Shulamith Muller

Shulamith Muller (née Movshowitz, December 1922 - July 1978) was a South African lawyer, communist, and anti-apartheid activist.[1] Muller was one of the attorneys for the 1956 Treason Trial.

Biography

Muller was born in Pretoria in December 1922 to a Jewish family.[1][2] Muller attended the University of Pretoria where she studied law and became an attorney in 1948.[1] In her practice, she worked with Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Arthur Chaskalson and George Bizos.[1] Muller allowed the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) to work secretly from her offices.[3]

Muller worked as Viola Hashe's counsel in 1956 and prevented her from being deported.[4] Muller also did appeals for Sophia Williams-De Bruyn.[5] Muller was also involved with the 1956 Treason Trial as one of the instructing attorneys, taking the case on when she was seven months pregnant.[1]

Muller was arrested during the post-Sharpeville Emergency and was jailed first at the Johannesburg Fort and later taken to the Pretoria Central Prison.[1] In prison, she helped others with legal assistance.[1] She was subject to bannings and harassment by the Special Branch so that she could no longer practice law effectively.[1] In 1962, she and her family fled to Swaziland.[1]

In August 1962, after she went to Swaziland, a gag order was imposed on her and 101 other South African activists, preventing the publishing of their spoken words and writings.[6] South Africa struck her from the Roll of Attorneys in August 1971.[1] She died in Swaziland in July 1978.[1]

After being struck from the list of attorneys in South Africa for more than 30 years, Muller was finally posthumously reinstated by the Johannesburg High Court in 2005.[7] Her son, Arnold, had petitioned for the reinstatement.[7]

See also

References
  1. "Shulamith Muller". South African History Online. 12 September 2011. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  2. Muller, Ruth Nathanya (15 April 2021). "A Certain Legal Practitioner: Reconstructing the Life of Shulamith Muller" (PDF).
  3. Hepple, Bob (2011). Alex Hepple: South African Socialist (PDF). South African History Online. p. 71. ISBN 9780620509657.
  4. Luckhardt; Wall. "Organize... or Starve! - The History of the SACTU". South African Congress of Trade Unions. South African History Online. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  5. Ndaba, Baldwin (9 August 2006). "Memories of the Long March to Freedom". The Star. Archived from the original on 8 October 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  6. Kasischke, Richard (5 August 1962). "New Gag Imposed in S. Africa". The Eugene Guard. Retrieved 13 September 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Your World". The Jerusalem Post. 15 December 2005.
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