SAHO global search

1942

Letta Mbulu

Letta Mbulu was born in Soweto and, during her teens, she toured South Africa and then England with the musical King Kong. She returned to South Africa at the…

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Sylvia Ncediwe Mdunyelwa

Sylvia Ncediwe Mdunyelwa was born in the township of Langa in Cape Town. Mdunyelwa started her singing career in the 1970s when she joined Victor Ntoni’s…

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1945-2013

Zolile Hamilton Keke

Zolile Hamilton Keke was born on 31st of October 1945 in East London and grew up in Duncan Village township. He attended Welsh High School in East London where…

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1938-2014

Patrick Vuyo Matshikiza

Article first published in The Sunday Independent January 4 2015 at 10:37am By Sam Mathe Johannesburg - Pianist, singer and composer Pat Matshikiza, 76, who…

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1983

Portia Modise

Portia "Bashin" Modise was born on 20 June 1983 in White City Soweto, Transvaal (now Gauteng Province). Modise chose football at a young age over the more…

B-0099532

1949

Baleka Mbete-Kgositsile

Baleka Kgositsile was born on the 24 September 1949 in Claremont, Durban. She spent her pre-school years with her grandmother in the Northern Transvaal but…

B-0008248

1940

Gille De Vlieg

Gille de Vlieg was born Gillian Ruth Hemson in Plymouth, England in 1940 during a Nazi bombing raid on the city. After losing their home in a later bombing…

B-0007997

1929-2014

Sadie Forman

A fierce non-sectarian and advocate for racial equality and women’s rights, Sadie Forman (nee Kreel) was born in 1929. Her father, Bunim Idel Krill, a Yiddish…

B-0080054

1950

Biddy Partridge

Bridget June Partridge was born in 1950 in Kenya and raised in South Africa. Biddy Partridge first began work as a freelance photographer for the South…

B-0008865

1927-2011

Professor Carel Boshoff

Carel Boshoff was born on 9 November 1927, a second child from the second marriage of his father. He spent his early life on a cattle farm in the Waterberg…

B-0007874

1952

Antjie Krog

Antjie was born on 23 October 1952 on a farm in the Free State. She completed her BA degree with Afrikaans (cum laude), Philosophy (cum laude) and English at…

B-0008279

1942

Vera Gow (Adams)

Vera Gow was born on 14 February 1942 in Cape Town. Her primary school years were spent near Evaton in the Free State Province where her father was Dean of the…

B-0008119

1932-1988

Johnstone Mfanafuthi Makhathini

Johnstone “Johnny” Mfanafuthi Makhathini was born in Durban on 8 February 1932. He attended school at Adams College in Durban where he trained as a teacher…

B-0094854

1952

Nozizwe Charlotte Madlala-Routledge

Nozizwe Charlotte Madlala-Routledge was born in KwaZulu-Natal on  29 June 1952. She attended Magog and Fairview Schools. Madlala-Routledge matriculated at the…

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1931-2018

Eric Mtshali

Eric (Stalin) Mtshali was born in Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). After completing high school he became active in the anti-apartheid movement in Natal…

B-0094345

1919

M. J. M. Williams Shope

M. J. M. Williams Shope was born in 1919 in the Letaba district of the northern Transvaal, he became a breadwinner for his family at an early age and received…

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1930-2015

Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith was born in 1930. She was a journalist and became the first woman news editor in Africa of the Sunday Times in Johannesburg in the 60s when the…

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The Taung Child

In November 1924, a fossilized child's skull was found in a quarry at Taung in the present-day Northwest Province. Professor Raymond Dart discovered that it…

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1949-2009

Henry Eric Isaacs

Henry Eric Isaacs was born March 21 in 1949,He grew up in Raisethorpe,a peri-urban area of Pietermaritzburg.His family was of diverse racial composition:one…

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1954

Wendy Schwegmann

Wendy Schwegmann was born in 1954 in Zululand, where she spent her youth. She has a diploma in Interior Design from Natal Technical college and is a graduate…

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1918-1998

Mark Shope

Mark Shope, SACTU General Secretary Mark Shope was born in 1919 in the Letaba district of the Northern Transvaal, he became a breadwinner for his family at an…

B-0009039

1923

Diamond Bozas

Diamond Bozas was born at Isipingo. He studied at the Chelsea School of Art, London.  He was a founder member and Chairperson of the Zululand Society of Arts…

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1841-1948

M. N. Bhola

M. N. Bhola was born and educated in the Cape Province. She was an organizer of the women's section of the African National Congress (ANC) from the mid-1920s…

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John S. P. Motloheloa

John S. P. Motloheloa was born in Basutoland (now Lesotho), he grew up in the Orange Free State and went to Cape Town in 1938. In the mid-1950s he was acting…

B-0068114

1892-1977

Moses Kottler

Moses Kottler was born in Joniskis, Lithuania. Sources differ as to the date of his birth – some give it as 1892, others as 1896. As a child, his parents moved…

B-0008275

1893-1947

Sir Shafa’at Ahmad Khan

Born in Moradabad, Khan was, like Raza Ali, an unofficial Muslim appointment from U.P. After attending the Government High School in Moradabad, he studied at…

B-0008252

1958

Zubeida Jaffer

Zubeida Jaffer is a journalist who was active in the South African anti-apartheid and the trade union movements. She obtained a bachelor's degree in journalism…

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Anna Tempo

Tempo started off working by looking after Henrietta Schreiner’s nephews. She soon converted to Christianity and began helping Schreiner with her welfare work…

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Tu Nokwe

Tu Nokwe was born into a family of musicians. Her father, Alfred, was in a jazz swing band and her mother, Patty, was a soprano singer. When her father…

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1882-1962

Florence Louise Zerffi

Florence Louise Josephine Zerffi was born in 1882, London, England. She came to Cape Town in 1916 after studying art in London and at the Arts and Crafts…

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