Biography Index

Author, political activist, political detainee, banned person, secretary of the Benoni Student Movement, President of the Black Students’ Society at Witwatersrand University, secretary of the Actonville Rents Action Committee, Vice

Political activist, member of the TIYC and TIC, treasurer of FEDSAW, patron of the Federation of Transvaal Women, arrested during the 1952 Defiance Campaign, participated in the 1956 Women’s March against pass laws, banned person, Trustee of the

Political Activist and political prisoner.

Political activist, former treasurer of the United Democratic Front, Judge and Law Expert.

Political activist and exile. A leading member of the Transvaal Indian Congress and the African National Congress. Prominent in 1946 Indian Passive Resistance Campaign and the 1952 Defiance Campaign.

Political Activist.

Teacher, community leader, political activist and member of the UDF. One of the ‘Cradock Four’ murdered by the South African security forces in the Eastern Cape.

Former Secretary-General of the ANC (1936-1949), political activist and Anglican clergyman

DCaleb Mayekiso was memebr of the African National Congress (ANC), he was a leading figure in the ANC military wing called uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK), and he was a unionists/political activist. 

Social historian, lecturer, researcher and writer

Member of the Transvaal British India Association, Vice-President of the Transvaal Indian Congress, passive resister, political prisoner

Activist and advocator of equality, human rights, gay rights and health and HIV/aids rights. Cameron is a practicing lawyer and former Acting Justice of the South African Constitutional Court 1999-2000.

Book collector, historian, writer and antiquarian

Educator, attorney and political activist

preschool teacher, anti-apartheid activist, leader of the Black Sash, active member of Mothers (and Others) Against the Vietnam Draft and other non-violent resistance groups

Member of the Anti-Apartheid Movement.
Member of the African National Congress.

Member of the Anti-Apartheid Movement.
Member of the African National Congress

Trade unionist, member of the SACP, political activist, political prisoner, banned person and exile.

Journalist and business manager of the New Age, member of the CPSA Central Committee, political prisoner and defendant in the 1956 Treason Trial. 

Student leader, teacher, General Secretary of the UDF, member of UWO and General Secretary of FEDSAW, Member of the SACP, ANC and  business person.

Legendary accordion player and composer of boeremusiek.

Mokitlae Casalis joined the South African Student Movement during the 1970s whilst at school. From then he became a political activist. This led him to become part of the democratic government of South Africa after 1994, serving in many of the governme

Author, community worker and mother.

Founder member of Qibla, member of the PAC, Robben Island political prisoner and advisor to the Islamic Human Rights Commission

Rugby And cricket player, captain of SA's first rugby team and of SA's first touring cricket team

South African artist, critic of the apartheid regime, educator and promoter of Black artists

Natal pioneer and first mayor of Durban.

Member of COSAWR.

Teacher, Minister of Police (2018 - present), MEC for Transport, Safety and Security for Kwa-Zulu-Natal from 2004 to 2009, National Commissioner of the South African Police Service from 2009 to 2011, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries from 2014 to 2018, Founding Member of the National Education Union of South Africa, Member of the African National Congress Executive Committee, member of the African National Congress and uMkhonto weSizwe, political prisoner on Robben Island 

Footballer and actor

Afrikaans poet and author

The last king of the independent Zulu nation from 1872-1879

Member of the African National Congress (ANC) underground, prisoner on Robben Island, previous MEC for Limpopo’s Economic Development, Environment and Tourism, current Minister in the Presidency and musician.

Victim of the Sharpeville Massacre, 21 March 1960

A Businessman

ANC member and 1956 Treason trialist

Trade unionist, political activist and civic leader.

Missionary

He was judge-president of the Lands Claim Co

Chief Justice of democratic South Africa, first President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, President of the International Commission of Jurists, Chairperson of a committee of senior judges appointed by the United Nations Environmental Progr

Lawyer and labour activist

A member of the Communist Party of South Africa

General Secretary of the National Union of South African Students, Member of the United Democrat

Trade unionist, social worker, political prisoner, banned person, member of the Natal Indian Congress, United Democratic Front and the African National Congress, Deputy Mayor of Msundusi Municipality

Member of the TIC, SACP, MK and ANC, Member of Parliament, recipient of The National Order of Luthuli in Silver

Political activist and PAC member

Chief of the Bamokoteli

playwright, artist, cultural activist, lobbyist for safeguarding cultural heritage and cultural development, life member of the board of trustees of Harare International Festival of the Arts and Zimbabwean Minister of Education and Culture.

Pastor, member of the UDF and the ANC, Director-General in the Office of the President; Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Religious Studies, University of Cape Town; Honorary President of the  Nebo Youth Congress and Co-ordinator of the

fe played an important role in Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence from the 1950s-1970s, but became critical of the government of President Robert Mugabe. Served as the President of the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe and launched the Zimb

Banned person.

Trade unionist,  African National Congress member, uMkhonto weSizwe cadre and the Order of Luthuli award winner

ANC and PAC Member, Robben Island prisoner

Deputy President of NUSAS, political prisoner, Member of the ANC and the UCM, Scholar and Academic, member of the South African NationalDefenceForce Commission, Dean of Research at UWC.

Journalist, British Prime Minister

Teacher and headmistress

An activist and trade unionist. Secretary General of Black People’s Convention (BPC)s and National Chairperson of Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO).

Poet, book illustrator, artist, recipient of The National Order of Ikhamanga for excellence in the fields of arts and literature

South African musician, anthropologist, recipient of the South African Presidential Award, The Order of Ikhamanga in Silver, for 'bridging African traditional music with other music forms, promoting racial understanding among racially divided groups in South Africa under difficult apartheid conditions, working for a non-racial society and being an outstanding spokesperson for the release of political prisoners.'.

Member of the Black Sash, member of the

Commonwealth and African High Jump Record Holder, recipient of the National order for excellence in sports

A trade unionist and member of the Communist Party of South Africa

A member of the Communist Party of South Africa

Documentary photographer, English historian and professor of history

Entrepreneur, member of the Cape Legislative Council, established the Kowie Navigation Company, he was the first person to directly export goods from the Eastern Cape to Britain and Mauritius and founder of the harbour at Port Alfred.

She was an Academic Sociologist

Vocalist and South Africa's First Operatic prima donna

Lawyer, politician, administrator and negotiator during the transition to democracy in SA

"I am not a herald of community or anything else. I am someone who has intimations of freedom (as every chained prisoner has) and constructs representations of people slipping their chains and turning their faces to the light."

Commander of the covert SA Police unit based at Vlakplaas

Helped build student, trade union and political formations, trade unionist, member of the UDF, ANC and MK, political prisoner and Secretary of South Africa’s Parliament

Musician, liberation struggle activist and volunteer.

Police security officer, Liliesleaf Raid

A member of the Communist Part of South Africa and the Anti-Apartheid Movement

A memeber of the Communist Party of South Africa

A member of the African Resistance Movement (ARM)

A member of the African Resistance Movement (ARM)

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

Journalist, trade unionist and member of the SACP and the ANC

fortraitist

The first photojournalist to expose to the world the stark realities of life under the Apartheid regime

Anti Apartheid activist, member of Black Sash and the Detainees Parents Support Committee (DPSC).

A member of SASPU

Anglican Missionary and Pamphleteer

Anglican Priest, Anti Apartheid Activist, Founder of the International Defence and Aid Fund, (IDAF). 

Medical doctor, national treasurer of the ANC Youth League in 1950s, member of the ANC, 1956 Treason trialist.

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

Vice President of the NIC,Member of the BC movement, Secretary of the BPC, Vice President of AZAPO, Vice Principal of UDW, political activist and Psychologist.

athlete, cricketer, established a branch of NUSAS at Stellenbosch University, Vice-President, National Secretary for Economics and Politics and National Director of Research and Studies of NUSAS, advocate and Senior Counsel at the Cape Bar, University law lecturer, author, authority on South African road traffic legislation and Judge.

editor of the Women’s section of the Cape Times

A medical Doctor, Psychiatrist, and member of MYS

A member of the Institute for Industrial Education (IIE).

Scientist, invovled in desiging first CAT-Scan machine and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Pysiology or Medicine

Trade Unionist, Garment Worker’s Union, Playright

Trade Unionist, General Secretary of the Garment Worker’s Union 

sisters, trade unionists

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

A member of the Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA) and the African Resistance Movement (ARM)

An anti-apartheid activist, member and National Vice Chairman of the Liberal Party and Chairman of the South African Defence and Aid

Educationist, teacher, and civil rights activist

South African national cricket team captain 

A member of the Communist Party of South Africa

frtist

Veterinary Surgeon and historian

President of NUSAS, political activist, political detainee, banned person and exiled person.  

Lay preacher, miner, night bomber pilot, World War II veteran, lecturer, member of the Progressive Party and the Christian Institute. 

Vice-President of NUSAS, President of NUSWEL, member of the executive committee of the Industrial Aid Society and a member of SACTU, politica

Fine Artist and Poet