SAHO global search

1899-1975

Julius Louis Saks

  Optometrist Julius Louis Saks was the first son of Sidney and Deborah Saks. His family emigrated to South Africa from England in 1905. Sidney Saks became a…

B-0144737

1942

Ali Bacher

If Ali Bacher's commitment to cricket had ended after his playing days, he would have had a proud place on the sport's roll of honour. It was Ali Bacher, the…

B-0007803

1921-1995

Jo Thorpe

Jo Thorpe was born in 1921, in Fishoek in Cape Town. She grew up in Mooi River and completed her high school education at Pietermaritzburg Girls High School…

B-0009142

Mavuso Walter Msimang

Mavuso (Walter) Msimang was stationed and trained primarily in central Tanzania, at Kongwa, an ANC military base in the 1960s. He became a leading member of…

B-0068145

1919

Dr. Wilson Zamindlela "Zami" Conco

Wilson Zamindlela "Zami" Conco, the son of a semi-literate but wealthy cattle farmer in the Ixopo district of Natal in 1919, Conco rose to become Luthuli's…

B-0007956

1933-2017

Miriam Tlali

Miriam Tlali was born in Doornfontein in Johannesburg, Transvaal (Gauteng). She grew up in Sophiatown. Miriam wanted to study literature at the University of…

B-0097205

1903-1973

Chief Rabbi Israel Abrahams

Chief Rabbi Israel Abrahams was born on 12 March 1903 in Vilna, Lithuania. He was the son of Zecharya Alter Abramowich and Rachel Leah Sherman. As a young boy…

B-0007767

1927-1994

Mizream Maseko

Mizream Maseko (also documented as Mizraim, Mizriam, Mizram) was born on 10 June 1927. Maseko began his career as a house painter after completing his studies…

B-0008465

1905-1962

Goolam H. Gool

Goolam H. Gool was born on 24 March 1905, in Cape Town, Western Cape. He was the son of Yusuf Gool, born in India, in 1864. He made his way to Cape Town in…

B-0008114

1962

Thulisile Nomkhosi Madonsela

Thulisile Nomkhosi Madonsela was born in 1962 in Soweto. Her parents, Nomasonto and Bafana were both traders. She obtained a bachelor of Law from the…

B-0096669

1940

Ebrahim Ismail Asvat

Ebrahim Ismail Asvat (Aswat) was born in Surat, India. He was a committed passive resister from Vereeniging, Transvaal (now Gauteng). He was a Member of the…

B-0098479

1909

Isaac Bangani Tabata

Isaac Bangani Tabata (known as I.B. Tabata) was born near Queenstown in the Cape in 1909 and received his secondary schooling at Lovedale. After attending Fort…

B-0068521

1924-1993

Cornelius Judah Fazzie

Cornelius Judah Fazzie  was born in 1924 Queenstown Eastern Cape,but grew up largely in Tsolo.His migrant father worked in the Western Cape.He began school at…

B-0008060

1956

Ben Mclennan

Ben Mclennan was born in 1956 in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Mclennan moved to South Africa with his family in 1958 at the age of two. He received his early…

B-0093701

1952

Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa

 Cyril  Matamela Ramaphosa was born in Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng) on 17 November 1952. He is the second of the three children of Erdmuth and Samuel…

B-0008934

1923-1986

William “Bloke” Modisane

William 'Bloke' Modisane was born on 28 August 1923. He grew up in Sophiatown, a multiracial suburb in Johannesburg. His father was murdered and sister died…

B-0008589

1947-1976

Mapetla Frank Mohapi

Mapetla Frank Mohapi was born in the rural village of Jozanashoek, Sterkspruit in the former Transkei (now Eastern Province) on 2 September 1947. He studied at…

B-0066279

1932

Nkosinathi Benson Fihla

Nkosinathi Benson Fihla was born on 13th June of 1932 in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Province (now Eastern Cape). Fihla grew up in PE from 1945, after his parents…

B-0080047

1915-1979

Vera Ponnen

Vera Ponnen (nee Vera Gwendoline Alberts) was born in 1915 in England. She came to South Africa in 1938 as a governess. The next year, she went to Johannesburg…

B-0068317

1938

Nana Henrietta Moabi

Nana Henrietta Moabi (nee Radadi) was born in Lichtenburg, Western Transvaal (now North West Province) on 18 September 1938. She completed her lower primary…

B-0093134

1901-1967

Alpheus Madaba Madiba

Alpheus Madaba Madiba born in 1901, in Nzhelele in the northern Transvaal, into a Venda peasant family.He emigrated to Johannesburg when he was 17 and found…

B-0141680

1924-2009

Dennis Brutus

Dennis Brutus was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe) on 28 November in 1924.His parents moved to Port Elizabeth where he grew up,at the age of…

B-0007892

1945-2004

Sheila Weinberg

Sheila Weinberg was born in Johannesburg on 1 October 1945, the daughter of Eli and Violet Weinberg who were both members of the ANC and the  South African…

B-0009223

1936-1999

Ahmed Gora Ebrahim

Ahmed Gora Ebrahim was born in Durban on 29 May 1936.  Ebrahim cut his political teeth in Trotskyite circles while studying at Sastri College and Natal…

B-0096554

1928

Michael Kitso Dingake

Michael Kitso Dingake was born on 11 February 1928 in Bobonong Village, Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana). He attended the Bobonong Primary School…

B-0064882

Magasvarie Govender

Magasvarie ‘Maggie’ Govender was born in Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), and grew up in Durban Central. When she was eleven years old, due to the Group…

B-0150852

1918-2013

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Childhood in the Eastern CapeNelson Rolihlahla Mandela was the son of Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Henry Mgadla Mandela, a chief and chief councillor to the paramount…

B-0065300

1920-2002

Ismail "Tatamkhulu Afrika" Joubert

Ismail "Tatamkhulu Afrika" Joubert  was born in As Sallum in Egypt as Mohamed Faud Nasif to an Arab father and a Turkish mother on 7 December 1920. His parents…

B-0065030

1954

Vice Admiral Refiloe Johannes Mudimu

Vice Admiral J. Mudimu was born on 6 March 1954 in Sophiatown (Johannesburg). He joined the African National Congress (ANC) and Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK) in 1975…

B-0074796

1919-2000

Jim Bailey

James Richard Abe Bailey was born in London on 23 October 1919. Bailey was the son of Randlord Sir Abe Bailey and Lady Mary Bailey. He grew up on a country…

B-0007807