Frances Goitsemang Baard OMSS OLG (1 October 1909 – 1997) was a South African (ethnic Tswana) trade unionist, organiser for the African National Congress Women's League and a Patron of the United Democratic Front, who was commemorated in the renaming of the Diamantveld District Municipality (Kimberley) as the Frances Baard District Municipality.
[4]: 30 It was at this time that Baard became an activist in the African National Congress, which she joined in 1948,[1] and a trade unionist, as a result of her experiences of oppression and exploitation under Apartheid.
[4]: 31 Baard was actively involved in 1955 in the drafting of the Freedom Charter and was one of the leaders of the Women's march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 9 August 1956 in protest against the pass laws.
– Frances Baard, in "My Spirit is not Banned"[2] In 1956 she was one of the defendants in the Treason Trial and became an executive committee member of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU).
[1] Following her release in 1969, she was banished to Boekenhout, moving two years later when her banning order expired to Mabopane (near Pretoria)[1] where she died in 1997.
In August 1983 Frances Baard attended the launch of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Cape Town, being elected a Patron and executive member.
Asked why, in contrast, the Frances Baard District Council uses a different spelling, she suggested that "maybe they decided to go for the 'coloured version' of the name.