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EventZelda la Grange was born on this day
On this day, Zelda Grange was born in Pretoria, South Africa. She completed a 3-year National Diploma and started her career at the Department of State…
EventWomen lead Food Raid
In the 1940s, as a result of the Second World War, the economy was in a dire state with the working and lower classes being the most vulnerable. There were…
The death of Mama Luthuli,16 December 1996
The heart of a lioness has ceased to beat. Mama Nokukhanya Luthuli is no more. Comrade Nokukhanya Luthuli, 92 years old, was the wife of the late ANC President…
ArchiveStaffrider Vol.5 No.2 1982
Contents and ContributorsStories: To Fly by Steve Jacobs ; Pikinini’s Adventure by Walt Oyi Sipho kwa Mthetwa; Don’t Leave Me by Joseph Moladira; Japie and…
EventWomen lead Food Raid
In the 1940s, as a result of the Second World War, the economy was in a dire state with the working and lower classes being the most vulnerable. There were…
EventDiplomatic ties are established between SA and Saudi Arabia
On 29 May 1994 the South African government signed an agreement establishing diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The diplomatic relations…
EventNational Party unveils its policy plan focusing on anti-poverty strategies
Following the National Party (NP)'s first federal congress since its withdrawal from the Government of National Unity (GNU), its policy plan was unveiled…
EventPalaeontologist Mary Leakey discovers one of the oldest hominid skulls in Tanzania
On 17 July 1959, Palaeontologist Mary Leaky discovered on of the oldest hominid skulls in the Olduvai Gorge, in Northern Tanzania. At first she found several…
EventPrime Minister P.W. Botha announces Ciskei will become independent on 4 December 1981
The homeland known as Ciskei, between the Fish and the Kei River, was created between 1961 and 1982 by the then Nationalist Party Government.. This was done as…
EventBanned PAC leader Sobukwe is admitted as attorney
Robert Sobukwe, former leader of the banned Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), although still under a banning order, was admitted to practice as an attorney in…
EventNegotiations between SA, Cuba and Angola start in London
Representatives of South Africa, the United States (US), Angola and Cuba met in London (3-4 May) in search of a solution to the Angolan war and independence…
EventDick King returns home after securing help for Port Natal
Dick King (Richard Philip) returned to Port Natal on board the Conch after his heroic rescue operation. King, accompanied by his young after-rider Ndongeni as…
EventHolomisa on corruption
The ANC strongly denies Holomisa's charge of accepting payments from Sol Kerzner. In May 1996, Bantu Holomisa, former ruler of Transkei and Deputy Minister of…
EventAfrikaans becomes the official language of the Union of South Africa
When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, it consisted of the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, Natal and the Cape Province. Dutch and English were…
EventHamilton Naki, a laboratory assistant to cardiac surgeon Christian Barnard, dies
Hamilton Naki was a gardener who later became a laboratory assistant without any formal training. He first worked for Robert Goetz, who asked him to assist him…
![Freddie Mercury [Bulsara], singer and songwriter, is born in Zanzibar, Africa.](/sites/default/files/styles/saho_medium/public/event_pics/Freddie%20Mercury.jpg?itok=Vuq6ADKe)
EventFreddie Mercury [Bulsara], singer and songwriter, is born in Zanzibar, Africa.
Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, East Africa. His parents were Parsis from Bombay (now Mumbai), India. Mercury was sent to boarding school…
EventNicolaas Jacobus Smit, Vice-President of the ZAR, is born in Graaff-Reinet.
Nicolaas Jacobus Smit, was the eldest child of Nicolaas Jacobus Smit, (descendent of Jan Smit and Adriana Tol) and Elizabeth Magdalena van der Merwe, …
EventUnion of South Africa officially ceases to exist
In March 1961, at a Conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers held in London, the South African Prime Minister, H.F. Verwoerd formally announced that South…
EventMaggie Laubser, SA painter and winner of several awards, dies
Born on 14 April 1886 in a wheat farm called bloublommetjieskloof in the district of Malmesbury in the Cape Colony, Maria Magdalena Laubster was a painter and…
EventA booby-trapped TV kills Tsitsi Chiliza, wife of an ANC official in Harare, Zimbabwe
On 14 may 1987, a Zimbabwean citizen, Tsitsi Chiliza, who was married to an ANC member was killed in a bomb hidden inside a TV set. It is believed that the…
James Stewart - the ANC fighter who spoke truth to power by Martin Plaut, 1 February 2016
This is the obituary of Hermanus Loots, better known by his nom de guerre, James Stewart, who exposed the atrocities in the ANC’s Quatro prison camp. Martin …
Message sent to Canon Collins by ALbert Luthuli, 1 March 1956
Good evening, Canon Collins. I have just been making a tape-recording of a message that I am sending to your Group. I was told by a mutual friend that you…
Hastings Banda, the early years by Angela Thompsell updated 01 March 2016
Hastings Banda was one of the more enigmatic “Big Men” of the post-independence era in Africa. He was Malawi’s first President and ruled the country for 30…
Launch of the Luthuli Volunteer Corps, 12 June 2013
The African National Congress in the Northern Cape will be launching the Luthuli Volunteer Corps; thousands of volunteers of the ANC dressed in gold overalls…
PlaceMossel Bay, (400 km From Cape Town)
It was named Aguada de Sao Bras, by Vasco de Gama in 1497, when He set off with 170 men on an expedition to find a sea Route to India. This was in order to…
ArchiveAddress at Commemoration of the lives of Yusuf Cachalia and Bram Fischer, by Nelson Mandela, 5 June 2005,
Friends Comrades I have so often announced my retirement from public life that nobody believes me anymore - not even my closest advisors or friends, it…
O. R. Tambo Interviewed by Radio Freedom on Visits of Multi-National Corporations to the ANC, before February 1986
They assess the apartheid system in terms of the profits or the losses it yields. It has always been clear that for them the apartheid system will be useful so…
PlacePaul Kruger’s House, 60 Church Street West, Pretoria
The dwelling is a low single-storey structure with few architectural features of note. However it was spacious and well built, and remains in its original…
PlaceUnion Buildings and Raadsaal, Church Square, Pretoria
The discovery of the Witwatersrand Goldfields provided in 1886, the funds necessary to construct this building that was able to house the first Volksraad…
EventApartheid becomes official policy
On 26 May 1948, the Herenigde Nasionale Party (Reunified National Party) took power from Jan Smuts' United Party (UP) by 5 seats. The HNP came to power in…