SAHO global search

1865-1906

Jotello Festiri Soga

Dr Jotello Festiri Soga, the first South African of any race to obtain a degree in veterinary medicine, was born in 1865 at the Mgwali Mission in the then…

B-0150992

1851-1919

Francis Zaccharius Santiago Peregrino

Francis Zaccharius Santiago Peregrino was a journalist and public intellectual who, in the early 1900s, challenged notions of Black racial inferiority in the…

B-0122673

1995

Enver Hassim

Enver Hassim was born in the Transvaal, where he was part of a large family, with two brothers and four sisters. His father made a living as a middleman and…

B-0080308

1901-1980

Louise Latsky

Latsky was an author and zoologist. She studied at the University of Stellenbosch, and was the first woman to be awarded a doctorate at this university. She…

B-0008299

1968

Rebecca Malope

Rebecca Malope was born in 1968 in Lekazi near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga. Beyond the fact that she did not progress that far in her education, little is known…

B-0008424

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

1930-2013

Ismail Jacob Mohamed

Professor Ismail Jacob (Josef) Mohamed was born on 27 July 1930 in Barkley East, Eastern Cape. His parents divorced before he was five years old. His mother,…

B-0148778

1966-1987

Ashley James Kriel

Ashley Kriel was born on the 17 October 1966 to Ivy and Melvin Kriel. He has two sisters, Michel Assure and Melaney Adams. He grew up in Bonteheuwel, Cape Town…

B-0125501

Dr. Susan Vosloo

Dr Vosloo was South Africa's first female heart surgeon. She joined the heart team at the Groote Schuur hospital in 1984, and completed her training in 1988…

B-0009212

1948

Dr Irvin Khoza

Dr Irvin Khoza, known as the “Iron Duke”, was born on 27 January 1948 in Alexandra Township. He began his education at the Roma Mission School in Alexandra…

B-0065039

1936-1999

Ahmed Gora Ebrahim

Ahmed Gora Ebrahim was born in Durban on 29 May 1936.  Ebrahim cut his political teeth in Trotskyite circles while studying at Sastri College and Natal…

B-0096554

1921-1980

President Seretse Khama

Seretse Khama was born on 1 July 1921 at Serowe, Bechuanaland (now Botswana). His grandfather was Kgosi (King) Khama III, known as Khama the Good, the ruler of…

B-0008250

Mme Makwena Matlala

The Native Affairs Department (NAD) report for 1949-50 noted that ‘in the Matlala Location [Matlala's Location, Pietersburg District, Transvaal (now Polokwane,…

B-0080664

1932

Amy Thornton

Amy Rietstein (now Thornton) was born in 1932 in Cape Town, Cape Province (now Western Cape). Both her parents were actively involved in the struggle, and it…

B-0095146

1950

Elizabeth Mbatha

Elizabeth Mbatha was born in 1950 near Rorke's Drift. Mbatha did not attend school. In 1974 she married Eric Mbatha, a potter at Rorke's Drift. In the early…

B-0008511

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

1955-2008

Bhekumuzi Hyacinth Mseleku

Bhekumuzi Hyacinth Mseleku was born in Durban in 1955.  A self-taught pianist, saxophonist, guitarist, composer and arranger, he was born to a musician father…

B-0095589

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

1900-1975

Anna Johanna Dorthea De Villiers

De Villiers was an educator and author. She was an editor of the Dictionary of the Afrikaans language, the first and only female principal of the Huguenot…

B-0007993

1877-Unknown

Samuel Makama Martin Masabalala

Samuel Makama Martin Masabalala was born in 6th December 1877, in Uniondale in the Cape and was educated in Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth. He worked for some…

B-0141693

1955-2004

Andrew Meintjes

Andrew Meintjes was born in Cape Town on 31 January 1955. In the 1970s, while he was working as a post office technician, he met photographer David Goldblatt…

B-0008541

1985

Bheki Zacharia Mvulane

Bheki Zacharia Mvulane died in detention on 29 March, 1985. A fellow-detainee of Mvulane said: "I saw a white policeman in Katlehong Police Station fling…

B-0008717

2012

Ntandazo Nokhamba

Ntandazo Nokhamba (36) was from Lebode in the Eastern Cape. He began working for Lonmin around 2006. On 16 August 2012 he was killed at scene two after being…

B-0121611

1886-1946

Franciscus Jacobus Ludovicus De Vriendt

Franciscus Jacobus Ludovicus* (also François Jacobus Louis) De Vriendt was born on 2 September 1886**1874 in Borgerhout, Antwerp, Belgium. He was the son of a…

B-0007998

2003

Stanley Mabizela

Born in Port Elizabeth, Stanley Mabizela joined the liberation struggle at an early age when he first joined the ANC Youth League. A son to a farm worker,…

B-0069841

1929-2014

Sadie Forman

A fierce non-sectarian and advocate for racial equality and women’s rights, Sadie Forman (nee Kreel) was born in 1929. Her father, Bunim Idel Krill, a Yiddish…

B-0080054

1946-2006

Strinivasa “Strini” Moodley

Strinivasa "Strini" Moodley was born on 29 October 1946 in Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). He was the eldest child of Joyce Margaret and Narainsamy Moodley,…

B-0008636

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

1966

Hangula Shonyeka

In 1967 the minister of justice announced that a detainee had died in detention in 1966,but did not mention the detainee's name.In 1970,in parliament the…

B-0074842

1892-1985

Dr James Sebe Moroka

Dr. James Sebe Moroka was the great grandson of Chief Moroka I of the Barolong, from Thaba Nchu in the then Orange Free State. Moroka was born on 16 March…

B-0068105