The library at Vergelegen Wine Estate situated in Somerset West, Western Cape used to be a winery that was built during 1816. It was converted to a library in 1920 by Sir Lionel and Lady Florence Phillips who took over the estate in 1917 from former Cape Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel.

Ignatius ‘Iggy’ or ‘Gab’ Mthebule was a student activist and leader associated with the Azanian Student Organisation (AZASO) in 1975. Iggy’s brother, Samuel Mthebule, testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and mentioned that Iggy was expelled from University of the North (now Limpopo) in 1976. He was a promising student and even had a black belt in karate. Samuel also said that Iggy had gone into exile in about 1981.

Iggy received military training in Maputo, Mozambique and was sent back home as an underground African National Congress (ANC) operative working mostly in Johannesburg. He was working closely with Joy Harden an apartheid agent who he met while working in Maputo; Iggy had no knowledge of this. Harden handed Iggy over to the security police at a restaurant in Hillbrow, Johannesburg in January 1987. His whereabouts are still unknown to this day. Mthebule’s story is remembered in an interview by Mac Maharaj on 15 January 2003 for the Nelson Mandela Centre for Memory.

Robert Mokwena, also known by his guerrilla name as George Sello, was born on 4 April 1952 in White City Jabavu, Soweto in the Transvaal (now known as Gauteng Province). He attended school at Mohlakaneng in Pietersburg now Polokwane, dropping  in standard 5 (grade 7).

Nosipho Dastile was born in 1938 in Uitenhage, a town in the Eastern Cape. After finishing school, she worked as a community activist as well as a volunteer teacher at a Roman Catholic Mission School. Later, she moved to the Little Flower Primary School where she was a full-time teacher.