first wife, Boto married Olive Nontuthuzelo from the village of St Marks. Nomkhitha was their first child.