Mary Malahlela-Xakana (2 May 1916 – 8 May 1981)Birth and death dates from "Dr Mary Susan Makobatjatji Malahlela (Posthumous)" , Order of the Baobab, Office of the Presidency, Government of South Africa; some sources give 1917 and 1982 instead. was the first Black woman to register as a medical doctor in South Africa (in 1947). She was also a founding member of the Young Women’s Christian Association.
Early life and education Mary Susan Makobatjatji Malahlela was born in Pietersburg.Gail Nattrass, "Mary Susan Malahlela-Xakana" South African History Online. Her father was Thadius Chweu Malahlela, a Christian convert. Her father had been driven from his home for refusing to put his twin children to death, since twins were considered a curse. As a girl she was a student at the Methodist Primary School in Juliwe, near Johannesburg. She attended the University of Fort Hare as an undergraduate, and in 1941 received support from the Native Trust Fund to study medicine at the University of Witwatersrand. When she graduated in 1947, she was the first Black woman to graduate from Wits. In 2015 the University of Witwatersrand erected a plaque on its grounds as a memorial to Dr Malahlela and as a way to redress the historical diminution of native black alumni.
Career In 1947, Malahlela graduated from medical school and registered as a medical doctor, the first black woman in South Africa to do so.Anne Digby, "Black Doctors and Discrimination under South Africa’s Apartheid Regime", Medical History 57(2)(April 2013): 269-290. doi: 10.1017/mdh.2012.106. She opened a private medical practice in Kliptown, and a second in Mofolo South. After the Group Areas Act, she worked at the clinic in Dobsonville.Mpho Raborife, "Wits Med School Honours First Black Woman Graduate from 1947" News24, 12 June 2015."Dr Mary Susan Makobatjatji Malahlela (Posthumous)" , Order of the Baobab, Office of the Presidency, Government of South Africa.
Malahlele was a founding member of the YWCA in South Africa, and active in the peace and anti-apartheid movements. She was a member of the Women's Peace Movement, a member of the Fort Hare University Council, and a chairwoman of the Roodepoort School Board.
Personal life Mary Malahlela married and had two daughters. She died in 1981, aged 65, after a heart attack, while volunteering with Nthato Motlana at the rural Witkoppen Clinic in Sandton, Johannesburg."Mary Susan Malahlela-Xakana", in Women Marching Into the 21st Century: Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint' Imbokodo (HSRC Press, 2000): 2022–03. .
A primary school in Dobsonville is named after Malahlela-Xakana.Dr. Mary Malahlela Primary School, Dobsonville, Soweto, Gauteng, South Africa. In 2015, Malahlela-Xakana was posthumously awarded the Order of the Baobab for her pioneering medical career."Pics: Zuma Bestows National Orders" IOL: Independent Online, 8 December 2015.
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