Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge is a South African politician and a key figure in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa.

A Quaker, Nozizwe embraced peaceful resistance to apartheid - the same approach advocated by Nelson Mandela.

Inspired by Steve Biko, she was heavily influenced by the Black Consciousness Movement and was imprisoned for her work opposing apartheid and promoting Black equality during this time. She was one of the four-strong SA Communist Party delegation to the Convention for a Democratic South Africa that negotiated the transition from apartheid. She also served in the Constituent Assembly chaired by Cyril Ramaphosa on the working group that drew up the constitutional framework for the post-apartheid South African state.

Influential

Following the fall of apartheid, Nozizwe became a member of the executive committee for the Women's National Coalition, influencing the new state. She also contributed through the work of the Trantional Executive Council’s sub-council on the status of women and helped prepare policy on the empowerment of women under the Reconstruction and Development Programme. This was a pivotal movement to ensure that the new South Africa was not just equal for men, but also for women. 

By women, for women

In 1984, Nozizwe helped establish the Natal Organisation of Women, becoming its first chair, taking over from Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. A key social movement founded by women, for women, it addressed the need for an ongoing programme that would unite women and focus on issues like the cost of living, housing, and problems surrounding maternity and childcare in South Africa.

Ministerial positions

In 1994, Nozizwe won a seat in the country's revamped parliament and went on to hold ministerial positions, including serving as Deputy Minister for Defence. Her Quaker beliefs are considered to have shaped the shift in focus in South Africa's defence policy, moving it from being ready to address international conflict to being about addressing the social and economic issues that threaten a peaceful society.

She later served as Deputy Minister of Health, where she is recognised for shifting the response from 'traditional treatments' to more effective medical measures based on scientific evidence to combat AIDS, which at the time was spreading rapidly and causing up to a thousand deaths per day. More than five million South Africans, or 12% of the population, were reported to be infected with HIV at the time.

Following her ministerial roles, in December 2007, Nozizwe was elected to the ANC's National Executive Committee, and from September 2008 to May 2009, she was Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly.

Human rights

In 2010, Nozizwe became a co-founder of Embrace Dignity, a human rights organisation fighting sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.

In 2014 she launched the "Vote No" campaign alongside fellow ANC member and former government minister Ronnie Kasrils, encouraging people to cast protest votes or spoilt ballots in the 2014 general election as a protest against Jacob Zuma and the perceived corruption of his government.

In June 2015 she became executive director of the South African Institute for Advancement (Inyathelo) but resigned in March 2016, protesting the payment of a golden handshake to one of the organisation's founders.

From 2021 to 2024, Nozizwe served as the Director of the United Nations Quaker Office in Geneva, after which she returned to lead Embrace Dignity.