The South African actor, playwright and singer was born on this day in Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape. It was his character of Boet in a series of television advertisements for Castor motor oil which brought him national fame and local icon status. He has starred in several television series, mini-series and made-for-tv-movies for which he has won numerous award.[1] End Notes [1] Ian Roberts, http://whoswho.co.za/ian-roberts-5557 (7 March 2017). ↵

Brenda Nokuzola Fassie was born in 1964 in Langa, a township near Cape Town. She was named after the American country singer Brenda Lee. The daughter of a pianist, Brenda began singing to her mother's accompaniment at a very young age. At the age of five, she already had tourists paying to hear her sing. Producer Koloi Lebona heard about Brenda and brought her to Soweto to live with his family. She soon joined the group Joy and later formed her own band Brenda and the Big Dudes. Fassie began a solo career in the 1980’s working with producer Sello Chicco Thwala. Her career skyrocketed in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Things seemed to all go downhill in the mid 1990’s when rumours of drug abuse began to surface. After a few a stints in rehab Fassie made a comeback in 1998 with the release of her very successful album Memeza, which was also a reunion with her long time producer Thwala. She died on 9  May 2004 after spending two weeks in a coma. Her death was reported to have been caused by a cocaine overdose.

The Prime Minister Balthazar Johannes Vorster indicated that the 'homelands' will be perfectly free to form a federation among themselves, once they have achieved full independence. However he was not prepared to share the sovereignty of the white people with any other national group. This came two years after the Prime Minister completed a tour of African homelands in the Northern Transvaal during which he held talks with leaders of the North Sotho, Tswana and Venda homelands. The importance of working together was emphasised and regular consultation was promised.  

The constitution of the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) is adopted at its inaugural conference and Steve Biko is elected president. Other leading party members include: Barney Pityana, Harry Nengwekhulu, Hendrick Musi, Petrus Machaka, Manana Kgware, Aubrey Mokoape, J Goolam and Strini Moodley. Though the new organisation is committed to a philosophy of Black Consciousness, it does not reject the liberalism of National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) right away.

On 2 July 2010, the Ghanaian soccer team’s dreams of becoming the first African team to reach the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup came to an end after they were defeated by Uruguay on penalties. The team, known as the Black Stars, took the lead shortly before half-time due to Sulley Muntari’s goal. Moments later, Diego Forlan scored an equaliser through a free-kick, taking the match into extra-time. After finishing one-all at the end of regulation time, the Black Stars went down to Uruguay 4 – 2 based on penalties. The Black Stars were Africa’s last team standing at the 2010 FIFA World Cup quarter finals. After Cameroon, Algeria, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and the host country, South Africa, were eliminated in the group stage, it seemed the whole of Africa would be left disappointed; but Ghana kept traditional African drums ringing. References: Anon, (2010), ‘World Cup 2010: Uruguay 1-1 Ghana (4-2 pen) – South Americans through to semi-finals after Gyan’s 120th minute penalty miss costs Black Stars final four place,’from Goal.com, [online] Available at www.goal.com[Accessed: 2 June 2011] Audo S, (2010), ‘ANALYSIS: "Africa's Brazil," Ghana, out to make World Cup history,’from M&G [online] Available at www.monstersandcritics.com[Accessed: 2 June 2011]

Delegates from twenty groups agreed, after preparatory talks in Johannesburg, on a date for the start of substantive negotiations on South Africa's future constitution through the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA). Its' opening session in Johannesburg was going to be on December 20 - 21. The SA government and the ruling National Party (NP) sent two separate delegations. The delegations of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) were joined at the talks by the Pan Africanist Party (PAC), Democratic Party (DP), South African Communist Party (SACP) and a host of other political parties. Delegates agreed that all the parties, including those that refused to attend the preparatory talks, would be invited to CODESA. A steering committee, comprising of a delegate from each of the twenty parties, chaired by Zach de Beer, was established in order to expedite the CODESA discussions.

Two members of the banned liberation movements, Harry Gwala, a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and Zephania Mothopeng a member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) were released from Robben Island by the government. Both Gwala and Mothopeng served two terms on Robben Island for their political activities. After the banning of the ANC in 1960 under the Unlawful Organisations Act, Gwala became active in underground structures of the ANC until his arrest in 1964. He was charged with sabotage and recruiting members for uMkhonto weSizwe (MK). Gwala was sent to Robben Island prison. In 1972 he was released from prison and restricted to Maritzburg in Natal Province (now known as KawaZulu Natal). After the workers strike in August 1976, Gwala was arrested again with scores of ANC members and charged under the Terrorism Act. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island. In the 1980s, Gwala developed a motor neuron disease which left him disabled. Mothopeng was arrested in 1963 and sentenced in May 1964 to 3 years in prison for furthering the aims of a banned organization, the PAC. He was sent to Robben Island where he served his sentence. He was released in 1967 and restricted to Qwaqwa for two years. Mothopeng continued with his political activities and was arrested in 1976 under the Terrorism Act and was sentenced to 15 years in prison on 26 June 1979.   Even after their release, both men remained politically active within their respective organizations. Mothopeng died on 23 October 1990 and Gwala died of a heart failure on 21 June 1995.

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) proposed a truce with the African National Congress (ANC) as an effort to distil violent clashes between members of the two parties. The Secretary General of the IFP, Oscar Dhlomo, communicated the peace offer to the ANC in exile. Despite this effort, the IFP still maintained prospects for peace were unlikely for as long as the Frontline States were not part of any negotiations. The IFP consistently maintained that it was not responsible for the violence between the ANC and itself. The IFP blamed the violence on the South African government. In London 1979, the two parties established a co-operative relationship. However, this relationship deteriorated when the United Democratic Front was formed in 1985 and began to expand into the IFP stronghold, Kwazulu-Natal. Click here to read more about IFP and ANC tension Click here to read more about the role of State violence in South Africa. Click here to read about the increase of Inkatha violence. Click here the role of the state in this violence.

On 27 November 1976 the offices of the Christian Institute (CI) and the South African Council of Churches (SACC), two religious formations considered to have links with the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) were raided by security police. This was part of a campaign following the outbreak of the Soweto Revolt on 16 June 1976. Dr. Beyers Naude, founder and Chief Director of CI, was arrested a month earlier on 28 October 1976. Dr. Naude had been ordered to give evidence to the Schlebusch Commission of Enquiry and he refused. The Schlebusch Commission was established to investigate the CI, the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) and the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR). Security Police believed that these formations, even though made up predominantly of White members, were nevertheless giving support to the rioting students and to the BCM. It is not clear what the search yielded, but the police were probably looking for any materials that could link these formations to the BCM and the Soweto Revolt.   A year later, in October 1977 the then Minister of Justice, Jimmy Kruger, banned all organisations associated with BCM. The list of organisations banned included the CI.

Trade unionist, Lameck Koniwaka Kadali Muwamba, known by his adopted name, Clements Kadalie, was born in April 1896, near the Bandawe mission station in Nyasaland, now Malawi. After being educated at the Church of Scotland mission station, he was trained as a teacher. In 1915, he went to South African in search of work. Three years later, he had settled in Cape Town and had befriended Arthur F. Batty, who was a political activist and trade unionist. It was through Batty's encouragement that Kadalie established the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) in 1919. The purpose of this union was to protect the rights of workers, particularly those of Black workers. In the same year, Kadalie led a dockworker's strike, in which all goods were prevented from being exported at Cape Town's harbour. By 1927 the ICU had around 100,000 members. Kadalie welcomed cooperation with other organizations, such as the Communist Party of South Africa (now SACP). Due to his activities, Kadalie was classified as a "prohibited immigrant" and was deported from South Africa in 1924. By 1928, the ICU was marked by internal strife, and in 1928, Kadalie was forced to resign. He then established his own branch of the ICU in East London and became a provincial African National Congress (ANC) organiser. Kadalie's attempts to relaunch his trade unionist campaign nationally during the 1930s and 40s failed, but he is credited with having united Black wage earners in South Africa into an unparalleled force. On 28 November 1951, he passed away in East London.