Judy Chalmers
Judy Chalmers is a South African retired politician and activist who represented the African National Congress in the National Assembly from 1994 to 2009. During apartheid, she was the chairperson of the Black Sash in the Eastern Cape.
Early life and activism
Chalmers was born on 16 November 1932 in Port Elizabeth in the former Cape Province. Her father was Edgar Bellhouse, a founding member and former chair of the liberal Progressive Party, and her elder sister was renowned activist Molly Blackburn. She was educated in Port Elizabeth and briefly attended college in England. As apartheid intensified, Chalmers and Blackburn grew disenchanted with traditional white politics, particularly after they attended the funeral of Robert Sobukwe in Graaff-Reinet in 1978.By the early 1980s, Chalmers had joined the Black Sash; she became its chairperson in the Eastern Cape. During this period, with Blackburn and others, she reopened the Black Sash's Port Elizabeth Advice Office, through which she conducted outreach with black residents of the region and monitored human rights abuses by the apartheid government. The office was often subject to vandalism and was ultimately set alight.
In late December 1985, Chalmers and Blackburn were in a car accident while driving back to Port Elizabeth from Oudtshoorn with fellow Black Sash activist Diana Bishop. Chalmers and Bishop were injured, but Blackburn and Bishop's husband, Brian, were killed.