SAHO global search

1927-2018

Zondeni Veronica Sobukwe

Zondeni Veronica Sobukwe was born on 27 of July 1927 in Hlobane, Natal (now Kwazulu-Natal), South Africa. Mrs Sobukwe (then Miss Mathe) was a trainee nurse…

B-0123818

1981

Julius Sello Malema

Early years and Political involvement Julius Sello Malema was born on 3 March 1981, in Seshego, Limpopo, and raised by a single mother who worked as a…

B-0067164

1941

Navanethem (Navi) Pillay

Navanethem (Navi) Pillay was born on 23 September 1941 in Clairwood, Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). She attended the University of Natal (now University of…

B-0124151

1928-2023

Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi

Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, son of Princess Magogo Constance Zulu kaDinuzulu, King Solomon’s sister, and Inkosi Mathole Buthelezi, the King’s Prime…

B-0007905

1893-1975

Allison Wessels George Champion

Allison 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 American…

B-0007933

1899-1996

Mary Agnes Stainbank

Mary Agnes Stainbank was born in 1899 on the farm Coedmore in Bellair, Durban. She was educated at St. Anne's DSG at Hilton. Stainbank was an artist way ahead…

B-0066295

1955

Bantu Holomisa

Major General (Retired) Bantubonke (Bantu) Harrington Holomisa was born on 25 July 1955 at Mqanduli, Transkei, the son of the late Chief Bazindlovu Holomisa…

B-0088574

1873-1917

Nokutela (nee Mdima) Dube

Nokutela Dube was the first wife of Reverend John Langalibalele Dube, the first President General of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC- later…

B-0093906

1930

Josiah Khiphusizi Jele

Josiah Khiphusizi Jele was born on 1 May 1930, in Alexandra, Johannesburg. He was a son to Joseph Jele and Alvinah Khanyile Jele.Like many black South Africans…

B-0070373

1942-1991

Dumile Feni

Zwelidumile Geelboi Mgxaji Mslaba “Dumile” Feni was born on 21 May 1942 in Worcester, Western Cape. His mother died when he was only five or six years old and…

B-0008062

Potlako Leballo

He was born in 1924 near Mafeteng, Basutoland (now Lesotho), the son of an Anglican minister. In 1940, while a student at Lovedale, he concealed his age and…

B-0008304

1924-1992

Zuleika Sarojini Christopher

Zuleika (Zulei) Sarojini Christopher, the eldest daughter of Advocate Albert Christopher and Ghadija Gool, was born in 1924 in Greenwood Park, Durban, where…

B-0096411

1927-2020

Advocate George Bizos

George Bizos was born in 1927 in Vasilitsi, near Koroni in the south of Greece. During World War II, when the Germans occupied Greece in 1941, the young Bizos…

B-0007857

1952-2008

Sibusiso (Sihle) R. Mbongwa

Sibusiso (Sihle) R. Mbongwa was born in 1952. After joining the African National Congress’ military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in 1977, Mbongwa commanded a…

B-0008522

mid 1800s-1921

Martin Lutuli

Martin Lutuli was born in the mid-1800s, he was raised and educated at the American Zulu Mission at Groutville in Natal, where his parents had been among the…

B-0008346

1952-2008

Colonel Sibusiso (Sihle) R. Mbongwa

Sibusiso (Sihle) R. Mbongwa was born in 1952. After joining the African National Congress’ military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in 1977, Mbongwa commanded a…

B-0067929

2012

Bongani Mdze

Bongani Mdze (28) was from Jabavu, Mataliele in the Eastern Cape. He began working for Lonmin in 2005. He was the first person in his family to work at the…

B-0121615

1894-1982

Madie Hall-Xuma

A. B. Xuma's wife, Madie Hall-Xuma and a prestigious figure in middle-class social circles, she headed the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL)…

B-0009246

1922

Mary Goitsemang Ranta

Ranta was born in 1922 and grew up in the Pretoria area. After leaving school, she worked as a ‘tea girl’ at the Pretoria mint, and later took employment as a…

B-0068382

1898-1969

Nana Sita

Please note: this is an extract from E.S. Reddy collection of articles. Nana Sita was born in Matwadi, a village in Gujarat, India, in 1898, in a family…

B-0009073

1956

Paul Weinberg

Paul Weinberg was born in 1956 in Pietermaritzburg into a progressive middle-class Jewish family. His father was a lawyer and his mother a music teacher. He…

B-0068755

Gaur Radebe

Gaur Radebe was born in 1908 and completed about seven years of schooling. As an activist in both the Communist Party of South Africa and the African National…

B-0008925

1925-2020

Harold Strachan

Robert Harold Lundie "Jock" Strachan was born in 1925 in Pretoria. He obtained a BA (FA) from the University of Pretoria, and won an Emma Smith Scholarship to…

B-0009105

1910-1960s

Jameson Gilbert Coka

Jameson Gilbert Coka was born in 1910 on a white farm near Vryheid, Natal, the son of a sharecropper. He won a bursary to Adams College, where he completed his…

B-0007951

1919-2010

Ian David Kitson

Ian David Kitson was born the 25 August 1919, in Cape Town. He joined the Communist Party in 1940 when it was still a legal organization. After serving as a…

B-0008264

1870-1946

Anna 'Sister Nannie' Tempo

Anna 'Sister Nannie' Tempo, was born of a slave mother and father who were kidnapped as children off the coast of Mozambique. She was born in the late 1870s…

B-0124732

1897-1976

Helen Elizabeth Martins

Helen Elizabeth Martins was born on 23 December 1897 in the Karoo village of Nieu Bethesda in the Eastern Cape. She was the youngest of six children and spent…

B-0008456

1912-1974

Johanna Catharina Cornelius

Johanna was born in Licthtenburg on 27 February 1912 to an Afrikaner family where she grew up. Their family was very nationalistic, with both their father and…

B-0069428

1932-1997

Rissik Haribhai "Barney" Desai

Rissik Haribhai "Barney" Desai was born into an Indian family on 10 April 1932 in Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), South Africa. According to South Africa’s…

B-0007992

1847-1929

Millicent Fawcett

Fawcett was part of the Ladies’ Committee that was sent over from Britain during the Anglo Boer War in order to inspect the conditions in the concentration…

B-0067466