Roslynn "Ros" Joan Greeff was born in Krugersdorp on the West of
Johannesburg in 1965. She attended school at St Ursula's Convent
and later Matriculated at Krugersdorp High School. She was born to
a very religious family and her uncle David Beetge, is the Anglican
Church Bishop. Her father David Farrell, was a sub-Editor at the
anti-apartheid daily publications, the Rand Daily Mail and The
World under the leadership of the late Percy Qoboza who was
detained and his newspaper closed down by the apartheid government.
Ros thus became aware of human rights issues and politics at an
early age.
As a young student at dramatic art, she became active in
politics in the 1980s and this resulted in her joining the End
Conscription Campaign, which encouraged defiance against serving in
the army, which propped up the apartheid government. Although she
worked closely with anti-apartheid movements in the community and
the church, she formally joined the ANC in 1994.
She was a founding member of the Roodepoort ANC branch in 1994
and was elected secretary of the sub-substructure, which operated
in Roodepoort and the nearby Dobsonville in 1999. In 2002 she was
elected secretary of ANC Zone 5 structures and is currently an ANC
Rolihlahla Branch member. She has held a number of positions, as
secretary and chairperson, over the past years. In the 1990s,
undertook internship studies in local government at the London
Borough of Camden in the United Kingdom. Among other things, she
learnt about infrastructure development and services, unicities and
general transformation. In 2002 she studied Human Resources
Management and Development at Technikon South Africa as well as
Communication at the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) and Local
Government at Pretoria University. In 1994 she was elected
executive member of the Western Metropolitan Local Council (WMLC)
and was the only woman at this executive level until 2000.
She also chaired the Housing Portfolio and later Human Resources
Development and Corporate Services. In 1999 she was assigned to the
Committee of 15 which was driving the overall transformation
strategy of the Council. The Committee's main task was to turn
around the financial crisis of the time. Her responsibility was to
negotiate with the staff and the labour movement to facilitate
redeployment of personnel to the various new components of the
City. In 2000 she was appointed deputy chairperson of the
Development and Planning, Transport and Environment Committee in
the Johannesburg Metropolitan Council. She was also chairperson of
the Cosmo City Project, which established a completely integrated
residential area - a first of its kind in South Africa.
Her community work in the Region C of the City of Johannesburg
includes serving in the Roodepoort Pro-Musica Theatre Board from
1994 until 2002. She has also been involved in Roodepoort Child and
Family Welfare and the Sparrow Rainbow Village for HIV Aids
positive people in various official capacities in the past six
years. Ros has four children.
