Samuel Makama Martin Masabalala was born in 6th December 1877, in Uniondale in the Cape and was educated in Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth. He worked for some years in Rhodesia and served in an African unit in the Boer War. Thereafter he worked at various times as a teacher, battery driver and electrician, and pharmacist's employee. Moving to Port Elizabeth in 1914, he became the leader of a workers' association that later merged into the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU).

Peter Rudolf Gisela Horn was born 7 December 1934 in Teplice, Czechoslovakia (currently in Czech Republic). At the end of World War II he had to flee his home and settled with his parents first in Bavaria and later in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he completed high school in 1954. He then immigrated with his parents to South Africa.

Griffiths Mlungisi Mxenge, the eldest son of Johnson Pinti and Hannah Nowise Mxenge, was born in 1935. His parents were well-respected peasant farmers of Rayi, a small rural settlement located  five kilometres from King Williams Town, in the Eastern Province (now Eastern Cape). After Mxenge’s primary education at a local school, he obtained his secondary education at Forbes Grant Secondary School in Ginsburg, King Williams Town. In 1956, he matriculated from Newell High School also in Ginsburg.

John Beaver (JB) Marks was born on 21 March 1903, Ventersdorp, Western Transvaal (now North West Province).  His father was a railway worker and his mother, a midwife. His father was a staunch supporter of the African National Congress (ANC).In 1921, his parents succeeded in getting him enrolled at the Kilnerton Teachers` Training College in Pretoria where he received a diploma in teaching. Marks participated in a strike with other students because conditions were not good at his college.

Mhlabunzima Maphumulo was born on 6th September,1949 Maqongqo distric of Kwazulu-Natal . At the age of 24, Maphumulo inherited the role of Chief of the Maphumulo tribe from his father.

Harold Wolpe was born on 14 January 1926 in Johannesburg to a Lithuanian Jewish family. Wolpe graduated with a BA in Social Studies in 1949 and an LLB in 1952 from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, where he was President of the Student Representative Council and a leading activist in the National Union of South African Students.

Thomas Madikwe Manthata was born November 29,1939 in Soekmekaar in the Northern Transvaal.His parents had no formal education.He completed teacher trainiong,taught primary school for three years and made a detour throgh Catholic seminary but was expelled after several years for being too political inclined.

Lucas Manyane Mangope was born west of Zeerust near Bechuanaland border  on December 27,1923,the son of a local chief,Mangope graduated from St Peter's School in Johannesburg in 1946.After working for several years in the Department of Native Affairs,he earned two teaching diplomas and taught Afrikaans at secondary school level until the late 1950s.During the 1957-59 uprising in the Hurutshe reserve against the extension of passes to women,he advanced rapidly from minor hereditary chief to vice-chairman of the tswana territorial Authority when it was established in 1961.

Alfred Mangena was born in Escort in present day Kwazulu Natal circa 1879. He managed to acquire little formal public education, and eventually began to study privately in Cape Town. Later he went to complete his schooling in England and after matriculating he studied Law at Lincoln's Inn. He was called to the Bar in 1909.

Zolile Malindi was born on 16th of May in 1924 Gqogqora village ,a 14 miles from Tsomo in the former Transkei. His mother, Makhesa, raised him after the death of his father, Mbulawa Malindi, an elder in the Bantu Presbytarian Church, when Zolile was ten years old.He attended a mission school in the Tsomo district following which he enrolled at St John’s College, a teacher training college in Umtata. He received his teaching diplomoa in 1943 but jobs were scarce  but he was helped by his home-boy,Greenwood Ngotyana.In 1941, Malindi moved to Cape Town to look for work.