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EventFormer South African Prime Minister and State President John Vorster is born
Former South African Prime Minister and State President, Balthazar John Vorster was born in in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape on 13 December 1915. Vorster began…
EventSouth African Defence Force (SADF) raid Maseru in an effort to kill suspected members of the African National Congress
In the early hours of December 9th, 1982, South African Defence Force commandos crossed the border into Lesotho. Their target was a cluster of houses on the…
ArchiveCongress Resister 1983 - 1989
Congress Resister was published by the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC), which was formed at the turn of the twentieth century by Mahatma Gandhi. It was not…
ArticleThe Sedition Trial 1946 - 1948
The history of the struggle against racial oppression and exclusion in South Africa is inextricably intertwined with the struggle of workers against…
ArticleThe effects of WW2 in Africa
Africans resisted colonial rule from the outset, trying to hold on to their land, but were not strong enough to defend themselves against European conquest…
ArticleA History of Abantu-Batho Newspaper 1912-1931
Newspapers or publications by African people played a critical role in giving them an alternative space to articulate their views. The emergence of a number of…
ArticleIndian South Africans
From bondage to freedom - The 160th anniversary of the arrival of Indian workers in South Africa The feature on Indian South Africans forms part of our…
ArticleTransport on land
The first form of transport on land was, of course, WALKING! Content Animals Carts, wagons and coaches The bicycle The steam engine and the train …
PlaceMauritania
Mauritania, Country on the Atlantic coast of Africa. Culturally it forms a transitional zone between the Arab-Amazigh (Berber) populations of North Africa and…
PlaceStaats Model School, Van der Walt Street, Pretoria
Sir Winston Churchill escaped from this Building when, for a time it was used to House Prisoners-of-War, during the Anglo-Boer War. Single-storied red brick…
EventBanned PAC Leader, Robert Sobukwe, is refused an exit permit to leave SA
On 22 June 1971 a Pretoria court ruled that the former leader of the banned Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Robert Sobukwe, would not be allowed to use his…
EventThe Rivonia Trialists are charged with sabotage and attempting to violently overthrow the state
On this day in 1963, the Rivonia trialists were charged with sabotage and attempting to violently overthrow the South African government. This after a raid by…
EventGeraldine Fraser is born
Geraldine Fraser was born on 24 August 1960, in Lansdowne, Cape Town, the daughter of a teacher and factory worker. She became politically active at…
EventDetectives testify against members of the ANC and the Congress Alliance in the infamous Treason Trial
On 18 February 1960, South African Police (SAP) detectives continue to give evidence at the Treason trial against the accused. The 156 accused in the trial…
EventF.W. de Klerk announces Nelson Mandela will be freed on 11 February
The announcement by President F. W. de Klerk in parliament on 10 February 1990, that Nelson Mandela would be released from prison, unconditionally the next day…
EventMazizi Maqekeza, ANC member, is shot dead whilst in hospital in Maseru, Lesotho
Mazizi Maqekeza and Mbulelo Ngona were among the many South Africans who fled across the border to join the African National Congress (ANC) in their armed…
EventPrime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is killed in Nigeria’s first military coup
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the first Prime Minister of Nigeria after it gained independence. He served his term as Prime Minister from 1957 until he died in…
EventState of emergency declared after Sharpeville Massacre
This was the first such declaration of a State of Emergency by the Apartheid state. During these periods, the government had free reign to suspend civil…
ArticleRuth First timeline 1925-2012
1925 4 May, Ruth Herloise First is born in Johannesburg to Julius and Matilda First, Jewish immigrants (from Latvia and Lithuania, respectively) who helped…
ArticleAfrican National Congress Timeline 1950-1959
After coming to power in 1948, the National Party-led government began implementing apartheid by passing a series of racist laws, notably the Population…
ArchiveAll That Glitters - Bridging two worlds by Emilia Potenza
From the book: All That Glitters by Emilia PotenzaAn industrial revolution was affecting the lives of everybody living in Southern Africa. By the 1920s, one or…
Biography of Mtutuzeli Dudu Pukwana by Nick Mencia
Abstract: Mtutuzeli Dudu Pukwana was a South African jazz pianist and alto saxophonist from Port Elizabeth. Due to rising political oppression imposed by the…
ArchiveBiography of Nawal El Saadawi by Sierra Hussey
Nawal el-Saadawi has been creative her entire life. As a young girl, she imagined becoming a singer or a dancer. Her dreams of becoming an artist were opposed…
ArticleDavid Goldblatt Timeline
1930 Born in Randfontein, South Africa, in 1930, the third son of Eli Goldblatt and Olga Light, both of whom came to South Africa as children with their…
EventCiskeian police disrupt residents' meeting
The Ciskeian police disrupted a residents' meeting, which was held to inform those residents of Peelton unable to attend a previous meeting, of the…
PlacePretoria High School for Girls, Park Street
Pretoria High School for Girls was started by Lord Milner in 1902 as part of his efforts to anglicise the Transvaal under British Occupation. And so it was…
ArchiveCHAPTER 9 - Tactics of talks, Tactics of confrontation, The Road to Vula, July 1985 - December 1986 Insurrection cannot be led from afar. by Howard Barrell
… engaged in their first known exchange of signals since the 1960s. The ANC quickly dispatched Maharaj to Botswana to take … the ANC, SACP or PAC had been. It…
ArchiveFrom conscience politics to the battlefield
This thesis examines the ways in which the Liberal Party - the Natal Division in particular attempted to become an effective political force in South Africa…
EventPaarl Riots report submitted
On 25 June 1963 Mr. Justice H. Snyman submitted to parliament a final report on the 1962 Paarl Riots. The report analysed the main causes of the riots, and…