Maria Rantho (1953 – July 12, 2002) was a South African disability rights activist and politician. She was the first wheelchair user elected to the National Assembly of South Africa.
Rantho was working as a nurse when she survived a spinal injury in an automobile accident; she used a wheelchair afterwards. She co-founded and became chair of Disabled People South Africa, worked for the formation of the Disabled Women's Development Programme, and was a member of the African National Congress Women's League. In the restructuring of South Africa after apartheid, she was responsible for the disability desk in the Deputy President's office; her projects were later formalized as the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons.[1] [2]
In 1994, Rantho was elected to the National Assembly of South Africa, the first disabled member of that body.[3] She was part of the team that drafted the disability policy passed by the South African government in 1997.[4] She left Parliament in 1998 and worked at the Public Service Commission afterwards, until her death.
She was deputy chair of Disabled Peoples' International, and in that role made a presentation to the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995:
Rantho died suddenly in 2002, at Pretoria. She was survived by a son, Mpho.[5]
The Maria Rantho Clinic in Soshanguve township near Pretoria is named for Rantho, and focuses on HIV/AIDS treatment, mental health, nutrition, and family planning.[6]
Filmmaker Shelley Barry ends her film "Taxi Wars" (2007) with a dedication to Rantho: "Dedicated to the spirit of South African activist Maria Rantho and to all comrades who still wheel the earth continuing their fight for our liberation."[7]