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BiographyChief Hendrik ‘Hennie’ van Wyk
Hendrik ‘Hennie’ van Wyk was born in Vredendal, Cape Province (now Western Cape) on 14th July 1936. His childhood witnessed the final days of colonial rule and…
BiographyShanthivathie (Shanthie) Naidoo
Shanthivathie (Shanthie), the eldest of five children of Ama and Naransamy "Naran" Naidoo (Roy), was born in Pretoria, Transvaal (now Gauteng) on 6 March 1935…
BiographyAhmed Mohamed "Kathy" Kathrada
Ahmed Mohamed "Kathy" Kathrada was born on 21 August 1929, to Indian immigrant parents in Schweizer Reneke, a small town in Western Transvaal [now North West…
Address to the Biennial Meeting of the Association for The Development of Education in Africa (Adea), Johannesburg, 6 December 1999
Education Ministers from African Countries Representatives of Donor Organisations Distinguished Delegates Ladies and Gentlemen: I am honoured to be here…
Evelyn Ntoko Mase
Little is available in the public to construct a thorough biography of Evelyn Ntoko Mase before and after her relationship with Nelson Mandela. She may have…
BiographyKing Dingane ka Senzangakhona
Dingane ka Senzangakhona was born in 1795 to father Chief Senzangakhona and mother Mpikase kaMlilela Ngobese who was Senzangakhona's sixth and ‘great wife'. [i…
BiographyNana Sita
Please note: this is an extract from E.S. Reddy collection of articles. Nana Sita was born in Matwadi, a village in Gujarat, India, in 1898, in a family…
BiographyCharles Robberts (Blackie) Swart
Charles Robberts (Blackie) Swart was born on 5 December 1894 in Morgenzon, Winburg district. He was the son of Hermanus Bernardus Swart and Aletta Catharina…
BiographyViolet Weinberg
Violet Weinberg was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the daughter of a Jewish refugee who fled from Latvia, then a part of the Soviet Union, where Anti…
Re-membering Krotoa and Autshumato by Deela Khan (poem)
Divested of names and birthright Autshumato and Krotoa were ferried oor die see, oor die see, in die eiland stemertjie every time they incurred the wrath of…
ArticleThe African Union (AU)
Context As the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), founded in 1963, was established as a loose association of African states with limited mechanisms for…
ArticleMatabele Wars 1836-1896
The reign of Mzilikazi Under the leadership of Mzilikazi, the people who came to be called the Ndebele in Zimbabwe (originally of the Khumalo clan) broke away…
People Against Gangsterism and Drugs
People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD) came into being in 1996 when communities on the Cape Flats, Cape Town decided to form an anti-crime organisation…
Labour and Mining Revolution 1886-1940s
The discovery of a diamond on a farm in the British controlled Cape Colony in 1867 and of gold in the Afrikaner “Boer” controlled Transvaal Republic…
The Black Homeland Citizenship Act of 1970
During Apartheid, starting from the late 1950s the South African Government attempted to divide South Africa into a number of separate states, called homelands…
Polokwane an Overview
'Street soccer' game on a makeshift field, near Polokwane in the Limpopo Province. 2010. © Chris Ledowchowski The Limpopo Province was the scene of scores of…
ArticleHistory of elections in South Africa
Introduction The South Africa Act passed by the British Parliament in 1909 combined the self-governing British colonies of the Natal, Cape, Transvaal and…
ArticleTswana
(seTswana [language], baTswana [people]) The four major ethnic divisions among Black South Africans are the Nguni, Sotho-Tswana, Shangaan-Tsonga and Venda…
ArticleBirth of the African Mine Workers’ Union
The 1946 mine workers' strike was led by the African Mine Workers Union, whose president was J.B.Marks, he was also a leader in the South African Communist…
ArticleThe African Union and Regional Economic Integration
Following the wave of independence which swept the African continent in the 1960s, integration schemes became an increasingly important tool for facilitating…
From Segregation to Apartheid
The gains achieved by the White minority in the first four decades of the 20th century were, by the 1940s, increasingly under threat however, as African…
Work and education
Primary and Secondary Education Rhulani crèche and classroom. Northern Province. © Omar Badsha The biggest challenge the first post-apartheid government was…
BiographyPeter Hlaole Molotsi
Peter Hlaole Molotsi was born in Steinsrust, a municipal location, in the district of Kroonstad, (then Orange Free State) on July 18, 1929. His father was a…
BiographyHorst Gerhard Hermann Kleinschmidt
Horst Gerhard Hermann Kleinschmidt was born on 17 October 1945 in Swakopmund, Namibia. At the age of four his family moved to Johannesburg where he grew up…
ArticleColonial history of Nelspruit
Nelspruit lies in the Lowveld, in the valley of the Crocodile River just below the great eastern escarpment of the Transvaal. Long before it acquired a…
Nelspruit the Segregated city
Contents Nelspruit the Segregated city Homelands as Labour reserves Kanyamazane Introduction Until the demise of apartheid, Nelspruit remained a small…
Colonial conquest and resistance, Pre 1900
Several factors seemed to pave the way to apartheid, among them a colonial conquest, land dispossession, economic impoverishment, and exclusion from…
ArticleThe South African Strategic Defence Procurement Package known as “The Arms Deal”
Between 1996 and 1999 the South Africa government commissioned the purchase of R30 billion worth of armaments specifically submarines and frigates from a…
Conquest: 1600s-1800s
"They strongly insisted that we had been appropriating more and more of their land which had been theirs all these centuries... They asked if they would be…
A history of Volkskas and the Absa Banking group
Volkskas was one of the four largest banking conglomerates in South Africa, and one of the three biggest Afrikaner monopolies. It was established to harness…