SAHO global search

1814-1882

King Sekhukhune

Sekhukhune was King of the Marota people (commonly called Bapedi) who originated from the Bakgatla of the Western Transvaal. Sekhukhune, like Moshoeshoe King…

B-0068430

1804-1856

Chief Kgosi Sekonyela

Sekonyela was born in 1804 in Harrismith next to the Wilge River. He was born in the royal family and later became the Chief of the Batlokwa people. His father…

B-0068424

1900-1976

Emil Sachs

Emil Solomon (Solly) Sachs was born on 11 November 1900, in Kamaai, Lithuania. He was the fourth of the five children of Abraham Saks, later changed to 'Sachs'…

B-0068401

Peter Engblom

He is a descendant of the original Scandinavian Missionaries who evangelised Zululand a century and a half ago. Of Lapp descent he was born on a sugar…

B-0068395

1857-1919

William Philip Schreiner

William Philip Schreiner, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, anti-British imperialist, and a proponent for the integration of all ‘civilised men' including …

B-0068394

1888-1956

Sonja Schlesin

Sonja Schlesin was born in Moscow on 6 June 1888 to Isidor Schlesin and his wife Helena Dorothy (nee Schloss). The Schlesin family later immigrated to South…

B-0068392

1935-2009

Cassim Saloojee

Saloojee was born in Krugersdorp, in 1935. Here his grandfather ran a shop next to Dr. Yusuf Dadoo’s father’s store. After he was married, Saloojee’s father…

B-0068391

1944

Kenneth Hlaku Rachidi

Kenneth Hlaku Rachidi was born on 11 April 1944 at Ga-Nchabeleng in Sekhukhuneland, Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo). He was the first born to Maria and…

B-0068367

1917

Peter Nkutsoeu Raboroko

Peter Nkutsoeu Raboroko was born in 1917 in the Orange Free State where his father was employed as a farm laborer.  He grew up in the slums of Sophiatown in…

B-0068365

1798-1853

Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius

Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius was born on 27 November 1798 near Graaff-Reinet in the Cape Colony. He was educated by travelling teachers and became an…

B-0068324

1792-1852

Andries Hendrik Potgieter

Andries Hendrik Potgieter was born in the Graaff Reinet district in the Cape Colony on the 19th of December 1792. He was the second child of Petronella…

B-0068319

Pauline Podbrey

Pauline Podbrey was born as Pauline Podbrez in Lithuania. She arrived with her family in Durban in 1933 at the age of eleven, although her father had come to…

B-0068314

1917-1997

Godfrey Mokgonane Pitje

Godfrey Mokgonane Pitje was born in 1917, in the northern Transvaal, the son of semiliterate Bapedi parents. Studious and able, he made his way to Fort Hare,…

B-0068312

1908-1992

Thayanayagie (Thailema) Pillay

Thayanayagie (Thailema), daughter of Veerammal Naidoo and Govindasamy Kristshnasamy Thambi Naidoo, was four years old when her family moved to the Tolstoy Farm…

B-0068309

Frank A. Pendla

Frank A. Pendla was the president of the Cape African Congress in the early 1940s until suspended by A. B. Xuma in September 1942. Born in the Cape, he…

B-0068307

1859-1936

Meshach Pelem

Meshach Pelem was born in Mxumbu near King William's Town in 1859 and studied at Healdtown, where he qualified as a primary school teacher. After teaching in…

B-0068303

Poonoosamy Ruthnam Pather

Poonoosamy Ruthnam Pather (PR) was born in Mauritius in 1895.  His grandfather settled in that country after emigrating from Tanjore in India in the 1840s. PR…

B-0068301

1924

Ahmed Ebrahim Patel

Born 1924. Agent. Key organiser since 1939 of the Transvaal Indian Congress on the East Rand, and appeared for the Congress before numerous hearings of the…

B-0068300

1936-2009

Dawood Parker

Dawood Parker was the Chairman of the Wynberg Civic Association. He played a prominent role in local civic affairs. He was a leading voice in the struggle…

B-0068299

1950-2008

John Alfons Pandeni

Namibian John Pandeni was one of hundreds of People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan) SWAPO fighters who were captured and imprisoned on Robben Island. After…

B-0068298

1925-2000

Alfred Baphetuxolo Nzo

Alfred Nzo was born on 19 June 1925 at Benoni, Transvaal, into a family of five children. His father was a clerk at Modder B mine, which was later changed into…

B-0068295

1958

Mkhuseli Khusta Jack

Mkhuseli Jack was born on the farm Mosskraal in Humansdorp on 31 May 1958.  Jack was the second youngest of eight children of Fikile and Alice Jack, a domestic…

B-0067959

Dilizantaba Mji

Born at Buntingville, Umtata, in the Transkei, he completed B.S. and M.S. degrees, then studied medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he…

B-0067953

1911-1986

Esther Susanna Mentz

Mentz studied at the Conservatoire of Music at the University of Stellenbosch from 1929-1931. After this she spent some time making Afrikaans records and…

B-0067946

1949

Cynthia Shange

Cynthia Shange was born in Lamontville, Durban, in Kwazulu Natal. She started modeling in 1970 and went on to win several titles. In 1972 she won the title…

B-0067940

Nombuso Mchunu

On her completion of Matric in 1972, Nombuso did casual work such as typing documents for the Garment Workers union, while she looked for permanent work. Her…

B-0067935

1942

Letta Mbulu

Letta Mbulu was born in Soweto and, during her teens, she toured South Africa and then England with the musical King Kong. She returned to South Africa at the…

B-0067933

1952-2008

Colonel Sibusiso (Sihle) R. Mbongwa

Sibusiso (Sihle) R. Mbongwa was born in 1952. After joining the African National Congress’ military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in 1977, Mbongwa commanded a…

B-0067929

1870-1947

Horatio (Bud) Isaiah Mbelle

Horatio Isaiah Budlwana (Bud) Mbelle was born in Burgersdorp, Cape Colony on 24 June 1870. He grew up in the Herschel district in the Eastern Cape where Sotho…

B-0067925

1940-2006

Louis Problem Mkhize

Curnick Ndlovu, the first leader of the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Regional Command in Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), recruited Louis ‘Problem’ Mkhize first into the…

B-0067867