People

• Frene Ginwala: Editor & Political Activist. Ginwala widely published on anti-apartheid and women's issues. Born 1932.

• Ahmed Kathrada: He was very active within the Indian Congress parties that had strongholds in Natal and the then Transvaal. Ahmed M. Kathrada is a veteran of the South African liberation struggle and one of the famous Rivonia trialists, and was a long-serving political prisoner on Robben Island and Pollsmoor Maximum Prison, and ANC leader and member of parliament.

• Monty Naicker: He was a medical doctor and prominent politician. Naicker's active political involvement started in 1941 when he became involved in the Indian trade union movement and associated himself with several strikes between 1941 and 1945...

• M.P. Naicker: He was a leading organiser for the Natal Indian Congress, the Communist Party and the Congress alliance.

• Duma Nokwe: He was afiliated with the Indian Congress parties that had strongholds in Natal and the then Transvaal. He was the first African advocate of the Supreme Court of Transvaal and politician.

• Dorothy Nyembe: She joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1952, and in 1954 she 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.

• Omar Badsha: He is a self-taught, award wining artist and photographer. Badsha played a active role in the South African liberation struggle, as a cultural and political activist and trade union leader. Omar documented life in the grey street area, to view some of this work click here

• Moses Madhida: Moses Mabhida was active at Curries Fountain; he organized rallies, protest marches and umrhabulo sessions for the liberation movement.

• Thambi Naidoo: A leader of the Natal Indian Community during the Satyagraha Passive Resistance Campaign 1906-1914

“We have gathered here today to bid farewell to a warrior. We have converged from all corners of the globe to pay homage to a revolutionary….Moses Mabhida has departed from our midst.

A seeming void occupies his space, the air is so still without his voice. Like the pure note of a bugle, that voice rose from the depths of the Valley of a Thousand Hills and multiplied.

It rose and grew and multiplied, reverberating from Durban’s

Currie’s Fountain until it was heard in Dar es Salaam and Havana, Moscow and Managua, London and Jakarta, Beijing and Rio de Janeiro, Prague and Washington.

And in Pretoria the centres and symbols of oppression and repression – the Union Buildings and the Voortrekker Monument – heaved and trembled as they received his message: Death to Fascism! Down with Fascism! Freedom for my People! “
O.R. Tambo speaking in 1986 at the funeral of Moses Mabhida in Mozambique

Dorothy Nyembe after being released from detainment. Picture: Omar Badsha