Margaret Molteno

Margaret Molteno (1912-1985) was a philanthropist and activist who interested herself in the arts as well.

Also known as Margie Molteno to friends and referred to as Mrs Molteno in some sources.

Biography

Born Margaret Dorothy May Judd, the daughter of Mrs and Colonel B C Judd of Stellenbosch, she married Christopher Jarvis Molteno (1907-2000, known by most as "Peter"), who described himself as an "academic eking out a living in the fishing industry", in 1937, and the couple went on to have six children. Margie and a friend ran a flower shop in Main Rd Kenilworth (up till about 1953) though it did not make much money. (It later became Alison's Flowers[1], a florist and café).

In the 1960s she and her family lived in Chile for a while, where Peter Molteno was employed by the UN to advise the Chilean fishing industry after the 1960 Earthquake had destroyed it.

According to her son Martin Molteno (2021), Margie would also go on to oversee the building of seven houses, the first as replacement for her parents' house in Stellenbosch (which had burnt down), Lane House, Kenilworth and the 5 now world famous Rowan Lane Houses designed by the architects De Sousa Santos.

Margaret passed away at in 1985, aged 73.

Contribution to South African Theatre, Film, Media and Performance

At the start of the 1950s Margaret was a leading member of a group of women of staunch left wing liberals (members of the the Black Sash and related societies) who wanted to start a nursery school for children in the Cape Flats. Besides Mrs Molteno, the members included Lorna Thompson, Dulcie Cooper, Margaret McKenzie and Ann Harris, as well as the well-known anti-apartheid activists Jean Bernadt and Dora Tamana.