Biography Index

Organiser of the African National Congress (ANC) Women’s League and Trade Unionist.

Member of the ANC and SACTU, banished person

A Khoikhoi woman

Political prisoner, participated in the Indian and South African liberation struggles, journalist, member of the Natal Indian Youth Congress, Natal Indian Congress, African National Congress and uMkhonto weSizwe, Robben Island prisoner, banned person

Member of COSAS and ANC, Robben Island political prisoner, Secretary of the Central House Committee (UWC), Mayor and Local Municipal Manager. 

Cricketer, Medical Doctor and South African Administrator of the United Cricket Board.

Academic, author, Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University, the first black South African to hold this post in 102 years, Editor of  Grassroots community newspaper,  Program Director: International Higher Education & Strategic Projects, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (New York, USA)

Eastern Cape Journalist, particularly known for his journalism that helped to put major trade unions, along with the PE Black Civic Organisation (Pebco) and the Congress of SA Students (Cosas), on the national political map (1970s)

A self-taught, award winning artist and photographer. Badsha played an active role in the South African liberation struggle, as a cultural and political activist and trade union leader.

Founder of Drum magazine (1950) and The Golden City Post (1955), author, historian, poet and RAF pilot

Marine and Portrait Painter

political activist, shop steward for the National Garment Workersof the SACP, exiled person 

Architect

civil rights lawyer, member of the South African Communist Party and African National Congress, political prisoner, banned person and exile 

anti-apartheid activist, trade unionist, arrested, General Secretary of the African Food and Canning Workers Union, banned

Politician, Premier of the Eastern Cape Province and former Minister of Sport and Art and Culture in the Eastern Cape Province.

Dutch typographer, calligrapher, author and book publisher

Ballinger was a trade union organizer, member of the Joint Council movement, a representative of Africans in the Senate, and a founder of the Liberal Party.

Member of the Atlantic Charter Committee, Treasurer-general of the ANC, vice-president of the Non-European United Front and businessperson 

Artist

Head of Independent Electoral Commission

Judge-President of the Lands Claim Court; Member of the Eastern Cape Bar; Member of Independent Mediation Services of South Africa; Member of Eastern Cape Society of Advocates and Johannesburg Bar Council; political prisoner on Robben Island.

frtist

Member of the Black Consciousness Movement, Medical doctor

Trade unionist, President of Cosatu.

fotanical painter

Banned political activist, Bardien was involved in the Unity Movement, Coloured Affairs Department (CAD) and South African Coloured People's Organisation (SACPO)

Trade Unionist, member of the East London Worker’s Civic League and Secretary of the Congress of Democrats (CoD) in 1954. Barenblatt was arrested on charges of treason in 1956, detained during the state of emergency in 1960 and banned in 1962. Sh

businessman, politician, community worker, member of the Cape Indian Congress, elected Cape Province representative on the executive of the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) and joint secretary of the SAIC

Famous cardiac surgeon

South African Randlord and entrepreneur.

Artist and photographer

1956 Treason Trialist and member of the SACP

Political activist, lawyer, journalist member of the SACP

Estate agent and Community leader

A member of the Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA)

Politician and British Colonial Officer

Painter

A member of the Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA). Banned by the apartheid government.

Chairman of the Natives Land Commission, member of the, South African National Party and Judge at the Natal Supreme Court.

Author, ethnologist and advertising executive

High school principal, Vice Chancellor at the University of Fort Hare, Secretary-General of the Inkatha Freeom Party, Minister of Education

Jazz singer

Author, journalist, anti-apartheid activist, co-founded the Africa Bureau, first person to record the ANC’s history

Medical doctor, lecturer at Wits University, inventor of the first instantaneous X-ray, photographer, photographic historian, founder member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of South Africa, (now the SA College of Medicine), secretary of the S

Photographer

South African Painter and fine artist living in  Swaziland 

Member of the CPSA,  member of the National Council of Women, the Congress of Democrats, the Federation of South African Women and Black Sash.

Member of the South African Labour Party League of Youth and the South African Communist Party, founding member of the Federation of South African Women, one of the organisers of the Women's March to the Union Buildings that took place on the 9th

Writer, Political Activist, Architect, SACP and MK member, banned person, politcal prisoner, exile,  recipient of The Order of Luthuli in Gold.

Lawyer in the 1963-1964 Rivonia Trail

Banned person, member of the Springbok Legion and the South African Communist Party, human rights advocate, Queens Counsel and recipient of the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo in Silver.

Photographer

Political Activist and Trade unionist (1960's)

Film maker

Artist

National organiser for the Labour Party, in 1952, President of the Congress of Democrats, President of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, 1956 Treason trialist, member of the South African Communist Party.

Attorney and Political Activist

Artist

Founder member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), political detainee

Political Activist and ANC member

Former secretary of Natal Indian Youth Congress

Artist.

An American volunteer who was killed just before the 1994 democratic elections.

Teacher, journalist, awarded the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver for his contribution to journalism and literature and as an important social commentator

Member of the SRC at University of Natal (Non-European section), first president of SASO, Chair of SASO Publications, Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) leader, banned person, political prisoner, killed in police detention

Political Activist.

Dentist, Heart transplant recipient and a Captain of the South African Army Medical Corps during the Second world War.

Novelist, prize-fighter, journalist, actor and South Africa’s first professional playwright.

South African political activist.

Clergyman, political activist, teacher and pacifist 

A member of the Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA). Banned by the apartheid government.

Physiotherapist, political prisoner

Anti-apartheid activist, leader of the World Alliance of Churches and patron of the United Democratic Front (UDF).

Teacher, member of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League. Bokala was active in the 1952 Defiance Campaign, the 1959 “Stay at Home” campaign in 1959, and was detained during the State of Emergency in 1960. He was a founding membe

Journalist, Minister and Musician

Educator, physician and politician 

General Secretary of the Garment Workers’ Industrial Union (GWIU), Secretary of the Furniture Workers` Industrial Union and the Textile Workers’ Industrial Union, a member of the general council of the International Textile, Garment and Lea

Trade unionist, political activist, political prisoner, founder member and Chair of the Coloured Labour Party in Natal, Vice-Chair of the Durban Housing Action Committee, Vice-Chair of the United Democratic Front, was instrumental in establishing the C

Political activist, political prisoner and nurse. 

Cartoonist

Artist

Missionary

Teacher, who was resistant to the Boputhatswana Homeland government and arrested on several occasions, appointed District Manager of Education in Rustenburg in 1994.

Education activist, community leader and important Transvaal African National Congress (ANC) figure until his banning in the mid-1950s.

ANC political activist and civic leader tortured and killed in police custody.

Member of Parliament. Vice Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, author, Recipient of the South Government's National Award in 2014

frade unionist, President of Cosatu.

SACP, SACTU, ANC and MK member 

Academic and Afrikaner cultural leader

Banished person

Boer general and statesman

Artist, Sculptor 

Sculptor

 Law Adviser of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Member of Parliament and Minister of Foreign Affairs in South Africa

Pieter Willem Botha commonly known as "PW" an

Political detainee, academic, author, minister of religion, theologian, thinker, President of the South African Council of Churches, first black Rector and Vice Chancellor of the University Of Stellenbosch.

Acting Governor of the Cape Colony

Musician, composer, lecturer and author

Artist and founder member of Zululand Society of Arts

Dutch anti apartheid activist and Operation Vula Operative

Scientist and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

Poet, writer, painter and activist

South African novelist, playwright, literary critic and academic.

A member of the Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA). Banned and detained by the apartheid government.

A member of the Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA).

Teacher, exile, member of the then Non-European Unity Movement, organiser for the Teachers League of South Africa, member of the African Peoples Democratic Union

A member of the Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA) and the African Resistance Movement (ARM). Banned by the apartheid government.

Political activist, academic, lay clergy and member of the Liberal Party
 

Member of the Liberal Party, African Resistance Movement, South African Communist Party, author and activist. 

Physician and palaeontologist, discoverer of “Mrs Ples” or the most complete Australopithecus africanus skull.

Anti-racism activist, writer, teacher, founding member of the Congress of Democrats (COD), founded Early Years Trainers Anti-Racist Network (EYTARN) and Persona Doll Training (PDT)

Liberal Party founding member, Natal Midlands farmer and philanthropist. 

Conscientious objector, political prisoner, researcher, expert on policing in South Africa, author, recipient of the Reebok Human Rights Award 

Sports administrator, teacher, political activist, poet and academic

Tim Bruwer manages libraries and arts and cultural services at Moreland City Council in Melbourne. Moreland is a city where more than 70 home languages other than English are spoken by residents and where multiculturalism and diversity are valued and c

Actress

A trade unionist and a founder of TUCSA

 Former South African Athlete and World Record Holder

Former South African & IBF Junior Featherweight Champion

Founding member of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA)

Journalist, Native Representative in the House of Assembly,Western Cape, chief editor of the Guardian, editor of the African Communist and Central Committee member of the SACP.

Member of the SACP, Founder member of the Cape Town Friends of Cuba Society

Communist intellectual and organiser, Sydney Bunting was instrumental in the formation and early development of the Communist Party of South Africa.

 Political activist, Human Rights lobbyist, President of Black Sash, TRC Member

Trade unionist and ANC member

Artist

Banished person

Artist

Trade unionist and community leader.