Helen Beatrice Joseph OMSG (née Fennell) (8 April 1905 – 25 December 1992) was a South African anti-apartheid activist.

[1] Born in Sussex, England, Helen graduated with a degree in English from the University of London in 1927 and then departed for India, where she taught for three years at Mahbubia School for girls in Hyderabad.

[5] In 1923 Helen attended the University of Cape Town to study Zulu and Setswana, graduating from King's College London in 1927.

When Miss Stubbs left the school to get married with her father, the brother offered the vacant position to Helen Joseph.

She trained as a social worker and started working in a community centre in a Coloured (mixed-race) area of Cape Town.

Joseph was one of six Jewish women on trial, the others being Ruth First, Yetta Barenblatt, Sonia Bunting, Dorothy Shanley, and Jacqueline Arenstein.

[12] While on trial for treason, Joseph learned that the government was forcing people out of the country and into remote areas if they were thought to have violated apartheid laws.

[5] In spite of her acquittal, Helen Joseph became on 13 October 1962 the first person placed under house arrest under the Sabotage Act introduced by the apartheid government.

[8] In a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Paul Erasmus, a secret service operative, stated that from about 1978 till late in the 1980s, he and his colleagues had on many occasions damaged the property of Mrs Joseph by throwing stones through the windows of her house, made telephone threats, fired shots at the house but did not intend to injure any person, ordered and caused unwanted supplies to be delivered to her house, and poured paint remover over her motor car, as well as a car belonging to Ann Hughes, when the latter visited her.

The cottage was 35 Fanny Avenue, and moving into it in December 1956 was an act of faith and optimism, as Helen had been arrested just days before that, charged with treason, and faced trial for four years.

Helen Joseph died on 25 December 1992 at the age of 87,[18] having been admitted to the Order of Simon of Cyrene in 1992, the highest honour the Anglican Church of Southern Africa bestows on lay members providing outstanding service.