Simons Ray (real name Rachel Alexandrovich) (1913, Latvia — 2004) — political and public figure.

At the age of 13, Ray Simons joined the Latvian Communist Party and remained a committed communist throughout her life. Her active political engagement placed her in constant danger, and in 1929 her parents sent her to relatives in South Africa.

Within five days of her arrival, she joined the Communist Party in Cape Town. In 1934–1935, she served as the general secretary of the party.

She was deeply involved in political and social activism, playing a key role in organizing workers. She united black and white impoverished populations into a single Food and Canning Workers’ Union, which she led for many years until she was removed by the apartheid regime.

She worked closely with trade unions and women’s organizations, and her home became a center of democratic and liberation politics in South Africa.

In 1954, she organized the Federation of South African Women and was elected its first secretary.

Due to political persecution, in 1965 she moved to Zambia, where she continued her activism. In 1990, she returned to Cape Town, where she remained active in public life and wrote her memoirs.

She was awarded the Isithwalandwe Seaparankoe, one of South Africa’s highest honors, for her longstanding contribution to freedom and democracy.