Biography Index

Political leader, journalist, editor and an organiser for the Natal Indian Congress, the Communist Party and the Congress Alliance, accused in the 1956 Treason Trial, editor of Sechaba

Medical doctor, co-founder and first chairperson of the Anti-Segregation Council, President of the NIC

General Secretary of the Natal Indian Congress and of the SAIC. He was a defendant in the 1956 Treason Trial

political activist, political prisoner, banned person, listed as a Communist, member of the Parents of Detainees Committee.

Political activist, political prisoner, member of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress, founder of the Human Rights Committee, Assistant Secretary of the Transvaal Anti-South African Indian Council, Mayor of the South-Western Substructure

 
Political activist, political prisoner, member of Lenasia Students’ Union.

Trade unionist, member of the national council of Non-European United Front, member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party, radio journalist

Political and labour activist and former Minister for Posts and Broadcasting.

Teacher, lawyer, university lecturer, author, member of the NEUM, NIC, SACP, ANC and MK, Recipient of the Order Of Luthuli In Silver for her outstanding contribution to Human Rights and the struggle against Apartheid

Political activist, banned person, political prisoner, member of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress, Federation of South African Women

Important figure in the history of Satyagraha (passive resistance) in South Africa, member of the Executive of the Transvaal British Indian Association, led some 300 resisters across the Transvaal border in defiance of discriminatory laws against India

 
Political prisoner, took part in passive resistance.

President of South African Council on Sport (SACOS), President South African Amateur Swimming Federation, insurance agent.

Political activist, political prisoner, imprisoned  during  the Indian Passive Resistance Campaign and the 1952 Campaign of Defiance against Unjust Laws, Vice-President  of the TIC, execu

Trade unionist, participated in the 1952 Defiance Campaign, Vice-President of the Transvaal Indian Congress, member of the South African Communist Party, political prisoner, Non-European United Front, Chairman of the Transvaal Peace Council, Vice-Presi

A member of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA)

Medical doctor, Vice President of the Natal Indian Congress and a pioneer in women's resistance

Political prisoner, took part in passive resistance and miners’ strike of 1913.

 Treasurer of the Transvaal Indian Congress, banned person. 

fgent 1929 - 1932.
A South Indian, Reddi\'s main political base was Madras. He seems to have had a varied education, attending the Arts College in Rajahmundry , the Madras Christian College , the Madras Law College and the Madras University . Before jo

Activist, Trade Unionist, Treason Trialist, Political Prisoner and later Member of Parliament.

Member of the Progressive Garment Workers’ Union

Journalist and author

Self-taught medical assisant 

Award-winning South African Zulu potter

Labour activist and lecturer

Artist

Activist, Teacher, Director: Research coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation at Department of Basic Education. 

Member of the National Executive Committee of the  Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA), Black Sash, South African Council of Churches and Christian Institute and an activist in the Anglican Church, Feminist, anti-apartheid activist and

Clerk, teacher, workers’ leader, treason trialist, banished person, member of the ANC, SACTU, SACP and PAC.

author, editor, conscientious objector, President of National Union of South African Students, national organiser of the End Conscription Campaign, consultant for the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa

A businessperson, played an active role in the Evaton bus boycott of 1955 to 1956. He had earlier been jailed for participation in the 1946 Indian Passive Resistance Campaign. Branch chairman of the Transvaal Indian Congress in Evaton, and was an accus

Member of the Dutch Reformed Church, Wife of Beyers Naude

Youngest member of the Broederbond, Minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, moderator of the Southern Transvaal DRC synod, founder member and Director of the Christian Institute and editor of the Christian Institute's publication Pro Veri

 
Teacher and member of the Transvaal African Teachers' Association and the African National Congress Youth League
 

President of the Northern Transvaal region of the UDF, Robben Island prisoner. He died in detention 

Banished person.

Member of the Companions Catholic Order, helped form local women’s organisations in the Transvaal region and in 1984 was elected president of the Federation of Transvaal Women (FEDTRAW).

Teacher, founding member of the South African Native National Congress, member of the SANNC delegation to England in 1914 to inform the British public on The Native Land Act of 1913

Teacher, nurse, midwife, Nursing Clinical Instructor, First Language Professionalat PanSALB, established and managed PanSALB structures, namely, the nine Provincial Language Committees (PLCs), the Eleven National Language Bodies (NLBs) and was part of

Artist

Leading author and cultural activist and former Vice-Chancellor and Principal of a number of universities.

Member of the ANC and MK. She was responsible for recruiting and transporting students to Swaziland to join the ANC and Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), member of the Observer Mission of the ANC to the United Nations in 1987 until her departure f

Active in politics in 1937 during the mass removal of the people from the African township of Korsten

Labour activist, member of the ANC. 

Maria Ndlovu is a mother of two, a rape survivor, a PWA (person living with AIDS) and a GIPA (UN Programme for the Greater Involvement for People Living with AIDS) fieldworker based at Transnet headquarters in 

Trade unionist, Political prisoner, member of the ANC and uMkhonto we Sizwe, National Secretary of SACTU, National Chairperson of the UDF and Member of Parliament.

Organised ANC branches between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and Coloured farm workers. A member of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union  and also of the CPSA 

Member of the Student Representatives Council at UNITRA, member of the Catholic Student Association, shot and killed by members of the Transkei Security police and askaris

MK commander, murdered by South African Security Police members

Secretary of the Railway Workers Union, banned person

Deputy Chief Commissioner of Police and Scientist

SASO President, teacher, trade unionist, AZAPO president and deputy president and Member of Parliament.  

A member of the Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA)

First Black Physician in Southern Africa

For his outstanding contribution in enriching the isiZulu language and culture, and revolutionary invention of a new lexicon in isiZulu, Dr Nene was awarded the Order of Ikhamanga in Bronze

African National Congress branch chairman in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg in the 1950s and one of the accused in the 1956 Treason Trial. Proprietor of a general dealer's store in Alexandra, and in the 1950s he led a group called the Alexa

Founder member and SASO permanent organizer, Turfloop SRC president, IUEF representative in Botswana, Acting Superintendent-general of the Eastern Cape department of education.

First Afrikaans novelist

A member of the Black Sash

Chairman of a Liberal Party branch in the early 1960s. In December 1960 he acted as chairman at the consultative conference of African leaders held in Johannesburg. A field secretary for the Institute of Race Relations and  worked for the Christia

South African artist and musician

Teacher, interpreter, church leader and politician.

Painter and sculptor

Feminist writer and activist

Activist and lawyer, later Chief Justice (Constitutional Court judge)

Teacher and saddler, British Commonwealth Fellow at London University, which in 1964 awarded him a PhD in economics.

Trade unionist, President of the non-European Students' Representative Council at Natal University, Natal Youth League leader, 1956 Treason Trial defendant, and later Treasurer-General of the Pan Africanist Congress and member of th

Active in the Natal African National Congress Youth League in the 1950s, he later became a member of the national executive committee of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in 1959

Activist, lawyer, National Prosecutor and Head of Scorpions special police unit.

Member of the African National Congress Youth League. Later Secretary for Foreign Affairs for the PAC.

first the black women to train and qualify as a nurse in the Eastern Cape, community health worker, Chief

Artist

Ntombikayise Priscilla Ngocobo (née Khubeka) lived in KwaMashu and was an MK member. She was abducted and murdered by Port Natal Security Branch members. Her perpetrators applied for amnesty through the TRC but most were denied as they failed to fully disclose what happened to Khubeka. Her body was found in May 1987, through forensic investigation it was found that she was shot and did not die from natural causes as her perpetrators claimed.

Court interpreter in Paarl,   arrested in connection with the "bucket strike" of 1918 but the case was later withdrawn, official of the Cape Congress he attended the 1927 Non-European Conference and served as a member of the African National

Banished person

Secretary of the Black Railway and Harbour Workers' Union, member of the Western Cape ANC, Secretary of the Cape Western Advisory Boards and Vigilance Associations, key figure in the parliamentary campaigns of Brian Bunting, Ray Alexander

Member of the ANC and President of the Eastern Cape Regional Executive of the UDF.

Jazz artist (saxophonist) 

South African musician, flautist and saxophonist

Banished person

Social anthropologist, world-renowned social scientist, author, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) member of Parliament

Banished person.

Banished person

Assistant editor of Ilanga lase Natal,editor of Inkundla ya Bantu, co-authored  the ANC Youth League Manifesto of 1944, member of the Liberal Party

Member of the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP), Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Commander and South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) leader in the Western Cape.

Banished person

Insurance agent, was active in the 1943 anti-pass campaign and the 1949 Western Areas train boycott

Political Activist and APLA combatant

Photographer 

Member of the ANC and the CPSA, in the early 1950s served as a campaign manager for several white left-wing parliamentary candidates

Member of the ANC in exile, worked in the ANC Department of International Affairs, on the North American and European Desks. She also worked as the Administrative Secretary of the ANC Women Executive Committee

Miner, Worker, Marikana Casuality

Minor, Worker, Casualty

Political Activist. Head of the ANC's youth and student headquarters in Tanzania, member of the Constituent Assembly, Deputy Minister of Intelligence Services.

Banished person

Educator, journalist, political propagandist and first Black South African with two Doctorates.

Artist, educator, television technician

ANC activist, political prisoner, ambassador, Member of Parliament .

Medical doctor, Member of the ANC Youth League, President of the Cape ANC and Chief organiser of the Defiance Campaign in the Eastern Cape in 1952

Artist - Musician

Chairman of DCO Mathewane Youth Organisation, and a member of the ANC's Self Defence Unit (SDU) in Richmond, Chairman of the ANC's Richmond branch, Secretary General of the ANC in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands region, ANC MPL, National Secr

Member of the ANC, banished person

Member of the ANC, MK and SACTU. Was killed in a SADF cross brder raid in Botswana

Businessman. Member of the Industrial and Commercial Union and the African National Congress. Leader of the Korsten ratepayers

Joseph Nkatlo was vice-chairman of the Liberal Party in the Cape, was briefly a member of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA)

Political columnist for the Bantu World, supporter of the Africanist faction within the African National Congress (ANC). Arrested in March 1960 for participating in the Pan Africanist Congress' (PAC) antipass campaign, he emerged as a spokesman for the

Member of the national executive committee of the ANC, leader of the 1957 bus boycott in Alexandra Township,  Treasurer-General of the ANC

Medical doctor and a teacher.

School principal, President of AZAPO,
 Member of the ANC, the first Deputy President of SADTU, South African Diplomat

Banished person

Trade Unionist and one of the accussed in the infamous Treason Trial of 1956

International acclaimed artist

Artist

Graphic artist

First Black matron for the Natal Provincial Administration

South African writer, academic and literary critic

Member of the Communist Party of South Africa and the ANC,organizer in the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union,during the burning of pass books in Durban in 1930 there was a bloody clash between Africans and the Durban city police, Nkosi and sever

Saxophonist, composer and record producer

Banished person

Artist

Student leader, member of SAYCO, Member of the ANCYL and ANC, Political Commissar of MK. 

Seer, prophet and diviner

Member of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL), one of the organisers and participants of the 1956 Women’s March, exiled person

Swedish chemist, engineer, industrialist and inventor of dynamite 

A member of Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA), banned by the apartheid government.

Member of the African National Congress and during the Defiance Campaignled a batch of 40 volunteers to defy apartheid regulations, for which he served two months imprisonment.

Miner, Worker, Marikana Casuality

Miner, Worker, Marikana Casuality

Musician

Co-conspirators listed at the 1963-64 Rivonia Trail

Teacher and first African advocate of the Supreme Court of Transvaal. Chairperson of the Orlando branch of the CYL, member of the national executive committee of the ANC, as well as secretary of its working committee, Secretary-General of the ANC and D

Photographer and webmaster at South African History Online (SAHO)

Journalist

fursing sister and recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal.

Minor, Worker, Casualty

Liberation struggle veteran, prominent Trade Unionist, Treason Trialist and Founding Member and former Vice President of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU).

Trade unionist, founding member of SACTU, defendant in the 1956 Treason Trial,leaders of the ‘Potato boycott’ in Southern Transvaal

Sculptor and painter

Minor, Worker, Casualty

Member of the African National Congress,  chairman of the Sophiatown Youth League and National ANC Youth League secretary. 1956 Treason Trial defendant

Fast Bowler for the South African National cricket  team

Political activist

Church moderator

Musician, charged in the 1956 Treason Trial, involved in the Rivonia Trial, Robben Island prisoner and served as an MK commander in the Border region

Educationist, author, Professor of African Languages and Dean at the University of the North (Turfloop). Later became Vice–President of the Transvaal African Teacher’s Union, Chief of the Majeje people and Chief Minister of Gazank

Miner, Worker, Marikana Casuality

Potter

Printmaker

Actor and playwright 

Miner, Worker, Casualty

Painter

Pitika Ntuli is a sculptor, poet, writer and an academic who has contributed to the political and artistic discourse of South Africa with his representations of South African society.

Banished person.

Banished person.

Banished person

founding member of UWO and SADTU, Deputy President of the ANCWL and member of the ANC’s NEC

fouth West African Peoples’ Organization leader and President of Namibia

Student activist, NUSAS President and Lawyer. 

A member of the Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA)

Labour activist.

Itola (War-Doctor)

Investigative journalist

Thinker, orator and writer

Artist

Artist

Sculptor

fournalist.

Political Activist.

Member of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union, organising secretary for the African Bakers and Confectioners Union, official of the Transvaal Council of Non-European Trade Unions. He formed the Federation of Free African Trade Unions of South Africa

member of Black Allied Workers Union, South African Congress of Trade Unions, uMkhonto weSizwe and the African National Congress, killed in exile.

exile, member of Black Allied Workers Union, South African Congress of Trade Unions, uMkhonto weSizwe and the African National Congress, killed in exile.

A member of the Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA), banned by the apartheid government.

She joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1952, and in 1954 participated in the establishment of the ANC Women’s League in Cato Manor. Dorothy was one of the leaders of the Women's March to the union buildings in 1956.

Prime Minister of Tanganyika (1961); President of Tanganyika (1962 - 1964); President of the United Republic of Tanzania (1964 - 1985).

Exiled MK member of the African National Congress (ANC) who, together with nine others, was killed in what is today known as the Piet Retief Ambushes in June 1988, recipient of a National Award from the South African Government. 

For his excellent contribution in photo journalism and placing the brutality of the Apartheid police in the international spotlight, Nzima was conferred with the Order of Ikhamanga in Bronze

Industrial Sociologist, Industrial Psychologist,  lecturer, author,  member of a number of progressive education organisations, General Secretary of the South African Communist Party, Council member at the University of South Africa; member o

Member of the ANC Youth League, chairperson of ANC branch in Alexandra and national executive committee member elected and Secretary-General  of the ANC and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Was awarded The Order of the Luthuli by President Thabo

Teacher, Secretary of the Aliwal North branch of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), member of the Communist Party of South Africa and the African National Congress, ran the Federation of Non-European Trade Unions,writer on the The Negro Worker.