12 Facts About Harriet Ngubane

Harriet Ngubane, formerly known as Harriet Sibisi, was a South African social anthropologist best known for her work on Zulu belief systems.

Harriet Ngubane represented the Inkatha Freedom Party in the National Assembly from 1994 to 2004.

Harriet Ngubane was born on 11 November 1929 in rural Inchanga near Pietermaritzburg in the former Natal Province.

Harriet Ngubane was the third eldest of six siblings, among them former cabinet minister Ben Ngubane.

Harriet Ngubane was raised on a Roman Catholic mission but in a Zulu family.

Harriet Ngubane taught part-time at her former high school while studying at the university's Durban campus.

Harriet Ngubane later studied social anthropology on a scholarship at Cambridge University, where she completed her PhD in 1972.

However, her professional prospects in South Africa were hindered by apartheid laws, and Harriet Ngubane spent a year in Birmingham, England as William Paton lecturer at Selly Oak.

Harriet Ngubane received the Ioma Evans-Pritchard Fellowship in 1974 and spent another year at St Anne's College, Oxford, where she revised her PhD thesis for publication.

From 1978 to 1984, Harriet Ngubane worked for the United Kingdom Ministry of Overseas Development in Swaziland, and in 1985 she was an adviser to the United Nations's International Labour Office on policy regarding women's issues in Lesotho.

In South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, Harriet Ngubane was elected to represent the Inkatha Freedom Party in the National Assembly.

Harriet Ngubane died in October 2007 after a lengthy illness.