A workers' rights activist with a will of steel has vowed to keep fighting for what she believes in, despite having faced deportation.
|||Durban - A workers’ rights activist with a will of steel has vowed to keep fighting for what she believes in, despite having faced deportation.
Liv Shange, 32, a member of the Democratic Socialist Movement and the Worker’s Socialist Party (WASP), remains undaunted after being refused entry into the country with her three children, after a holiday in Sweden.
She is convinced that her being barred from the country was related to her involvement in the Marikana strike protests. ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe claimed that the Swedes and the Irish “are a force behind the anarchy that is happening in the platinum industry”.
“I will not be silenced or pacified by intimidation” said Shange.
Swedish-born Shange has strong Durban roots after marrying a Zulu man in 2004 (Xolani Shange) and holding an economic history degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Shange is in the country on a tourism permit, which grants her a three-month stay. She said despite several attempts to get permanent status, the applications had been rejected, leaving her “in limbo for two years”.
On her return last week, Shange was greeted by an eager crowd, members of which had supported the “Liv Shange Defence Campaign”.
She arrived just in time for her children to get back to school, but said the strain of the past few weeks had taken its toll on them.
“My eldest, who is 14, is aware and has been traumatised at the thought that the government may be contemplating splitting her family,” she said.
Home Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa, said he was not aware of any prohibition restraining Shange from leaving or entering the country.
Daily News