Phumla Williams
Mirriam Phumla Williams is a former South African public servant who served as spokeswoman of the Cabinet of South Africa and Chief Executive Officer of the Government Communication and Information System. An anti-apartheid activist for the African National Congress, she was an operative of the uMkhonto we Sizwe from 1978 until its disbandment in 1993.
As head of GCIS, Williams was responsible for all of South Africa's government communications - in charge of all spokespeople in government departments - and the spokeswoman for the Government of South Africa.
Early life and political activism
Phumla Williams was born in Pimville, Soweto on 1 July 1960. She attended Musi High School. As a member of the ANC, her involvement in politics began after pupils across Soweto schools were shot and arrested by apartheid police during the 1976 Soweto student riots. She said during the day of the riots her female schoolmate was shot dead by an apartheid policeman when a stray bullet hit her while she was sweeping the yard of her home. In 1978, Williams left South Africa to join the exiled ANC in Swaziland and subsequently its military wing, the uMkhonto we Sizwe. Williams was based in Swaziland and Mozambique. She was arrested and tortured for weeks in 1989 for plotting to topple the apartheid government.On being released in the early 1990s after the release of Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of political parties by apartheid-era president F.W. de Klerk, she worked at the ANC's Johannesburg headquarters as administrator before joining government in 1995.