Makhoere was born near Pretoria in 1955 and attended Vlakfontein Technical High School.[1][2] Her father was a policeman and her mother worked in domestic service, and Makhoere was one of seven children.[2] Alongside her family, she was forcibly removed under the terms of the Group Areas Act and relocated to Mamelodi as a child.[1]
Makoere became associated with the resistance organisation Black Sash.[3] She was arrested in October 1976 as an "agitator" under the Terrorism Act,[2] then spent ten months detained in Silverton Police Station, Mamelodi, Gauteng, awaiting trial.[1] In 1977, she was convicted for attempting to undergo military training[4] in order to resist legislation that school classes throughout South Africa were to be taught in Afrikaans.[1]
In 1982, alongside fellow imprisoned anti-apartheid activists Elizabeth Komikie Gumede, Thandi Modise, Elizabeth Nhlapo and Kate Serokolo, Makhoere made an application to the Minister of Justice, Kobie Coetsee, hoping to have their isolation declared illegal[5] and to improve their living conditions.[6] This was denied, but she was released from prison in October 1982.[1] After her release, she lived in hiding and later studied towards a business degree.[2]
Makhoere also become a prison literature author, writing No Child’s Play: In Prison Under Apartheid (1988) about her experiences in prison.[7][8][9][10] In the book, she describes her time imprisoned,[11] represents her body as a weapon in political battles (both inside and outside prison), and uses the plural pronoun we to identify herself with other incarcerated activists.[8][12] According to Ryan, Makhoere 's book "epitomized" the South African "writing of resistance."[13]