President Cyril Ramaphosa has bestowed on the late, well-known philanthropist, community development champion, nurse, and businesswoman, Laura Brittomat Gugulethu Mpahlwa, affectionately known as Aunt Laura, the Order of Luthuli in Silver, for her contribution to the liberation movement, black business development and the nursing profession.
Aunt Laura was posthumously honoured during the bestowing of 2021 national orders by Ramaphosa at the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House in Pretoria, on November 18.
The national orders are the highest awards that South Africa bestows. They recognise the contributions made by individuals towards building a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, and prosperous South Africa, as envisaged in our constitution.
Aunt Laura died in June 2019, aged 90, and was honoured with an official provincial funeral. Born on March 31, 1929, Aunt Laura spent the first six years of her life in a backroom in Doornfontein, where her grandparents were employed by a Jewish family, as gardener and domestic worker.
In pursuit of her lifelong dream of becoming a nurse, Aunt Laura started her nursing career as a trainee nurse at the Pretoria HF Verwoerd Hospital.
She moved to Mthatha in the early 1950s, where she made a name for herself in the broader former Transkei community as a healthcare giver, a pioneer in black business and a community builder.
She was instrumental in raising funds for the establishment of Sibabalwe Training Centre for the Disabled People in Northcrest, Mthatha, a project borne out of Sir Henry Elliot Hospital in Mthatha, where she had worked as a young nurse in 1953.
Aunt Laura further championed the establishment of two institutions for the street children – Eluxolweni School and Siyakhana Programme. Both these institutions were aimed at providing shelter to street kids where they would be assisted with attending school and receiving food supplies.
In business development, Aunt Laura assisted in sourcing land and funding for the establishment of various schools at which she would play a key role as member of the school governing body.
She was instrumental in the formation of Umtata International School (UIS), which was the first black privately-owned English medium school in Mthatha and proudly attended by her own grandchildren.
She also established Ezra Sigwela Junior Secondary School in Ngangelizwe, which was built for the children of an informal settlement called eTipini.
Between 1975 and 1990, Aunt Laura ran the flagship family business in Mthatha with her late husband, Maxwell, which she had aptly named Aunt Laura’s Fashion Boutique.
Her contribution in the healthcare sector earned her an Honorary Doctorate in Primary Healthcare from the then University of Transkei in 2000, in recognition of her selflessness and dedication to the upliftment of communities over the 10-year period she was involved with the University and Community Healthcare Partnership Programme.
