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EventSoweto High School under siege
South African Defence Force soldiers, travelling in a convoy of more than ten armoured vehicles, surrounded the Thaba-Juluba high school in Soweto and arrested…
EventZulu King Dingane orders the execution of Piet Retief’s men
Following the signing of Dingane and Retief's treaty, Piet Retief and his party were treated to a farewell dance by the Zulu impis at Ungungundlovu. They were…
EventFrance tests an atomic bomb in Algeria
France conducted its first nuclear bomb test at Reganne, Algeria, in the Sahara desert. At the time, Algeria was under French control. The test, code named…
EventDr Max Theiler, first South African to receive the Nobel Prize, is born in Pretoria
Dr Max Theiler was born on 30 January 1899 in Pretoria. He studied medicine at the University of Cape Town Medical School from 1916 to 1918. He graduated at…
EventThe second Matabele war breaks out
The second Matabele war, also known as the Matabele Rebellion or the second Chimurenga broke out on 20 March 1896 in Matabeleland Zimbabwe. The war broke out…
EventJoseph Kasavubu, first president of the Democratic Republic of Congo dies
Joseph Kasavubu, first president of the Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo) from 1960 to 1965 died. He assumed the office when the Congo became…
PlaceFree State Stadium
The Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein was originally built for the Rugby World Cup of 1995. Then, it was revamped to host a number of matches for the 2010…
EventAhmadou Kourouma, Ivorian novelist dies in France
Ahmadou Kourouma was born in 1927 in CÁ´te d'Ivoire. He went to live and attend school in Mali before leaving for France. When CÁ´te d'Ivoire gained…
New tactics in the revolt
Reaction Takes the Offensive After the first attempted march on Johannesburg on 4 August, and the partial stay-at-home which kept at least 60 per cent of the…
X - Counsel’s Submission on behalf of the Biko Family
From the book: No.46 - Steve Biko by Hilda Bernstein, 1978, South Africa These are the indisputed facts concerning the treatment of Mr. Biko. Mr. Biko was…
A Tale of Political Conspiracy and Incomprehensible Judicial Imaginings by Thabo Mbeki, 15 February 2016
On 12 September 2008, Justice Chris Nicholson, Judge in the then Natal Provincial Division of the High Court of South Africa, granted the order that: “It is…
Death of a lion of the law, Arthur Chaskalson by Rebecca Davis, 3 December 2012
Former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson died on Saturday from leukaemia. There are few individuals who have played so significant and honourable a role in South…
Chapter 22. A Slight Case of Blackmail - Garment Workers in Action by E. S. Sachs
The year 1944 was one of the busiest for the union. In the midst of the trouble, which started in February, we became involved in a series of court actions,…
1. The Way to Fox Street
Edwin Thabo Mofutsanyana was born in 1899 in Witzieshoek (now known as Qwa Qwa), a tiny African reserve squeezed into a valley on the south-eastern border of…
Nelson Mandela’s leadership: his ‘obstinacy and stubbornness’ (Part 2) by Raymond Suttner, 11 June 2018
An unusual, apparently contradictory set of personality traits combined to make Nelson Mandela the leader that he became. One of these was notorious…
Umberto Eco on the Merits of Studying History (and the Terrors of Losing It) by Charles Chu (The Polymath Project), 24 September 2017
Unit 731. Sound familiar? Probably not. Until recently, I didn’t know what they were. Or what they did. Unit 731 was a Japanese military unit responsible for…
Statement by Reverend Gabriel Seteloane at the special meeting of the Special Committee against Apartheid in Atlanta to pay tribute to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on the 50th anniversary of his birth, 16 January 1979
I stand here not as a diplomat, I am not schooled in that line; but I do stand here as a man who shares a profession with a man we are commemorating today,…
Chapter 4. From The Poverty of the Platteland to the Slums of the City: Farm Girls Turned Into Factory Hands
The Poor White problem spread to the factories and the slums of Johannesburg and was soon felt in the offices of the union. There was a constant flow into the…
Working Life - Factories, Township and Popular Culture 1886 - 1940 - Introduction
From the book: Working Life - Factories, Township and Popular Culture 1886 - 1940 by Luli Callinicos I talk about the past mainly because actually I am…
ArchiveTribute to Ottilie Schimming Abrahams (2 Sept 1937-1 July 2018) – some notes and memories by Heike Becker
In the late 1950s Ottilie Schimming Abrahams was among the first generation of Namibian students who pursued post-secondary education in Cape Town. Ottilie…
EventThe energy and chemical company, Sasol, is registered
The history of Sasol began in 1927 when a White Paper was tabled in Parliament to investigate the establishment of a South African oil-from-coal industry. It…
EventSpringboks lose to the Lions
The South African national rugby team became known as the Springboks on their tour to Britain in 1906. Since those early years, teams from abroad repeatedly…
EventThe NPA does not pursue charges against Wouter Basson, former chemical weapons expert of the SADF
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) announced that it would not start a fresh prosecution of Dr Wouter Basson, former chemical weapons expert of the South…
EventSA jazz singer, Letta Mbulu is born in Soweto
Letta Mbulu was born in Soweto on 23 August 1942. As a teenager she joined the cast of the play King Kong and toured the US with other artists like Miriam…
EventChiliboy Ralepelle becomes the first black player to lead the Springboks against a World XV in England
Rugby player, Mahlatse Chiliboy Ralepelle was born in Tzaneen on 11 September 1986. Ralepelle moved to Pretoria and attended Pretoria Boys High School, where…
EventThe passive resistance movement begins with a mass meeting of 2000 Africans
The passive resistance movement began on 30 March 1919 when a mass meeting of two thousand Africans in Vrededorp decided to reject the passes. The next day,…
ArchiveThe world's only privately owned Catholic Church
Durban - It is understandable that while meandering through Van Reenen’s pass, negotiating its dangerous terrain, a traveller is likely to miss a most superbly…
ArchiveAddress at Commemoration of the lives of Yusuf Cachalia and Bram Fischer, by Nelson Mandela, 5 June 2005,
Friends Comrades I have so often announced my retirement from public life that nobody believes me anymore - not even my closest advisors or friends, it…
Work In Progress
The context in which the first issue of Work In Progress appeared was one in which the embryonic trade union movement had not yet emerged as a major actor on…
PlaceSharpeville, Gauteng
Sharpeville Township holds many sad memories and is Home to the Memorial at the 'Human Rights Precinct'. Sharpeville is situated +/-14 km from Vereeniging.In…