SAHO global search

1923-1986

Moses Mabhida

Moses Mbheki Mncane Mabhida was born in Thornville near Pietermaritzburg on 14 October 1923, into a poor family which was later forced off the land. Mabhida…

B-0008353

1980

Mmusi Aloysias Maimane

Mmusi Aloysias Maimane was born in Krugersdorp, Transvaal (now Gauteng) on 6 June 1980 to Ethel and Simon Maimane but grew up in Dobsonville, Soweto, Transvaal…

B-0125899

1885-1959

Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu

Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu (D. D. T) Jabavu was born in the Cape Colony in 20 October in 1885. He was the eldest son of John Tengo Jabavu, a politician turned…

B-0008190

1871-1939

Robert Gwelo Goodman

Robert Gwelo Goodman was born in 1871, Taplow, England. Goodman's The Parade and the City Hall, Cape Town (1917) is a painting that has special relevance for…

B-0008112

1944

Kevin Dowling

Kevin Patrick Dowling was born in Pretoria and was ordained as a priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer on 9 July 1967. He was appointed the…

B-0008019

1954

Bulelani Thandabantu Ngcuka

Bulelani Ngcuka was born on 2 May 1954 in Middledrift, Eastern Cape. His early schooling was in the former Bantustan of Transkei. He later married Phumzile…

B-0008775

Veerammal Naidoo

Veerammal Naidoo, wife of Govindasamy Krishnasamy Thambi Naidoo*, suffered greatly because of the repeated imprisonments of her husband, a leading political…

B-0095281

Ndeutala Selma Hishongwa

Ndeutala Hishongwa was born in 1952 in Okalili, northwest Namibia. She trained as a nurse and in 1974 joined SWAPO-in-exile in Zambia. She was sent to Sweden…

B-0099833

1961-1988

Johannes Maisha (Stanza) Bopape

Stanza Bopape was born on 26 April 1961 in Mamelodi East. He began high school studies at Rebalelaka Secondary. He decided to move to Mamelodi High where he…

B-0007871

1917

Peter Nkutsoeu Raboroko

Peter Nkutsoeu Raboroko was born in 1917 in the Orange Free State where his father was employed as a farm laborer.  He grew up in the slums of Sophiatown in…

B-0068365

1917-1997

Godfrey Mokgonane Pitje

Godfrey Mokgonane Pitje was born in 1917, in the northern Transvaal, the son of semiliterate Bapedi parents. Studious and able, he made his way to Fort Hare,…

B-0068312

1959-2010

Mthuthuzeli Tom

Mthuthuzeli Tom was born on 7 September 1959, in the village of Mpongo outside East London, and was one of eight children. His mother was a domestic worker and…

B-0009153

Ramnie Dinat

Ramnie Naidoo, the daughter of Ama and Narainsamy Thambi Naidoo, worked in the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress (TIYC) since her childhood. At the age of nine,…

B-0095275

1889-1970

James “Sofasonke” Mpanza

James "Sofasonke" Mpanza was born in 1889. Mpanza was founder and leader from the mid-1940s of the Sofasonke Party of Orlando township, Johannesburg, and a…

B-0008680

1904-1996

Nokukhanya Luthuli

Nokukhanya Luthuli, maiden name Bhengu, (also known as MaBhengu) was the wife of Chief Albert John Luthuli. Although she never became as public a figure as her…

B-0122581

1919

Olive Peace Landman

Beginnings Olive Peace Rosenberg was born in Knysna on 5 August 1919, the eldest daughter of Hendrika Jacoba Pieterse and Ellis Lawrence Rosenberg. Hendrika…

B-0122648

1883-1967

Ethel Ruth Prowse

Born in Queenstown in 1833, Ruth Prowse is known for her significant contribution to South African Art. She spent her childhood on the slopes of Devil Peak in…

B-0008917

1927-2013

Frederik Bester Laubscher

Frederik Bester Howard (Erik) Laubscher was born on 3 February 1927 in Tulbagh, in the Cape. His father was a Glasgow trained physician with strong interests…

B-0096005

1929-1994

Ruth Gosschalk

Ruth Gosschalk was born on 27 July 1929 in Muizenburg, Cape Town. She was one of four children. Her parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe. Gosschalk’s…

B-0080096

1952

Oupa Joshua Gqozo

Joshua Oupa Gqozo was born in Kroonstad on 10 March 1952. He is the son of Anna and Fikile Joel Gqozo. His father was a skilled labourer and religious minister…

B-0008121

1939-2013

Pius Nkonzo Langa

Pius Nkonzo Langa was born in Bushbuckridge in the eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga), South Africa, on 25 March 1939, the second of seven children. In 1957,…

B-0008295

1890-1968

Eric Hendrik Louw

Louw was a politician and a diplomat.  During the 1930s, he was South Africa’s first ambassador to the United States and the League of Nations. Eric Louw was…

B-0008337

1859-1942

Lord William Waldegrave Palmer Selborne

Lord William Palmer, the second Earl of Selborne was born in 1859. He studied history at the University of Oxford. He was Under-Secretary for the Colonies from…

B-0009014

2012

Cebisile Yawa

Cebisile Yawa (24) was from Cala in the Eastern Cape. He began working for Lonmin in 2007. On 16 August 2012 Cebisile was killed at scene 1 after being shot…

B-0121616

2018

Vondela Landingwe

Vondela Landingwe played rugby for Crusaders in Gugulethu and Western Province under the auspices of the non-racial South African Rugby Union (SARU) during the…

B-0125519

2012

Thabiso Johannes Thelejane

Thabiso Johannes Thelejane (55) was from Pabellong, Matatiele in the Eastern Cape. He began working for Lonmin in October 2011. On 16 August 2012 Mr Thelejane…

B-0121613

Nicholaas Frederic de Waal

Born in Rotterdam in 1853, De Waal was the son of a banker who received a commercial education in Brussels and studied law. He travelled to Europe and America…

B-0123406

1930-2018

David Goldblatt

David Goldblatt, one of South Africa’s most famous documentary photographers, is internationally acclaimed for his work. The grandson of Lithuanian-Jewish…

B-0008106

1948

Zanemvula Kizito Mda

Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda (Zakes), was born in Herschel, Eastern Cape, South Africa, in 1948 to Rose Nompumelelo, a nurse, and Ashbey Peter Solomzi Mda, a…

B-0008533

1920

Marutle Flag Boshielo

Boshielo was born to a poor family in 1920 in Phokoane village, in the Sekhukhuneland district in Northern Transvaal, now Limpopo Province.    Boshielo joined…

B-0007873