SAHO global search

1948

Njabulo Simakahle Ndebele

Njabulo Simakahle Ndebele was born on 4 July 1948 in Johannesburg to Nimrod Njabulo Ndebele and Makhosazana Regina Tshabangu. Ndebele completed his matric at…

B-0094715

1964-2000

Julius Thamsanqa Kuboni

Kuboni was born in Johannesburg. Like his father, Gabriel Kuboni, he was a sculptor. According to Julius, his father had the most influence on his work as a…

B-0008283

1987

Johnson Ngwevela

Johnson Ngwevela was a longtime activist in the African National Congress (ANC) and the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) in the Western Cape, and in the…

B-0008786

1916-1981

Mary Susan Malahlela-Xakana

Mary Susan Malahele-Xakana was born in Polokwane (then Pietersburg). Her father had been ostracized by the BaPedi for becoming a Christian and for refusing to…

B-0009242

1919

Joseph Albert Mokoena

Joseph Albert Mashite Mokoena was born in 25 November 1919 in Johannesburg, he was educated at St. Peter's Secondary School, where he matriculated in 1938,…

B-0067980

1959-2014

Nosipho Dorothy Ntwanambi

Nosipho Dorothy Ntwanambi was born on 25 September 1959 in Gugulethu (Western Cape). She was the Deputy President of the African National Congress Women’s…

B-0098099

1885-1970

Kerr Alexander

Early Life: Alexander Kerr was the first of six children born to William and Elizabeth Findlay Kerr. When he was six years old the Kerr family moved to…

B-0007781

1868-1913

King Dinuzulu

Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo succeeded Cetshwayo as king of the Zulu nation in 1884. At the time, Zululand was experiencing a process of national disintegration. After…

B-0008008

1930-2013

Professor Bernard Magubane

Professor Bernard Makhosezwe Magubane was born on 26 August 1930 on a farm near Colenso in Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal). He was the son of labour tenants on a…

B-0095733

1911-1999

Harry Snitcher

Harry Snitcher was born on 10 May 1911 in Uniondale. His early schooling was in Uniondale and then in Gouda. After the premature death of his father in 1924,…

B-0086255

1966-2012

Sicelo Shiceka

Sicelo Shiceka was born on 8 June 1966 in the village of Ingquza Hill, near Flagstaff, Lusikisiki in the Eastern Province (now Eastern Cape) His greatest…

B-0148283

1944

Kenneth Hlaku Rachidi

Kenneth Hlaku Rachidi was born on 11 April 1944 at Ga-Nchabeleng in Sekhukhuneland, Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo). He was the first born to Maria and…

B-0068367

1951-2025

Rashid Lombard

Rashid Lombard was born in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), Eastern Province (now Eastern Cape) on 10 April 1951. In 1962, his family relocated to Cape Town,…

B-0093746

1954

Esdras Lusiba Ntloko

Early life and the 1976 uprisingEsdras Lusiba Ntloko was born on 18 July 1954 in Queenstown (now Komani) in the Eastern Cape. He became active in student…

B-0079211

1930

Stella Madge Damos

Born in 1930, Damos was a trade unionist. During the government's race classification of Coloured people, she organised a protest meeting and was charged with…

B-0007972

1954

Eric Anthony Abraham

Eric Anthony Abraham was from Wynberg, Cape Town, Western Province (now Western Cape). He was a University of Cape Town graduate who had worked as a…

B-0079862

1927

Joseph Morolong

Born in 1927 in the Northern Cape, Morolong participated in ANC campaigns in the Cape Town area and was a member of the South African Congress of Trade Unions…

B-0008649

1922

Sir Sydney Kentridge

Sydney Kentridge was born in Johannesburg in 1922. He matriculated in 1938 at the King Edward VII High School. In 1941, he obtained a BA degree at the…

B-0086256

1884-1933

Richard Msimang

Richard Msimang was the son of Joel Msimang, founder of the Independent Methodist Church of South Africa. He was among the first pupils of the Ohlange…

B-0008696

Billy Paddock

Billy Paddock, of Irish extraction, grew up in Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) in the 1950s. He attended Glenwood High School in Durban where he excelled at…

B-0076350

1964

Berni Searle

This biography was written by SAHO in collaboration with Artthrob MODUS OPERANDI When Berni Searle was asked by the Brooklyn Museum of Art what her …

B-0121599

1949

Siziwe Nosimo Balindlela

Balindlela was born on 28 November 1949 in the Western Cape at Hermanus, after which her family was forcibly moved to Middledrift in the Eastern Cape. She…

B-0007811

Dan Tloome

Born in the Orange Free State, Tloome became involved in trade union work in the 1930s and joined the Communist Party. In 1941 he was chosen vice-president of…

B-0068613

1956

Zacharia Solly Shoke

Zacharia Solomon Shoke was born on 15 August 1956 in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. Shoke received his education at Orlando High School, Soweto Township,…

B-0068448

1930

Zachius Botlhoko Molete

Zachius Botlhoko Molete was born in 1930 in Winburg in the Orange Free State of mixed Tswana-Ndebele parentage. His father was a teacher. He spent 1949 and…

B-0068070

1937-2011

Sizakele Sigxashe

Sizakele Sigxashe was born on 21 June 1937. Sigxashe joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1959 and became involved in its anti apartheid activities…

B-0071697

1897-1963

Zainunnisa “Cissie” Gool

Zainunnisa “Cissie” Gool was born in Cape Town in 1897. One of South Africa's most popular and renowned female political leaders, her father was the prominent…

B-0008113

1930

Chief Mshiywa Henry Tshabalala

Born 1930. Clerk. Lived in Alexander. Was a popular amateur boxer and lost the use of his right eye in the ring. Active in Congress since the Defiance Campaign…

B-0068640

1862-1944

Mohamed Hajee Joosub

Joosub was born in Ranavav in India in 1862. He was the youngest of five children fathered by Hajee Joosub, a merchant, farmer and herbalist. Hajee Joosub…

B-0008213

1894-1961

Hermione Stephanie Lombard Faure

Stephanie Faure was born on 9 September 1894 in Pretoria. She was the daughter of Jacobus C. Faure who was a civil servant of the Transvaal Republic, and his…

B-0008058