 Forsyth became chairperson of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) local committee at Rhodes, Media Officer on the Rhodes Students' Representative Council, chair of the local End Conscription Campaign (ECC), treasurer of the campus Women's Movement, editor of the student newspaper "Rhodeo" and of the community paper "Grahamstown Voice".Janet Cherry, a former ANC underground operative and leading activist in the Eastern Cape, said Forsyth had led a double life by completely "integrating herself into student life".From June 1985 Forsyth travelled to various Frontline States – Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania – from the South African office of a Security Branch front company in Johannesburg called John Fitzgerard and Associates, in an operation entitled Operation Olivetti.