Menu
✦ Contribute to SAHO
Published January 23, 2023Updated March 18, 2024

This short history of Electrical Supply Commission (ESKOM) aims to provide an overview of the history of the power utility over its first seventy-eight years. The significance of these dates is as follows: ESKOM was started in 1923 by the government and prominent industrialists and by 2001 it was a state-owned enterprise. During the abovementioned period, ESKOM had several feats and failings. This article endeavours to extract some lessons/reflections for the present from ESKOM’s past.

Of all the projects that the administrations of presidents Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and now Cyril Ramaphosa have undertaken over almost 30 years of democracy, the catastrophic management of the expansion of the country’s electricity generating capacity will prove the most detrimental to the country’s long-term prospects. 

At the centre of those urgent expansion plans first brought before policymakers as far back as 1997 was the power utility, Eskom. 

Published January 18, 2023Updated February 22, 2023
Additional Date: January 19, 2021
Former South African Football Administrator and founder of the National Soccer League (NSL) Abdul Bhamjee who was affectionately known as "Mr Soccer" peacefully died at his Johannesburg home on Monday night.His sacrifice and determination to fight for equality and social justice for all races across all spheres of life will always be remembered in the annals of South Africa’s history.
Published January 16, 2023Updated June 23, 2025
Rejuvenation is on offer at Golden Gate Highlands National Park! Spend time in the majestic Maluti Mountains, hiking, horse riding, exploring caves and much more in their indescribable golden glow. The vulture’s restaurant (bird hide) welcomes birders to a proper vulture feast.

When the story of the founding of the Congress Youth League (CYL) — the forerunner of the ANC Youth League — is told, usually it is only Anton Lembede, AP Mda and a few others who are mentioned. The several other founding members are seldom brought up and the omission of their names is a silencing of their intellectual prowess and political contribution to the making of the CYL.

Published January 6, 2023Updated February 24, 2025

In KwaZulu-Natal, church members start the journey to the top of the holy Mountain Nhlangakazi. 100,000 pilgrims make a three day barefoot walk from the headquarters of the Nazareth Baptist Church, or Shembe. Shembe is staunchly a traditionalist Zulu cult that was founded in 1913 by Isaiah Shembe after a vision.

Published December 28, 2022Updated March 8, 2024

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) opened on 1 January 2005, the result of the merging of the PE Technikon the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) and the Port Elizabeth campus of Vista University (Vista PE). The PE Technikon has its roots in the Country’s Oldest Art School, this PE Art School was founded in 1882. The institution later became the College for Advanced Technical Education (CATE), was initially situated in Russell Road, Central.

Subscribe to