SAHO global search

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

1907-1995

Professor Harold Jack Simons

Harold Jack Simons was born on 1 February 1907 in Riversdale in the Cape. He was educated in South Africa and for a few years was attached to a law firm and…

B-0009059

Ndeutala Selma Hishongwa

Ndeutala Hishongwa was born in 1952 in Okalili, northwest Namibia. She trained as a nurse and in 1974 joined SWAPO-in-exile in Zambia. She was sent to Sweden…

B-0099833

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

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

1976

William Nomodi Tshwane

Mr William Nomodi Tshwane was reported to have been detained with other Soweto students on 25 July 1976 and held at Modderbee prison in Johannesburg.Police…

B-0074846

1870-1956

Honorine Margaret Withers

Honorine Margaret (Mabel) Withers was born in 1870 in London, England. Mabel Withers studied at the RCA and exhibited in London before coming to South Africa…

B-0009235

1889-1970

James “Sofasonke” Mpanza

James "Sofasonke" Mpanza was born in 1889. Mpanza was founder and leader from the mid-1940s of the Sofasonke Party of Orlando township, Johannesburg, and a…

B-0008680

1923

James “Jobe” Hadebe

James “Jobe” John Hadebe was born on 29 October 1923 in Frankfort in the Orange Free State. The son of a clerk and descendant of the Hlubi chief, Langalibalele…

B-0008138

1913-2011

Ilse Naude

 Ilse Naude was born in 1913 and grew up on the Moravian mission in Genadendal near Caledon. After completing secondary education she received a bursary and…

B-0071936

1955

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was born on 3rd November 1955 in Claremont, Durban in Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). She matriculated from Ohlange High School in Inanda and…

B-0008578

1941

Mannie Manim

Mannie Manim was born in June 1941, in Cape Town. With more than 50 years’ involvement in theatre, Manim has left indelible imprints in the arts and…

B-0064905

1911-2004

Freda Levson

Freda Levson was born on 21 November 1911 in Pretoria, South Africa. Her father was a prominent physician in Johannesburg. She was educated in England from the…

B-0064873

1903-1979

Johannes (Jan) de Klerk

Johannes de Klerk was born on 22 July 1903 in Burgersdorp. He was the eldest son of Reverend Willem de Klerk and Aletta Johannes van Rooy. De Klerk went to…

B-0007986

1932

Harold Athol Fugard

Athol Fugard, born Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard in the remote village of Middleburg on 11 June 1932, grew up in Port Elizabeth. His father was Afrikaner and his…

B-0008086

1870-1938

Leo Rbc Francois

Leo Francois Rbc was born in Chemnitz, Germany, 1870. Francois, a long serving President of the NSA, was a protagonist with SASA in his quest to unite the…

B-0008082

1951-2025

Rashid Lombard

Rashid Lombard was born in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), Eastern Province (now Eastern Cape) on 10 April 1951. In 1962, his family relocated to Cape Town,…

B-0093746

1926-1994

Lennox Sebe

Lennox Sebe was born on 26 June 1926. He completed his matric at the Lovedale College. Upon his completion he went to attend a teachers college. Sebe had a…

B-0009002

1974-2016

Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo (Khwezi)

There's still much not known publicly about Fezekile Kuzwayo. Unfortunately, the event that she is best known for is the Jacob Zuma rape case. It is from the…

B-0122126

1924-1972

Alfred ‘Tough’ Hutchinson

Alfred ‘Tough’ Hutchinson  was born of coloured and Swazi parents in 1924 in the Hectorspruit district of the Eastern Transvaal, he graduated from St. Peter's…

B-0008184

Michael Mike Matsobane

The Matsobane brothers, Mike and Dan, aided the revival of the PAC in Krugersdorp. Their efforts fell under the non-political YACM (Young African Christian…

B-0078242

1942-2017

Joe “Sdumo” Mafela

Joe Mafela, actor, songwriter and film producer was born on 25 June in 1942 in Sibasa, Limpopo Province. His father worked as a shop assistant in a Chinese…

B-0064872

1923-2013

Denis Mayer

Denis Mayer was born in Parkwood, Johannesburg, on 8 September 1923. His father, Harold, was the Recruitment Manager for the Chamber of Mines, and had come to…

B-0097631

1871-1934

Theophilus Dymond Field

Theophilus Dymond Field was born in Tunbridge Wells, England c.1871. He trained at the Brighton School of Art and became proficient in watercolour, the most…

B-0008066

1940

Barend Jacobus Du Plessis

Barend Jacobus du Plessis was born on 19 January 1940 in Johannesburg to Martie and Jan Hendrik du Plessis. He was the eldest of three children and grew up in…

B-0008031

Dan Tloome

Born in the Orange Free State, Tloome became involved in trade union work in the 1930s and joined the Communist Party. In 1941 he was chosen vice-president of…

B-0068613

1962

Ebrahim Rasool

Ebrahim Rasool was born on 15 July 1962 in District Six, Cape Town. At the age of nine in 1972 his family was forcibly moved out of District Six when the…

B-0008941

1930

Zachius Botlhoko Molete

Zachius Botlhoko Molete was born in 1930 in Winburg in the Orange Free State of mixed Tswana-Ndebele parentage. His father was a teacher. He spent 1949 and…

B-0068070

1910-2001

Govan Mbeki

Govan Mbeki (Oom Gov) joined the South African Communist Party (SACP) in the 1950's and remained a communist and a firm believer in the superior morality of…

B-0008515

1955

Caesarina Kona Makhoere

Caesarina Kona Makhoere was born near Pretoria in 1955. Her father was a policeman and her mother worked as a domestic worker.  At a young age she was forcibly…

B-0008402