President of South Africa Jacob Zuma on Friday, conferred the country's highest National Order awards on two veteran freedom fighters of Indian origin. The Order of Luthuli in Silver was awarded to  to Fatma Meer posthumously while Shantie Naidoo received the same award at the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria. Naidoo was part of a group who suffered at the hands of the apartheid-era security police. They were tortured and held in solitary confinement by the police.

Meer started her activist career in South Africa as a high school student aged 17 in 1945. During those times, the Segregation Act was passed which restricted the economic and residential rights of the Indian community. The Indians resisted this Act by organizing Satyagraha. 

Meer mobilized high school students and established the Students Passive Resistance Committee to canvass and raise funds for the Passive Resistance Campaign.

Meer was a lifelong friend of Nelson Mandela. She was an excellent historian, sociologist and a prolific writer who wrote Nelson Mandela's biography. She helped build the Gandhi Museum and Clinic at the Phoenix Settlement started by Gandhi, which is still run today by his granddaughter Ela Gandhi.

Naidoo led the  historic Women's March to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in 1956 to protest the unjust anti-apartheid laws. Her undying commitment to justice, freedom and equality was an inspiration to all.

Though she was detained frequently and subjected to harsh treatment, she never gave in or divulged any information about the anti-apartheid activities of the time.