SAHO global search

1937

Adriaan Vlok

… and Nicolaas Vlok. He grew up on a smallholding close to the Orange River, attending Neilerdrift Primary School and … where he matriculated in 1956…

B-0009209

1893-1958

Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom

… Born on 14 July 1893, J G Strijdom served as Prime Minister of South Africa from 30 November 1954 to 24 August 1958. During the 1920s Strijdom practised law…

B-0009106

1948

Gavin Jantjes

… Gavin Jantjes was born in Cape Town in 1948. He studied at the University of Cape Town's Michaelis School of Fine Art until 1969. On … a DAAD scholarship to…

B-0008198

1923-2014

Nadine Gordimer

… originally from Latvia and her mother, Nan Myers, was of British descent. From her early childhood, Gordimer witnessed how the White minority increasingly…

B-0008117

1946-2011

John James Issel

… John James Issel was born on 17 August 1946 in the wine-growing area of Worcester outside Cape Town . At a tender age, he worked on a vineyard, cleaning…

B-0064876

1943-1989

Dr. Abu Baker Asvat

… This article was written by Michelle Hayman and forms part of the SAHO Public History Internship The ‘People’s Doctor’ ‘He struggled to liberate society from…

B-0084103

1911-1963

Paul Ramotsoane Mosaka

… secondary education was at Headltown near Fort Beaufort in the eastern Cape. He read for a Bachelor of Arts degree with the University of Fort Hare. While…

B-0008652

1926-1977

Viola Hashe

… Viola Hashe was born in 1926, in Gabashane in the Orange Free State (now Free State Province ). Hashe was a teacher by profession. Hashe became involved in…

B-0080306

1949

Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe

… Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe was born on 19 July 1949 at the Boksburg-Benoni Hospital. He grew up in Alexandra, … worker married in 1946. Motlanthe (also known…

B-0068113

1893-1975

Allison Wessels George Champion

… was born on 4 December 1893 at Sans Souci School near the mouth of the Tugela River in Natal. His father had been adopted by …

B-0007933

1852-1918

Schalk Burger

… General Schalk Willem Burger was born on the 6 September 1852. At the age of 21 he worked as a clerk at Lydenburg in the office of the … Marleen Flemmer, …

B-0096010

1913-1979

Mary Moodley

… Orange Free State (now Free State). She was the second eldest of 10 children born to Tom Anderson, a miner of Danish … and Katherine Anderson, a descendant…

B-0080864

1942-2018

Gerald Patrick Kearney

… at Catholic schools and for some years was a brother in the Marist order and the son of a civil servant .As a young boy he heard pastoral letters … The…

B-0125558

1798-1872

King Mpande kaSenzangakhona

… Mpande was king of the Zulu nation from 1840 to 1872, making him the longest reigning Zulu king. He was a half-brother of … Made King of the Zulu’s once he…

B-0008679

1985

Bathandwa Ndondo

… his mother, Lulama Sidumo (nee Ndondo),worked. Following the death of his grandmother, his mother took him to her elder sister’s family, the Ntsebeza’s, in…

B-0075601

Jomo Kenyatta

… born Kamau to parents Moigoi and Wamboi ”” his father was the chief of a small agricultural village in Gatundu Division, Kiambu District ”” one of five…

B-0099749

1942

Pitika Ntuli

… Born in Springs, situated east of Johannesburg , Pitika Ntuli grew up with a keen interest … got involved in politics, and he was an active member of the…

B-0122541

1920-1973

Robert M. Resha

… Eastern Cape] on 9 March 1920. He completed eight years of formal school and in his late teens went to work as a miner on the Reef. After several years, he…

B-0008948

1950

Siphiwe Nyanda

… Siphiwe Nyanda was the eldest of the six children of Betsy and Henry Nyanda, a traffic inspector and area …

B-0008841

1953

Edwin Cameron

… obtained a BA in Jurisprudence with first class honours, the Jurisprudence Prize, BCL with first class honours and the Vinerian Scholarship. Cameron later…

B-0007916

1963

Robert John McBride

… Robert John McBride was born on 6 July 1963 at the segregated Addington Hospital in Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), in the section set aside for Coloured…

B-0067934

14 January1918-1999

Dimitri Tsafendas

… Dimitri Tsafendas was the parliamentary messenger who assassinated Prime Minister … his father, his step-mother, Maria, and step-siblings. The racial divides…

B-0009157

1878-1941

Simon Petros (Peter) Matseke

… is known about his early life except that he was a member of the Bakgatlo tribe. He was drafted as a driver for the Boer commandos during the South African…

B-0008492

1904-1996

Nokukhanya Luthuli

… Luthuli, maiden name Bhengu, (also known as MaBhengu) was the wife of Chief Albert John Luthuli . Although she never became as … admiration for her and…

B-0122581

1899-1995

Edwin Thabo Mofutsanyana

… Edwin Thabo Mofutsanyana was born in the Witzieshoek area of the Orange Free State in 1899. He worked at various times as … Teacher, miner, journalist,…

B-0067969

1935

Judge Albert Louis “Albie” Sachs

… Sachs , had arrived in South Africa from Lithuania at the age of six, on the eve of the First World War, and his mother, Ray, had … Member of the ANC, helped…

B-0008976

1925-2012

Professor Emeritus Phillip Tobias

… High School in 1939 where he matriculating in 1942. At the age of 15 even before he finished his schooling, he decided to … his sister, Val, who was 21, died…

B-0086265

1899-1976

Dora Taylor

… Dora Taylor was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1899. At the age of six her mother died of tuberculosis. She was rejected by … years. After completing grammar…

B-0089634

1933-2020

Denis Theodore Goldberg

… parents, Sam and Annie, had both been born in London, the children of Lithuanian Jews who had left the Pale of Settlement to escape the Russian pogroms. Sam…

B-0008105

1770

Chief Dingiswayo

… Paramount Chief of the Mthethwa and leader of various northern Nguni groups who lived in the Zululand area before  Shaka  brought them under his … Paramount…

B-0067421