Thandi Ndlovu

Ndlovu was born in Soweto, South Africa where she attended Orlando High School.[4]

In 1976, whilst a student at the University of Fort Hare, Ndlovu decided to go into exile to escape the attention of apartheid security services. Between 1977 and 1984 Ndlovu joined African National Congress as an Umkhonto we Sizwe member[2] operating outside of South Africa and moved from Mozambique to Zambia and then onto southern Angola were she received training; after which she studied at the a school for the Young Communist League in Moscow, USSR.[1]

In 1984 she enrolled at the University of Zambia to study medicine after which she returned to South Africa and interned at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.[1]

Whilst practicing medicine in South Africa Ndlovu noticed that many of the ailments amongst her patients from Orange Farm were related to their poor living conditions due to a lack of access to adequate housing. This led her to found Motheo Construction in 1997.[1][2] She was noted for her ability to break into the male dominated South Africa construction industry and growing Motheo into a large-scale builder of government housing[2] constructing over 80,000 homes.[4]

Ndlovu died in a road vehicle incident on the 24 August 2019 whilst on her way to a funeral in Rustenburg, North West Province.[1]