Sipho Samuel Charles Hashe was born in Middledrift, Ngcabasa Village (Eastern Cape) in 1934. He relocated to Port Elizabeth in the 1950s. During this period he became a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) in the 1950s and 1960s. When the ANC was banned in 1961, he became an underground operative until he was arrested in 1962 for his political activities and charged with sabotage.
David Rabkin was born in South Africa, but emigrated to Britain with his family. He holds a PhD in African Literature and had been employed as a sub-editor at the Cape Argus newspaper at the time of his, and his wife, Susan’s arrest on 28 July 1978.
One of the first-string accused in the Treason Trial of 1956-1961, Selepe was born in 1919 and served in the South African army in World War II, attaining the rank of sergeant. He was a member of the Springbok Legion and of the African National Congress.
Ishmael Mkhabela began his political activism in the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). After the BCM was banned, he served as a member of the Soweto Action Committee which was organized to deal with the increasing detention of anti apartheid struggle leaders.
Viacheslav Shiryaev, popularly known as Comrade Ivan, was born in January 1938 in the town of Orsk, south of Urals, Russia. He completed the Higher Engineers Navy Course in 1961. In 1969, he completed his studies at the Diplomatic Academy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Foreign Affairs and became a First-Class Counsellor in the diplomatic ranks. He served in diplomatic roles in countries such as Angola, Algeria and Madagascar in the years 1969 to 1979 and from 1986 to 2000 when he retired.
Professor Pieter Steyn was born in 5 January 1940 in Vryburg in the North West. He is currently a senior researcher at the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science at the University of Stellenbosch, distinguishing himself in the area of the chemistry and biosynthesis of mycotoxins. These toxins are produced on substrates by the secondary metabolism of fungi. Prof. Steyn holds the distinction of having a toxigenic fungus bear his name, Aspergillus steynii.
He was born at Eshowe, KZN. He trained at Rorke’s Drift as a sculptor in 1972. He was a member of the Thupelo Art Workshop in 1990. At present he works mainly in soapstone.
He has participated in group exhibitions and is represented in public and private collections in SA.
In 1980 he won 2nd prize in the Durban Arts Outdoor Sculpture exhibition organised by the Durban Art Gallery at the Durban Botanic Gardens as part of the Durban Arts 80 Festival.
He has participated in numerous group exhibitions from 1980 and is represented in public and private collections in SA.
Bertram Buxton Xiniwe was born in Middledrift in the Cape, the son of Paul Xiniwe, who subsequently became a well-known hotel operator in King William's Town. Xiniwe was elected to the Natives' Representative Council in 1937 and remained a member until his death in 1949. He was educated at Lovedale was a law agent by profession.
Tlou Theophilus Cholo was born in 1926 at Kgakana Village, Polokwane. A son to a trade unionist, his father worked in Johannesburg where he was an active member of the Industrial and Commercial Union (ICU). Cholo attended Lennes Primary School in Limpopo. At the age of 19, he left his hometown for Johannesburg to look for a job, where he got acquainted with the struggles of the working class and other sectors of the population on the Reef.
Willie Madisha grew up in the Atteridgeville Township of Pretoria. He completed his high school education in Attridgeville and then studied to become a teacher at the Transvaal College of Education in Soshanguve, Pretoria North. Madisha moved to the Northern Province district of Zebediela after battling (without success) to find a job in the Pretoria area. Madisha became the chairperson of the Northern Transvaal Teachers' Union in Zebediela, Limpopo.
