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EventDeath of Harry Oppenheimer
South Africa's most successful businessman, Harry Oppenheimer, died after a short illness at the age of 91. Oppenheimer was admitted to the intensive care unit…
The National Arts Festival
In 1974, an inaugural festival titled the 1820 Settlers National Monument was opened as a memorial to the British immigrants in South Africa. They established…
ArticlePrehistory of the Durban area
Prehistory of Southern Africa The Durban area is probably best known for the historic Zulu kingdom, dating to the early 19th century. To understand the…
Political deaths in police custody 1984 - 1989
YearDateNameAffiliationPlace of deathDescription198415 JulyNgalo, Johannes (26) ParysFound dead in cell due to serious internal injuries. 29 September …
EventDorothy Fischer becomes the first South African woman to undergo a heart transplant
40 year-old Dorothy Fisher was given a new heart in 1969 and became the longest surviving patient. She lived for 12 years afterwards. She was South Africa's…
EventSA government threatens to pull out of the UN peace plan for Namibia
The South African government threatened to pull out of the United Nations (UN) peace plan for Namibia unless action was taken against the South West African…
PlaceOrlando Stadium
This was the site of the first stadium in Soweto, officially opened in 1959. For almost 50 years this was a famous home of soccer, associated with a host of…
”Africans and San Francisco.” Statement by Dr. A. B. Xuma, May 8, 1945
Many people have written me and others have asked me personally what part the African National Congress is taking to bring to the attention of Allied Nations…
19. Lawrence asks for exemption from discriminatory laws
From the book: A Documentary History of Indian South Africans edited by Surendra Bhana and Bridglal Pachai Vendenayagum Lawrence petitioned the Natal…
EventLucas Mangope leaves Mmabatho due to uprising
President Lucas Mangope, the leader of the apartheid homeland Bophuthatswana, retreated from the capital, Mmabatho, in the face of a popular uprising after he…
EventAbyssinian fortress of Dessie is captured by South African troops during World War II
The Abyssinian fortress of Dessie, located between Addis Ababa and Amba Alagi, was captured by General Alan Cunningham's South African divisions. This event…
BiographyWinnie Madikizela-Mandela
Early YearsNomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela was born, the fifth of nine children, in the village of Mbongweni, Bizana, in the Transkei on 26 September 1936…
BiographyBenjamin Magson Kies
Benjamin Magson Kies Introduction Benjamin Magson Kies was an important South African political activist and theorist from about the middle of the 1930s…
EventQueen Mother Elizabeth turns 100
Queen Elizabeth, British Queen Mother, celebrated her 100th birthday with thousands of people lining up in the streets of London to cheer her. The Queen Mother…
EventA Second Plenary session of Multi Party negotiations for a transition to democracy in South Africa reconvene
The second plenary session of the Congress for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA II) was convened in Johannesburg. Unlike the first session CODESA II ended in…
PlaceJohannesburg Civic Theatre
Johannesburg’s Civic Theatre was built by the then city council in 1962, creating a high-profile landmark on the top of the Braamfontein hill. The building was…
PlaceLady Frere, Eastern Cape
Originally named after the wife of; Sir Henry Bartle Frere, the then Governor of the Cape, Lady Frere serves as the centre for the Glen Grey farming district…
‘African Gandhi’: The South African War and the Limits of Imperial Identity by Goolam Vahed
Mahatma Gandhi achieved greatness for the struggles that he fought on the political, economic, cultural and moral fronts. His ideas about love, truth, soul…
‘Wash Me Black Again’: African Nationalism, the Indian Diaspora, and Kwa-Zulu Natal, 1944-1960 by Jon Soske
… the race and class dynamics of Natal. During the 1930s and 40s, rapid and large-scale urbanization generated a series of … particularly Durban, during the…
PlaceBourke's Luck Potholes
This natural water feature marks the beginning of the Blyde River Canyon. The potholes were named after Tom Bourke, a gold-digger who staked a claim in the…
EventSAAN announces its decision to close the Rand Daily Mail
The Rand Daily Mail newspaper was closed in April 1985. The South African Associated Newspapers (SAAN) made the announcement on 15 March 1985. SAAN, the…
EventAthlete Mathews Motshwareteu enters the annals of the country’s athletics history after only five weeks of track athletics
Mathews Motshwareteu was born on 2 November 1958 in Soweto, Johannesburg. His talent for athletics became apparent in his primary school years, which he spent…
Message from Dr. AB Xuma, President-General of ANC, to the United Nations, 22 January 1946
Message from Dr. AB Xuma, President-General of ANC, to the United Nations opposing South Africa`s proposal for incorporation of South West Africa 22 January…
EventPieter-Dirk Uys, SA activist, satirist, playwright and novelist, is born in Cape Town
Pieter Dirk Uys was born in Cape Town in 1945. He studied drama at UCT from 1965 to 1965 before going to study at the London Film School. During the 1970s and…
Address on disturbances in Bloemfontein location, by I. J. Nthatisi, March 4, 1919
At the request of the leaders of the location, the Resident Magistrate, Mr. J. Ashburnham, and the Mayor of Bloemfontein Mr. D. A. Thomson, motored out to…
Soweto and mounting pressure on the apartheid state, 1970s
The Day Our Kids Lost Faith. 1976. © Bailey's African History Archives During the 1970s, and particularly in the late 1970s after the Soweto uprising of 1976,…
ArticleWorld War I Timeline 1916
18 February The German colony of Cameroon falls to French and British forces after 17 months of fighting. 21 February–19 December The Battle of Verdun…
ArticleUnion, Segregation, apartheid and Democracy: From Union to non racial democracy
The 1910 election: The Union of SA The first election that created the modern South African state, held in accordance with the provisions of the Union of…
ArticleGeneral South African History Timeline: 1700s
1700 The first "placaat" (ordinance or statute) restricting the importation of Asian slaves is promulgated. Dlamini chiefdoms move south from Delagoa Bay…
Rustenburg the Segregated city
Rustenburg the Segregated city Towards Union The Afrikaner character of the town persisted after Union in 1910, and there was little to attract other…