Sheik Yusuf, ruler of Gowa on the Islands of Celebes in South East Asia, was born in 1626. He was also the brother of the Sultan of Macassar. In 1646 Yusuf went to Bantam in Java to spread the Islamic faith, where he married the daughter of Abdul Fatah, the Sultan of Bantam, also known as Ageng (the Great). He supported his father-in-law against the Dutch East In dia Company (D.E.I.C) in the struggle to gain a trade monopoly.

He was born in Eshowe. He attended Ndaleni Art School in 1971 and continued Fine Art studies at the University of South Africa receiving a BA(FA).

He has taught at a number of schools in Gauteng and KZN.

He is a painter and graphic artist and his work includes landscapes, figure studies, abstracts, genre paintings and still lifes. In 1981 he won first prize in Drawing and Painting at the University of Zululand Festival of African Art. His work has been included in a number of group exhibitions.

Sarah Gertrude Mary Christina Holland was born on 11 April 1952, in Durban. On 9 February 2010, Holland’s house was destroyed by a fire which claimed the lives of 11 people, including her.

In 2005, she established an orphanage called the Hope in Christ Mission as a non-profit organisation on a farm in Ingogo, northern KwaZulu-Natal. Its main purpose was to provide a dignified homecare service to orphans and abused and abandoned children.

Donald Thumamina Mboto was born on 10 May 1987, in Harding near Port Shepstone on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast.  He was the ninth child of Thandiwe Daphney Mboto. He attended school at St. Michaels in Kokstad and had not yet secured formal employment at the time of his passing.

A gentle and considerate person, Mboto became concerned when, on the morning of 1 January 2010, he saw an unknown nine-year old girl, struggling in the water at the St. Michaels Beach.

Reginald Dudley Forde was born in Johannesburg on 20 April 1940. He completed his schooling at Clifton School in Nottingham Road and obtained three degrees at the then University of Natal (now University of KwaZulu-Natal). These included a B.Comm, BA Hons as well as a Masters in Philosophy of Leadership. In 1964, he was the Student of the Year at the Durban Teachers’ Training College.

William Sinclair Winship was born on 18 March 1927, in Edinburgh, Scotland. When he was a few months old, his parents moved to Mpwapwa, Tanzania, before settling in Somerset West and then Durban.        

A dedicated medical specialist and a distinguished scholar, Winship completed his MBCHB Degree in 1953 and a Master’s Degree in 1962 at the University of Cape Town.

Wessel Johannes "Hansie" Cronje was born in Bloemfontein on 25 September 1969 to Ewie and San-Marie Cronje. He attended Grey College in Bloemfontein, a prestigious private boy’s school. Hansie graduated as the head of his class after completing his matriculation in 1987.

An excellent all-round sportsperson, he represented the Free State (then Orange Free State) at cricket and rugby at schools level. His father Ewie had played for Orange Free State in the 1960s, and Hansie's older brother Frans had also played first-class cricket.

Judge Erns Jansen was born in Pietermaritzburg on 27 June 1918.  He was the son of Ernest Jansen, Minister of Native Affairs in the National Party government and Governor-General of the Union of South Africa. While he was born into the Afrikaner aristocracy, he never became a Broederbond member and remained apolitical.

Nontetha Nkwenkwe is one of the most remarkable female religious leaders associated with independent churches in the 1920s. Born in King Williamstown in 1875, Nontetha was married with ten children. Her migrant labourer husband died, leaving her to fend for her children. Following the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in 1918, Nontetha believed that she was spared for a divine purpose. And in undertaking her work as first a seer, then a diviner, and ultimately a prophet, her life was changed dramatically.

Moses Mphahlele was the Secretary of the African National Congress (ANC) in the Transvaal during the 1920s, he was born in Pietersburg and received his education at Kilnerton, where he graduated with a teacher's certificate. He taught for some time, then became an interpreter. Skota describes him as a political protégé of S. M. Makgatho.