Billy Masetlha was born on 21 November 1954 in Alexandra, Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng). He is a founder member of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) and participated in the formation of the Azanian Student's Organisation (AZASO) in 1979. Prior to that, he was a member Soweto Student's Representative Council in 1976.

Pumzile Mayapi was born on 8 September 1956 in Willowvale, Eastern Cape. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) in June 1980 when he was still a student at Fort Hare University.

In the 1970s, Petrus Nyawose worked as a bouncer at The Paradise, a popular nightclub in Durban. Nyawose spent most of his working hours at the offices of the Black Allied Workers Union (BAWU), where he chaired the workers’ committee that managed the Durban BAWU branch but it was his wife Jabulile who was the real unionist.

John Jack Masinga was a student at Duduza Sibonelo Secondary school when the 1976 Uprisings started. Masinga, Felix Mpeka and Duncan Mahlangu formed a student movement at the high school they were attending at the time. All three of them were arrested later that year and sent to Robben Island prison.

Mary Elizabeth Davis was born in Portobello County, Edinburgh, Scotland on 26 December 1858. She was a business person and supporter of women’s causes.

Jabu Sithole was born on 23 October 1949 in Lamontville, Durban, Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal) where he attended primary school until age seven when he was struck down by polio. Fortunately he survived in a period when polio, or the many other preventable diseases, was a major cause of mortality among the Black communities.

While recuperating at King George VI hospital, Durban, the doctor treating him was struck by Sithole’s tremendous intellectual acumen and had him transferred to Mariannhill, Durban where he completed his schooling, achieving distinctions in his matriculation.

Joseph Mathunjwa was born in Amatikulu in Northern Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) on 26 May 1965. He is the son of David Mathunjwa, who was a Christian preacher. He matriculated in Ulundi, Northern Natal. Mathunjwa got his first job as laboratory attendant at Rand Coal in 1986, earning around R300 to 400 a month. Joseph Mathunjwa is a member of the Salvation Army, the Christian church known for charitable work and evangelic fervour.

Lesetja kganyago was born in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg, in Gauteng Province in 1965. At the age of five, he moved to Northern Province, now known as Limpopo province, with his mother. Kganyago matriculated at Pox College in Pietersburg, now known as Polokwane, and returned to Gauteng province at the age of 18 to study commerce at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), but he did not complete his commerce degree at Wits University.

Winston Field was born on 6 June 1904, in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire in the United Kingdom, where he was brought up. He moved to Southern Rhodesia in 1921.

He became a tobacco farmer in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland East, near Marandellas (now known as Marondera). From 1938 to 1940, he was the president of the influential and powerful Rhodesian Tobacco Association. He left this position when he went for military service during the Second World War.

Elliot Mngadi was born in Roosboom around 1918. Alongside Peter Brown also a leading member of the LP, Mngadi spearheaded the cause of black farmers in Natal who were affected by policies of the apartheid government.