Mme Sally Motlana admitted to Order of Simon of Cyrene

The citation read by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba upon admitting Sally Motlana to the Order of Simon of Cyrene during the 2017 Provincial Standing Committee meeting:

Born in the rural area of Moremela in Mpumalanga, SALLY MOTLANA moved to Johannesburg when she was very young and spent part of her childhood as part of the congregation of Christ the King in Sophiatown.

As an adult, she was appointed to the Diocesan Council in Johannesburg by Bishop Leslie Stradling in 1965. She later served as an Anglican representative on the South African Council of Churches, where she became Vice-President, and she is still an Honorary Vice-President of that organisation. At the SACC and as president of the Black Housewives’ League, she is remembered for her strong advocacy of the cause of students and the Soweto community in the 1976 Soweto uprising.

She has been a staunch member of the Church, serving in various parishes and the wider community with great commitment and humility. At St Paul’s, Jabavu, she helped raise funds for the Ipelegeng Centre, which educated young people in life skills and gave them vocational training. At St Mary’s, Orlando East, she assisted financially in renovating the church.

After 1994, with the birth of democracy, she turned her attention to rehabilitating Christ the King in Sophiatown after the massive destruction wrought in that Parish by apartheid. She still serves at Sophiatown, where she is involved in the education and upliftment of young people in the Trevor Huddleston Centre, on those board she serves. She has also been involved in other upliftment programmes, both in and outside the church, aimed at assisting vulnerable families and educating young women.

Sally Motlana has been victorious in overcoming the hostility of apartheid, never losing hope or becoming bitter, nor sacrificing her integrity and credibility. She has stood firm against social injustice, triumphing over adversity by the power of her holy life.