When she was eleven years old, her family was forcibly resettled to Chatsworth, a township designated for Indians under the apartheid-era Group Areas Act.
In her second year at the university, she transferred to a humanities degree and also became politically active through the student representative council, the Natal Indian Congress, and the Chatsworth Housing Action Committee.
She remained active in the anti-apartheid movement and was detained without trial for four months during the 1986 state of emergency.
Pursuant to the 2009 general election, Premier Zweli Mkhize appointed her to the KwaZulu-Natal Executive Council as MEC for Human Settlements and Public Works.
[2][3] She held that office until November 2011, when Mkhize announced a cabinet reshuffle in which she was sacked and replaced by Ravi Pillay.