Zelda was a student and youth activist since the late 1970s participating in worker solidarity campaigns and student and youth organisations. In the early 1980s, she served on the Steering Committee formed to herald the first non-racial women’s organisation in South Africa, UWO and was elected onto its first executive. She was an active cadre in the underground structures of the ANC and the SACP from 1980 until the unbanning of political organisations.