Born: 1964 or 1965, South Africa
Died: 1 November 2025
Country most active: South Africa
Also known as: NA
The following, “Narriman Gadija Bazier Samuels,” is republished from South African History Online in line with the SAHO Copyright, Disclaimer & Privacy policy.
Narriman Gadija Bazier Samuels, affectionately known as “Ma G” throughout Mitchells Plain, grew up during the height of apartheid in South Africa. While her exact birthdate and birthplace are not documented in available sources, she was 60 years old at the time of her death in November 2025, placing her birth around 1964-1965. Growing up during this period, she witnessed firsthand the forced removals and systematic marginalization of coloured communities in the Western Cape. These early experiences would shape her lifelong commitment to community service and social justice.
Samuels began her formal community activism through the Walking Bus Project, an initiative launched in Mitchells Plain in 2016 by the Western Cape Department of Community Safety. The project aimed to create safe routes for children traveling to and from school in gang-affected areas. As a volunteer, Samuels helped escort groups of learners, providing protection from gang violence and ensuring regular school attendance. The initiative, which started with 150 volunteers, grew rapidly under the leadership of activists like Samuels, eventually covering multiple schools across Mitchells Plain including areas such as Lentegeur, Beacon Valley, and Tafelsig.
Following the tragic murder of Stacha Arendse in March 2017, Samuels became a co-founder and key member of the Mitchells Plain Crisis Forum. The organization was established to support families affected by violence and to help trace missing persons in the community. As an active member, Samuels provided court support to victims’ families, ensuring they did not face perpetrators alone during legal proceedings. According to Hardien Booysen, who worked closely with her at MPCF, Samuels served as a maternal figure within the organization, always prioritizing others’ needs above her own. Her dedication extended to documenting court proceedings, though her unconventional methods – including taking unauthorized photographs of suspects – occasionally caused concern among legal officials.
Samuels founded the Freedom Park Neighbourhood Watch, addressing safety concerns in one of Mitchells Plain’s most vulnerable communities. Freedom Park, established in 1998 when backyard dwellers occupied vacant land, faced significant challenges including crime, drug abuse, and violence. Under Samuels’ leadership, the neighbourhood watch provided crucial security services to residents who had lived without basic services until 2001 and only received formal housing between 2007 and 2009.
For many years, Samuels served as Deputy Chairperson of the Mitchells Plain Community Rapid Response Unit (CRRU). In this role, she worked alongside Veranique Benji Williams and other activists to coordinate rapid responses to community emergencies and safety threats. Her 25-year involvement with community safety initiatives made her a respected figure among law enforcement and community organizations.
In her final years, Samuels was deeply involved with the Community In Blue initiative, which fostered collaboration between community members and law enforcement to address crime in Mitchells Plain. This program represented the evolution of community policing efforts in the area, building on decades of grassroots organizing.
Samuels was a mother, grandmother to four grandchildren, and great-grandmother to one great-grandchild. Her daughter, Zoureena Roberts, described her mother as someone whose commitment to community often superseded personal health concerns. Despite being diagnosed with angina and experiencing significant mobility challenges in her final months, Samuels continued her community work, often stating in Afrikaans, “My mense het my nodig” (My people need me).
Standing “short in stature but immense in spirit,” Samuels was known for her warm smile that “literally lit up a room,” according to fellow activist Veranique Benji Williams. Her ability to inspire hope and courage in others, even during the darkest moments, made her a beloved figure throughout Mitchells Plain.
In 2025, Samuels was nominated for the Liberty Promenade “Heroes Among Us” campaign, which celebrates local changemakers in Cape Town communities. This recognition highlighted her decades of service and the transformative impact she had on Mitchells Plain’s safety and social cohesion. Her work with the Mitchells Plain Crisis Forum was particularly notable during what fellow activist Joanie Fredericks described as “one of the most painful times in our province’s history, when child deaths across the Western Cape shook us to the core.” Samuels’ fearlessness and compassion during this period exemplified her commitment to protecting the most vulnerable members of society.
Samuels’ activism must be understood within the broader context of Mitchells Plain’s history. Created in the 1970s as a segregated “model suburb” for coloured people forcibly removed under the Group Areas Act, Mitchells Plain became home to over 300,000 residents by the 2020s. The area faced persistent challenges including gangsterism, poverty, and inadequate services – conditions that Samuels spent her adult life addressing. Her work represented the continuation of a long tradition of community resistance in Mitchells Plain, which had been a stronghold of the United Democratic Front during the anti-apartheid struggle. The area’s transformation from a site of forced relocation to a center of community organizing owes much to activists like Samuels who bridged the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.
Narriman Gadija Bazier Samuels passed away on Saturday morning, November 1, 2025, at her home in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, at the age of 60. She died from heart and chest complications related to angina, having been diagnosed with the condition in her final months and experiencing severe breathing difficulties on the morning of her death. According to her daughter Zoureena Roberts, the final moments came early Saturday morning when Samuels experienced severe respiratory distress. In an uncharacteristic move, she agreed to go to the hospital – something she typically resisted due to her independent nature. However, as Roberts was walking her mother to the car, Samuels became heavy in her arms. Roberts called for her daughter to bring something for her mother to sit on, but Samuels “just gave a deep breath and passed on, just like that.”
Her passing at home, surrounded by family, prompted an outpouring of grief and tributes from across Mitchells Plain and the broader Cape Town activist community. Henry Arends, founder of the MPCF, noted that even after her death, the organization continued distributing bread in her honor, viewing this act as symbolic of the life-giving work she performed in the community.
Samuels’ life work contributed significantly to the development of community-based safety initiatives in post-apartheid South Africa. Her approach – combining maternal care with fearless activism – provided a model for grassroots organizing in marginalized communities. The various organizations she helped establish or lead continue to operate, serving thousands of Mitchells Plain residents. Her legacy extends beyond immediate safety concerns to encompass broader questions of dignity, community solidarity, and the role of women in township activism. As a woman who came of age during apartheid and devoted her adult life to addressing its ongoing effects, Samuels embodied the resilience and determination of South Africa’s coloured community.
Narriman Gadija Bazier Samuels represents a generation of South African activists who transitioned from opposing apartheid to building democratic institutions at the community level. Her work in Mitchells Plain – from the Walking Bus Project to the Community In Blue initiative – demonstrated how grassroots organizing could address systemic violence and social fragmentation in post-apartheid townships. Her life story illustrates the ongoing struggle for safety, dignity, and justice in South Africa’s marginalized communities. Through her tireless advocacy for children’s safety, support for crime victims, and establishment of community protection structures, Samuels helped transform Mitchells Plain from a site of forced relocation into a community of active resistance and mutual support.
As South Africa continues to grapple with the legacies of apartheid, the work of activists like Narriman Gadija Bazier Samuels provides both inspiration and practical models for community-led transformation. Her motto, “My people need me,” encapsulates an ethic of service that remains essential to South Africa’s ongoing journey toward justice and reconciliation. Short in stature but immense in spirit, Ma G leaves behind a legacy of courage, compassion, and community. She was a true iron woman whose life was a testament to putting others before oneself. Mitchells Plain, and everyone whose life she touched, will feel her absence deeply, but her memory, work, and love will continue to inspire for generations to come.