One of Cape Town's underrated struggle veterans, anti-apartheid heroine Blanche la Guma, has died.

Dean of St George's Cathedral in Cape Town, Reverend Michael Weeder, confirmed La Guma's death.

In a social media post, he said: "I heard now of your passing. You led us, mi compa (my friend), on a long way of revolution. And we are forever grateful for your love and courage."

In December last year, she celebrated her 95th birthday.

La Guma was married to renowned novelist, Alex la Guma.

According to SA History Online, she was educated in Athlone and attended Trafalgar High School. Her fellow students included Alex la Guma, who shared political interests with her brother.

During the 1940s, she began to attend meetings of the Communist Party of South Africa (later renamed the South African Communist Party) in Athlone, where activist James la Guma (her future father-in-law) spoke.

In 1950, she took up nursing at St Monica's Home, the first institution in Cape Town where coloured women could train as nurses. There, she specialised as a midwife.

In 1954, she married Alex. They had two children, Eugene and Bartholomew.

Politically, she became increasingly active – first in the formation of the Federation of South African Women and within the underground Communist Party of SA, which the National Party declared illegal.

In 1957, in response to the Nursing Act (No. 69) of that year, she organised a demonstration of 300 nurses.

She was detained under the 90-day solitary confinement laws in 1963 and was later banned.

In 1966, she and her husband went into exile, traveling to the United Kingdom, where she worked as a midwife, then as a sister, at the City of London Maternity Hospital.

Between 1970 and 1977, she was a manager at the Soviet Weekly. She and Alex later moved to Cuba, where he acted as the ANC representative for the Caribbean.

In 1985, Alex died and Blanche returned to London.

She returned to Cape Town in 1992.