SAHO global search

1947-1972

Mthuli ka Shezi

Mthuli ka Shezi was a leading Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) intellectual. He was also a playwright and a cultural activist. He was president of the…

B-0096633

1949-2015

Robert Carl-Heinz Shell

Robert Shell was born in Cape Town, South Africa on 13 February 1949, the only child of a German father, Heinrich (Heinz) Schelowsky (later changed to Shell)…

B-0100280

1929-2010

Vincent Joseph Gaobakwe Matthews

Vincent Joseph Gaobakwe Matthews born in Durban, on 17 June 1929, Matthews was one of five children of Frieda and ZK Matthews, a professor, academic lawyer and…

B-0008499

Mabel Balfour

Mabel Balfour was a South African trade unionist and an anti-apartheid activist. Balfour was first involved with the unions representing food and canning…

B-0007810

1897-1974

Victor Poto

Victor Poto was born in 1897 at Libode in western Pondoland, attended Healdtown and the' South African Native College (later Fort Hare), and was installed as…

B-0008909

1922-2003

Narainsamy Thumbi Naicker

Born 4 April 1922 in Pinetown, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). Attorney prominent in the South African Indian Congress. He was active in Natal politics as a…

B-0068193

1907-1978

Hester Elizabeth Cornelius

Hester Elizabeth Cornelius was born on 5 April 1907 in Lichtenburg Western Transvaal to an Afrikaner family. Her family was very nationalistic, with both her…

B-0007960

1919-2000

Jim Bailey

James Richard Abe Bailey was born in London on 23 October 1919. Bailey was the son of Randlord Sir Abe Bailey and Lady Mary Bailey. He grew up on a country…

B-0007807

1926-2017

Helen Kies

Helen Kies (née Abrahams) was born around 1926 in Athlone, Cape Town, Western Cape. Despite a very poor childhood, her father ensured that she received an…

B-0096277

1936-2016

Hermanus Gabriel Loots

Hermanus Gabriel Loots, also known as James Stuart, is most noted for his role in exposing brutality at African National Congress camps in 1984, which…

B-0120752

1950

Charles Nupen

Charles Nupen was born on 19 June 1950 in Durban. After starting a medical degree at the University of Natal, he switched to studying for a Bachelor of Arts…

B-0094714

1943-2009

Jan van Eck

Van Eck was born in Holland on 18 December 1943, the first born of five children.  He came to South Africa when he was five years old with his mother and…

B-0009188

1937-1999

Simon Nkabinde

Simon ‘Mahlathini’ Nkabinde was born on 30 November 1937, in Newcastle. He grew up in Alexander Township. His father died while he was young, and later he was…

B-0095274

1922-2003

Fatima Seedat

Fatima Seedat was born in the Strand, Cape Town on 14 October 1922. She attended Trafalgar High school up to what was standard 8 in those days. Together with…

B-0068443

1940-2009

Dr. Mantombazana ‘Manto’ Tshabalala-Msimang

Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was born in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal on 9 October 1940. She attended Inanda Seminary Secondary School, a boarding school for black South…

B-0085118

1949

Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was born on 27 January 1949. She received her secondary education at Amanzimtoti Training College until 1967 and began her tertiary…

B-0008011

1851-1932

Joseph Booth

Joseph Booth was born in 1851 in Derby, England. A unique figure in the missionary history of central and southern Africa, Booth was one of the earliest…

B-0007868

1875-1928

George Matthias Winkles

George Matthias Winkles was born in Birmingham, England, 1859. Winkles came to SA in 1889 to help a widowed sister stranded on the Kimberley diggings. He never…

B-0009234

1810-1906

Inkosi Sigananda Shezi

In 1906 he joined Chief Bambatha (also Bambata) and other chiefs in the rebellion against the imposition of the Poll Tax by the colonial government. During the…

B-0009034

1898-1914

Valliamma Munuswamy Mudaliar

The participation of women passive resisters was a key element of the Satyagraha Campaign of 1913 - 1914. Angered by the Supreme Court judgement in March 1913,…

B-0009182

1982

Victor M Mgadi

Victor M Mgadi was a political activist with the African National Congress(ANC) during the uprising agaisnt the Apartheid regime. He was also an Umkhonto we…

B-0076960

2012

Makhosandile Mkhonjwa

Makhosandile Mkhonjwa (28) was from Bizana in the Eastern Cape. He began working for Lonmin around 2008. On 16 August 2012 he was killed at scene 2 after…

B-0121608

2012

Thabiso Mosebetsane

Thabiso Mosebetsane (49) was from Matatiele in the Eastern Cape. He started working at Lonmin in 2008 and lived in Nkaneng informal settlement. He left behind…

B-0121617

1926-2021

Maniben Sita

Maniben Sita was born on 24 December 1926 in the Asiatic Bazaar, (Marabastad, Pretoria) in Transvaal (now Gauteng), into a highly politically-active family…

B-0068475

1914-1998

Archibald Jacob Gumede

Archibald Jacob Gumede was born in Pietermaritzburg on 1st of March in 1914,the son of Lillian (born Mgqogqoza) and Josiah Tshangana Gumede a former ANC…

B-0008130

Thomas G. Karis

Obituary by his son, Aleck Karis. Thomas G. Karis, a former foreign service officer who was a critic of U. S. policy on South Africa and who became a leading…

B-0124013

1910-2002

Bettie du Toit

Bettie Du Toit was born on 15 July in 1910, on a farm in the former Transvaal Province. She was orphaned at three when her father died. Her mother had passed…

B-0008034

1619-1677

Jan van Riebeeck

Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (Jan van Riebeeck) was born on 21 April 1619 in Culemborg, Netherlands to a surgeon. He spent his youth in Schiedam,…

B-0068654

Piet Retief

Piet Retief was born on 12 November 1780 in the Wagenmakersvallei, (known as Wellington today), Cape Province. He was the fifth of 10 children of Jacobus, a…

B-0068386

1951

Frank Chikane

Frank Chikane, the son of James and Erenia Chikane, was born on 3 January 1951 in Johannesburg. His father was  a preacher in the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM)…

B-0007939