SAHO global search

1920-1977

Elmon Malele

Elmon Malele was born in Mapulaneng in the Limpopo Province (Transvaal) in 1920. Malele came to Johannesburg in 1943, and stayed in Alexandra township. He was…

B-0008416

1928-2013

Judge Jan Hendrik Steyn

Jan Hendrik Steyn was born in Cape Town, Western Cape on 4 March 1928. His mother, Zerilda Steyn, was a pioneer of social welfare in South Africa, founding the…

B-0097080

2012

Thembelakhe Mati

Thembelakhe Mati (50) was from Ntabankhulu in the Eastern Cape. On 13 August 2012 Mr Mati was killed after he was shot in the leg. Initially the state…

B-0121626

1886-1964

Charles Kwelemthini Sakwe

Charles Kwelemthini Sakwe was born about 1886 in Idutywa in the Transkei and educated at Clarkebury Institution. After a period of apprenticeship at the court…

B-0008979

1976

Fenuel Mogatusi

Mr Fenuel Mogatusi, aged 22, a Soweto school student,was detained in July 1976 and died in detention on 28 September 1976.The Act under which he was held was…

B-0074827

Professor Sir Raymond Hoffenberg

Professor Sir Raymond (Bill) Hoffenberg was born in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Province (now Eastern Cape) on 16 March 1923. He went to school in Port Elizabeth…

B-0095464

1858-1936

Dr. Walter Benson Rubusana

Walter Benson Rubusana was born on 21 February 1858 at Mnandi in the Somerset East district of the then Cape Colony. His father was a senior councillor …

B-0008970

1907-1987

Richard Gert Sibande

Richard Gert Sibande was a leader among farm workers in the eastern Transvaal. He was an African National Congress (ANC) activist, and one of the first-string…

B-0068451

1937-1965

Frederick John Harris

Frederick John Harris was born in 4th of July in 1937. He was a teacher, a member of the executive committee of the Liberal Party In 1962 in the Transvaal, as…

B-0008145

Diana (Di) Bishop

Diana Bishop was born in Cape Town. She made her first political statement at age eleven in 1961 when South Africa became a republic. During the celebrations,…

B-0007856

Gwede Mantashe

Gwede Mantashe was born in the village of Lower Cala in the Transkei (now Eastern Cape). He received a B.Comm degree from the University of South Africa (Unisa…

B-0070789

Mavuso Walter Msimang

Mavuso (Walter) Msimang was stationed and trained primarily in central Tanzania, at Kongwa, an ANC military base in the 1960s. He became a leading member of…

B-0068145

1933-2017

Miriam Tlali

Miriam Tlali was born in Doornfontein in Johannesburg, Transvaal (Gauteng). She grew up in Sophiatown. Miriam wanted to study literature at the University of…

B-0097205

1954

Tony Sithembiso Yengeni

Sithembiso Tony Yengeni was born in Cape Town and grew up in two Cape townships, Gugulethu and Nyanga. He completed his matric at Fort Beaufort college in Cape…

B-0068905

1941-1978

Rick Turner

Rick Turner [Richard Albert David Turner] was a charismatic political philosopher and theorist who was also an activist and educationist. He was highly…

B-0009169

1927-2005

Kalushi Drake Koka

Kalushi Drake Koka was bornin Pietersburg on the 9th  of June,1927. He enrolled for teacher training after completing his matric. In 1960, he became actively…

B-0095114

1929-1981

Joe Nzingo Gqabi

Joe Nzingo Gqabi was born in 1929 in Aliwal North, Cape Province. He completed the tenth grade and found work as a construction labourer after coming to…

B-0008120

1922-1963

Solwandle Looksmart Khulile Ngudle

Looksmart Khulile Ngudle was born on 22 May 1922 in KwaZali village, near Alice in the Eastern Cape. His mother, Notyhume, named him Looksmart because when he…

B-0008782

1938-2002

Stephen Vukile Tshwete

Tshwete was born in Springs, just outside Johannesburg, on 12 November 1938. He grew up in the village of Nkonkqweni, in King William's Town and in East London…

B-0009166

1936-2011

Lawrence Schlemmer

Eminent sociologist and political analyst Professor Lawrence Schlemmer was born in Pretoria, Transvaal (now Gauteng) on 11 September 1936. After matriculating…

B-0096867

1929-2026

Leon Levy

Leon Levy was born on 7 August 1929 in Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng Province), South Africa, to Mary and Mark Levy, immigrants from Lithuania. Levy and…

B-0008326

1954

Lindiwe Nonceba Sisulu

Lindiwe Sisulu was born on the 10th of May 1954, in Johannesburg. She is the daughter of African National Congress (ANC) veterans, Walter and Albertina Sisulu…

B-0009071

1892-1975

Haile Selassie I

Early years The 225th and last Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie was born in Ethiopia in a region called Ejersa Gora on 23 July 1892. His birth name given…

B-0098558

1918-2016

Kobera Manual

Aunty Kobera Manual of Ocean View died at the age of 98 on Wednesday 27 July 2016. In 2009 I interviewed her at her home in Ocean View, when she shared some…

B-0121850

1898-1967

Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli

Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli, Africa’s first Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in 1960, was President-General of the African National Congress (ANC) from December…

B-0008345

1985

Bathandwa Ndondo

As a young child, Ndondo’s maternal grandmother raised himwhile his mother, Lulama Sidumo (nee Ndondo),worked. Following the death of his grandmother, his…

B-0075601

Poonoosamy Ruthnam Pather

Poonoosamy Ruthnam Pather (PR) was born in Mauritius in 1895.  His grandfather settled in that country after emigrating from Tanjore in India in the 1840s. PR…

B-0068301

1937

Sylvia Neame

Sylvia Brereton Neame (also known as Sylvia Neame-Jahn) was born in 1937, one of four children. She had two older brothers, Peter and Graham, as well as a twin…

B-0095076

1959

Cheryl Carolus

Cheryl Carolus was born on 20 April 1959 in the Cape Flats of Cape Town to a working class family. Her father was employed as a printer’s assistant and her…

B-0007922

1956

Stephen Marais

Stephen Marais was born in Stellenbosch in 1956. My mother-tongue is English, my ouma-taal Afrikaans. He was nine when Verwoerd was assassinated in 1966 and…

B-0125758