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Event5 bodies found: Kempton park killings
On the 15th of September 2026, Police confirm that the death toll in the investigation into the bodies of women found in Gauteng has risen to seven. The…
BiographyThabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki was born on June 18 1942, in Mbewuleni (meaning ‘place of seed’), a tiny village in Idutywa in Transkei (now Eastern Cape). His middle…
ArticleThe National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU)
Introduction The National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU) is South Africa's second largest trade union federation with more than 400 000 members. Its largest…
BiographyProfessor Hoosen Mahomed "Jerry" Coovadia
Professor Hoosen Mahomed "Jerry" Coovadia was born in Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal - KZN) on 2 August 1940. His grandparents had come to South Africa…
ArticleSouth Africa in the 1970s
During the early 1960s, civil society was disempowered and social movements were repressed. Although the capacity for social movements to impose change…
EventSouth African President Thabo Mbeki hails Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for making history by becoming Africa's first elected woman president in post-war elections
South African President Thabo Mbeki hails Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for making history by becoming Africa's first elected woman president in…
ArticleThe Western Front
At the outbreak of the First World War, Germany put into operation the Schlieffen Plan. This plan was based on the assumption that in case of a war breaking…
ArticleThe Big Debate
The Big Debate is a national forum that brings together all sectors of society, including government, civil society, the private sector, experts, youth,…
ArticleThe Padavatan Six and the 1917 Natal Floods
On 28 October 1917 more than 400 market gardeners from the Springfield Flats (Tintown) area in Durban, Natal (now Kwazulu-Natal) drowned when the banks of the…
ArticleAll African Convention, 1958
'The All-African Convention: The Awakening of a people' - By I.B. Tabata Bloemfontein also played host to yet another important meeting which was held in…
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…
Insurrections I,II and III: Music as Ancient as the Future by Samuel Hove
Rumours had it that the Insurrections Ensemble was working on a piece loosely based on Aime Cesaire’s version of the Tempest for 2015. It has been hard to say…
BiographyCharles Robberts (Blackie) Swart
Charles Robberts (Blackie) Swart was born on 5 December 1894 in Morgenzon, Winburg district. He was the son of Hermanus Bernardus Swart and Aletta Catharina…
Johannesburg Timeline 1800-1991
1806 Sir John Barrow indicates on a map that gold is to be found in the approximate vicinity of either the Witwatersrand or the Magaliesberge. 1852 Gold…
ArticleA History of the South African Film Industry timeline 1895-2003
1895 The Kinetescope (invented by Thomas Edison) was a box in which people could see a moving image. The first Kinetescopes in South Africa were opened…
Indian South Africans timeline 1990-1999
Indian South Africans Timeline: 1990-1999 1990 23 July, Billy Nair was detained following police allegations of an uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) plot, code-named…
Damon – The Malabar Slave (Historic Alleys)
Read this characterization of a Slave from Malabar (Walks & Sketches – Robert Semple) – He is in all respects the best of the household slaves. Without the…
ArticlePassive Resistance Campaign Timeline
1906 11 September, A mass meeting of Indians took place at the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg in connection with the agitation at present going on in the…
BiographyDr. Frene Noshir Ginwala
Dr Frene Noshir Ginwala was born on 25 April 1932 in Johannesburg in what was then the Province of the Transvaal (now Gauteng Province). Her politics would be…
ArticleNatal Workers’ Theatre in the 1980s
Introduction Starting in the late 1970’s and reaching its height in the 1980’s, the South African province of Natal (now known as KwaZulu Natal – KZN) saw a…
Neville Alexander interviewed by Rupert Taylor and Adam Habib,25 April 1998, Cape Town
Neville Alexander 25/3/98, Cape Town interviewed by Rupert Taylor and Adam Habib Habib: We generally start off with the question of trying to get people’s…
PlaceDutch Reformed Church Hall, Uitenhage
The Dutch Reformed congregation of Uitenhage, the 10th oldest Dutch Reformed congregation in South Africa and the second oldest in the Eastern Cape is the…
Re-Emergence of Congress Activity 1980s
By 1980, the Black Consciousness organisations were in a gradual decline and struggling to avert state repression. Congress-inspired traditions were also re…
PlaceLouwsburg, Zululand
Louwsburg is a little Village on the main road to Pongola, about 70 kilometres East of Vryheid and roughly 400 kilometres North of Durban. Louwsburg is named…
BiographyWangari Maathai
Wangari Muta Maathai Anchor was a prominent Kenyan environmental and political activist. Maathai is internationally renowned for her unrelenting efforts in…
BiographyHorst Gerhard Hermann Kleinschmidt
Horst Gerhard Hermann Kleinschmidt was born on 17 October 1945 in Swakopmund, Namibia. At the age of four his family moved to Johannesburg where he grew up…
83. South African Indian Council elections, November 1981: To vote or not to vote
From the book: A Documentary History of Indian South Africans edited by Surendra Bhana and Bridglal Pachai Some 297 040 Indians out of a total of 350 000…
PlaceKuboes, Northern Cape
Regarded by the local people as the heartland of the Nama Culture, the little Town of Kuboes lies nestled between the Mountains of Ku Boesberg to the North,…
ArticleWorkshop ‘71
Theatre Workshop ‘71 was a theatre training workshop that was founded in 1971 by the South African Institute for Race Relations (SAIRR) in Johannesburg. SAIRR…
ArticleUnited Women’s Organisation (UWO)
The United Women’s Organisation (UWO) was launched in April 1981 with 400 delegates from the Western Cape attending. Some of the women who pioneered the…