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ArticleTeachers League of South Africa (TLSA) conference in 1925
Background The establishment of the Teachers’ League of South Africa (TLSA) emerged out of increasing racial segregation in the Cape. While segregation had…
ArticleThe Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa
The landscape of Black political activity in the 1960s was different that of the previous decade. The apartheid government had banished the Black resistance…
ArticleForced removals on Highveld and "black spots", 1912-1991
In the early 1960s the Apartheid government moved swiftly to dislodge numerous Black communities on the Transvaal Highveld occupying land in what was…
Growth of African Nationalism and Defiance
The 1940s saw a growth of African nationalism that positioned itself to challenge the rising Afrikaner nationalism. The ANC which was weak in the 1920 and…
ArticleCongress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) was launched on 1 December 1985, at the height of the struggle against apartheid. As a federation, it…
ArticleA history of Soweto
The consequence of this promising wealth was that a great number of people left their farms, rural homes and other towns in South Africa to make a quick buck…
Re-emergence of resistance, 1980-89
By the early 1980s, the Congress movement was becoming established as the most effective force in the fight against apartheid throughout the country. With the…
Article1960 - 1994: Armed Struggle and Popular Resistance
1984-1990:- The people armedIntroductionNumerous factors characterised the intensification of the freedom struggle against the National Party government in the…
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…
ArticleGarment Workers Union (GWU)
Formed in 1928 by Emil Solomon (Solly) Sachs, this was a union of women factory workers that transcended barriers of colour and class. In the late 1920s and…
ArticleThe Youth Struggle
From the early years of colonial rule, South African youth had participated in various forms against the racist character of colonialism, oppression, and…
ArticleAhmed Mohamed Kathrada Timeline: 1929 - 2017
… I would be accorded such status." 1990 In the early 1990s, Kathrada is one of an ANC delegation that meets with …
The Rise of Women’s Trade Unionism in South Africa by Peter LaNasa
This article was written by Peter LaNasa and forms part of the SAHO and Southern Methodist University partnership project Abstract: This essay discusses…
ArticleWestern Cape Civic Association (WCCA)
Civic organisation also experienced problems in organising across the racial divide. Initially the emerging civic organisation in African township and coloured…
ArticleUnited Democratic Front (UDF)
The United Democratic Front (UDF) was an anti-apartheid body that incorporated many anti-apartheid organisations. It was launched in 1983, in Mitchells Plain…
ArticleOrganisation of African Unity (OAU)
… for regime overthrow which continues till this day. By the 1990s, South Africa’s Apartheid regime was in fast decline …
ArticleJohn Maxwell Coetzee timeline 1940-2003
1940 Born in Cape Town. 1960s Graduates from the University of Cape Town with Mathematics and English. 1972 Earns a PhD in literature from the…
ArticleThe Society of Young Africa (SOYA)
The Society of Young Africa (SOYA) held its opening conference on 20th December 1951. Led by I. B. Tabata, SOYA was closely linked to the Non European Unity…
ArticleSouth African major mass killings timeline 1900-2012
… Other events emerged from wage strikes. In the early 1990s, the political violence claimed a number of lives …
State policies and social protest, 1924-1939
One of the most important developments in South Africa in this period was the formation of the Pact Government in which the push for independence from Britain…
ArticleSophiatown Timeline
Pre-1860s South Africa is still a predominantly agrarian 1860s-1880s This period marks a turning point in South African history when the discovery of…
Rafique Mayet
Rafique (Rafs) Mayet was born in 1955 in Durban, Natal (now Kwazulu-Natal). Mayet matriculated in Durban and worked at various jobs since completing school,…
ArticleFatima Meer Timeline 1928-2010
1928 Fatima Meer was born in Durban, daughter of Moosa and Amina Meer. 1940s Established literacy classes for adults in her father's garage She spent…
Port Elizabeth an Overview
The first formal settlement of the Algoa Bay region took place in 1776 when a number of farms were allocated to local Dutch graziers. In 1799 the British…
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…
ArticleThe role of gender in Ndebele architecture
Gender roles in Ndebele home-making From the 1940s onwards the settlement at Hartbeesfontein began to be visited increasingly by researchers, including Barrie…
ArticleDrafting of the Final Constitution
Introduction The transition from the Apartheid era to the new democratic dispensation was a powerful and fundamental process for South Africans. With many…
ArticleCongress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa
… According to Lungisile Ntsebeza, ‘As early as the early 1990s, CONTRALESA under chief Holomisa rejected the notion …
ArticleCode Name Rae book launch soon
Rajaluxmi Pillay (also known as Rajes) was born in 1944 in Pietermaritzburg and grew up in Kimberley. She studied in Britain between 1963 and 1966, before…
ArticleStaffrider magazine (1978-1993)
… as editor of Ravan Press when Kirkwood retired. In the 1990s, Ravan Press was acquired by Hodder and Stoughton. …