SAHO global search

1915-1976

Johanna (Joey) Hendrina Scheepers

Trade union leader and organizer Johanna Hendrina (Joey) Scheepers was one of the four daughters of Sarel Gerhardus Breitenbach and his wife, Johanna Hendrina…

B-0008992

1935

Satyandranath “Mac” Maharaj

Mac Maharaj was born on the 22 April 1935, the fourth of the eight children of Mr and Mrs NR Maharaj of Newcastle, Natal. He matriculated at St Oswald's School…

B-0065611

1967

Francois Pienaar

Francois Pienaar was born on 1st January 1969 in Vereeniging into a working class Afrikaner family. Although he participated in various sporting activities as…

B-0008886

1944

Graeme Pollock

Robert Graeme Pollock was born on 27 February 1944 in Durban. His father was a first-class cricketer and editor of the Port Elizabeth Herald. Pollock attended…

B-0096457

1932-1988

Johnstone Mfanafuthi Makhathini

Johnstone “Johnny” Mfanafuthi Makhathini was born in Durban on 8 February 1932. He attended school at Adams College in Durban where he trained as a teacher…

B-0094854

1920-1977

Elmon Malele

Elmon Malele was born in Mapulaneng in the Limpopo Province (Transvaal) in 1920. Malele came to Johannesburg in 1943, and stayed in Alexandra township. He was…

B-0008416

1866-1942

James Barry Munnik Hertzog

James Barry Munnik (JBM) Hertzog was born in Soetendal Wellington on the 6 th of April 1866. Hertzog was the eighth child of Johannes Albertus Munnik Hertzog,…

B-0008156

1922-1999

Julius Nyerere

Julius Nyerere was born on the 13th of April 1922 in Butiama village, next to Lake Victoria, in Tanganyika (name given to the British colony in Tanzania’s…

B-0125265

1980

Lindiwe Mazibuko

Lindiwe Mazibuko was born on 9 April 1980 in Swaziland. At the age of six she moved to KwaZulu-Natal with her parents. Her father was a banker and her mother a…

B-0096424

1959-2011

Zimasile Ngqawana

Zimasile Ngqawana affectionately known as ‘Zim’was born in New Brighton a township in Port-Elizabeth on 25 December 1959. He was the youngest of five children,…

B-0095544

1949-2015

Clive Edward Butler Rice

  Clive Rice was born on 23 July 1949 in Johannesburg. His education started at St. Johns College and from there to Damelin College in Johannesburg and later…

B-0008956

1940

Gille De Vlieg

Gille de Vlieg was born Gillian Ruth Hemson in Plymouth, England in 1940 during a Nazi bombing raid on the city. After losing their home in a later bombing…

B-0007997

1967

Vuyani “The Beast” Bungu

Vuyani Bungu was born on 26 February 1967 in Mdantsane, Eastern Cape, South Africa. He attended the local primary and high school before dropping out at grade…

B-0007898

Harry Moyaga

Apart from interaction with artists such as Cyprian Shilakoe (qv.), Bill Ainslie and Fikile Magadlela, it was Moyaga’s mother who played the dominant role in…

B-0008677

1921-2012

Motsamai Keyecwe Mpho

Motsamai Keyecwe Mpho was born to a peasant family in Maun Bechuanaland (now Botswana) on 3 February 1921. His family came from a non-Setswana-speaking ethnic…

B-0008685

1942-1991

Dumile Feni

Zwelidumile Geelboi Mgxaji Mslaba “Dumile” Feni was born on 21 May 1942 in Worcester, Western Cape. His mother died when he was only five or six years old and…

B-0008062

1919-1984

Cassim Amra

Cassim Amra was born in 1919 in Durban Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal).  He attended Sastri College, Durban  where he represented the senior cricket team. Amra was…

B-0095730

1930-2018

David Goldblatt

David Goldblatt, one of South Africa’s most famous documentary photographers, is internationally acclaimed for his work. The grandson of Lithuanian-Jewish…

B-0008106

1937-1999

Simon Nkabinde

Simon ‘Mahlathini’ Nkabinde was born on 30 November 1937, in Newcastle. He grew up in Alexander Township. His father died while he was young, and later he was…

B-0095274

1913-1990

Zephania ‘Zeph’ Lekoane Mothopeng

Zephania ‘Zeph’ Lekoane Mothopeng, was born on 10 September 1913, in the Orange Free State (now Free State) near the town of Vrede. Shortly after his birth,…

B-0080979

Approx 1870s-1935

Isaiah Mdliwamafa Shembe

Isaiah Shembe was born at Ntabamhlophe near Escourt in the Drakensberg region (near Giants Castle). His forefathers had settled there to escape the regiments…

B-0121675

1888-1963

Bernard Lazarus Sigamoney

Reverend Bernard Lazarus Emmanuel Sigamoney was a political activist, Christian minister, sportsman and champion of non-racial sport, trade unionist and…

B-0095122

1903-1972

J B Marks

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…

B-0008450

1919-2020

Florence Elizabeth Mnumzana

Florence Elizabeth Mnumzana (née Mhinga) was born on 21 February 1919 in Mhinga Village, Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo), into the Mhinga traditional royal…

B-0068678

1967-1991

Vuyani Mabaxa

Vuyani Mabaxa grew up in Diepkloof, Johannesburg. His parents were members of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu). In the 1980s,…

B-0073091

1947

Dr Gurunathen (Guru) Kistnasamy

Guru Kistnasamy was born on 28 December 1947 in Felixton, Zululand, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). His father, Thaniachallam Kistnasamy Naicker, worked as a…

B-0123670

1963

Jeremy Vearey

Jeremy Vearey was born in 1963 in Elsies River. He describes the area as a ‘different Elsies River’ than today as it was only around 50% built houses. It was a…

B-0125539

1920

Marutle Flag Boshielo

Boshielo was born to a poor family in 1920 in Phokoane village, in the Sekhukhuneland district in Northern Transvaal, now Limpopo Province.    Boshielo joined…

B-0007873

1942

Jeanie Noel

Jeanie Noel was born in Durban as one of twelve children, however her family was fortunate enough to own property, something that was not common in coloured…

B-0008810

1920-2005

Raymond Mhlaba

Raymond Mhlaba was born in Mazoka village at Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape.He was one of eight children of a policeman. Five of his siblings died in…

B-0008557