Biography Index

Artist

Durban Former SASO vice-president and BPC member. In 1975 restricted with his wife Brigitte Mabandla to Tsolo area, Transkei. Exile

Youth co-ordinator at the Institute of Race Relations, Durban, teacher, legal advisor to the ANC Legal and Constitutional Affairs Department,  Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and Minister of Housing

Political activist, writer, member of BPC, Vice President of AZAPO and President of SOPA

South African Sculptor and Woodcarver

Member of the ANC and MK, died in exile

member of the ANC and MK, killed by the South African Security Police

Executed 

Chairperson of ANC Zola Branch and member of Soweto Civic Association

A 21 year old who was executed at Pretoria Central Prison for political activities

South African artist well known for painting and printmaking

Teacher, shopkeeper and secretary and bookkeeper of Abantu-Batho, the ANC newspaper, ANC treasurer-general

artist

Member of the ANC and MK

Member of the Congress of South African Students, African National Congress Youth League, South African Communist Party, trade union organiser and community activist

Banished person

banished person

Banished person

Banished person

Member of the PAC; deputy editor of Sowetan

Banished person

Member of the PAC, trade unionist

Stabbed to death

Killed in Sharpeville on 21 March 1960

Mabhida was an outstanding leader of humble origins who became a dominant figure in the trade union movement, the African National Congress (ANC), South African Congress of Trade Uninons (SACTU), uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Commissar and the Communist Party

Mabhida was an outstanding leader of humble origins who became a dominant figure in the trade union movement, the African National Congress (ANC), South African Congress of Trade Uninons (SACTU), uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Commissar and the Communist Party

Executed

Member of the ANC and MK - killed by mutineers

Killed in Sharpeville massacre

Minor, Worker, Casualty

Struggle activist, President of the ANC Youth League at Fort Hare University, uMkhonto weSizwe cadre, African National Congress member and first South African High Commissioner to Namibia.

Struggle activist, President of the ANC Youth League at Fort Hare University, uMkhonto weSizwe cadre, African National Congress member and first South African High Commissioner to Namibia.

Banned

MK Commander killed by police

Mabukane Ntobeko also known as Bhengu Smilo - died in a n accident in Angola in 1979

banished person

Member of ANC and MK. Died in Zambia of natural causes

Member of the ANC and MK

photographer and farmer

David Dabede Mabuza was born 25 August, 1960 in Brondal, Mpumalanga. He matriculated from Khumbula High School. He obtained a National Teacher’s Certificate from Mngwenya College of Education in 1985. He furthered his studies at University of South Africa (UNISA) with Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989.

Chief Executive Councillor of the Kangwane Legislative Assembly in 1976, founder member of Inyandza National Movement in 1978, author, Inspector of Education and teacher.

member of the ANC and MK

Artist

Member of the ANC and MK. Died in exile

Artist

Robben Island prisoner

Deputy Director of the Frelimo Secondary School in Tanzania, member of Frelimo's Central Committee and the Minister of Education and Culture in Mozambique, Chairperson of the National Organization of Children of Mozambique.

Politician and Freedom Fighter. Revolutionary leader of the Mozambican liberation movement FRELIMO and Mozambique's first President, killed in a controversial plane crash in 1986.

School teacher, member of the ANC and MK, killed in exile

Banished person.

Robben Island prisoner & banned person. Member of the PAC

His real name was Charles Rawden Maclean and he had run away to sea at the age of 12.

Astronomer

Student activist, businessperson, member of SASM, PEBCO, UDF and ANC National Executive Committee

Founder member of Pebco, trade unionist and member of COSAS, one of the 'Cosas Two'

Member of the ANC and later COPE

Banned

Founding judge of Constitutional Court.

Robben Island prisoner

Banished person.

Author, illustrator, sculptor, and philosopher

Member of the ANC and MK. Died in exile in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)

Member of the African National Congress (ANC). Died in exile in Tanzania on 12 February 1986.

Political Activist

Educationist, first African Chancellor of the University of the North and Author.

Member of the ANC and MK

June 16 casualty - was shot in the left shoulder

Robben Island prisoner and Banned person

Banished person

Teacher, member of the Cape African Teachers Association (CATA) and the Society of Young Africa (SOYA), lawyer, political activist, exile, political prisoner, member of the Unity Movement.

ANC Political Activist and ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, President of ANCWL, member of the NEC of the ANC

Member of the African National Congress (ANC)

Political prisoner on Robben Island

Teacher, Chairperson of the Northern Transvaal Teachers' Union, member of the UDF and the ANC, branch secretary of the South African Communist Party, President of SADTU, President of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Member of the Congress of

Member of NOW, UDF, ANC and the Central Committee of the SACP. Delegate to the Codesa talks, Deputy Minister of Defence of the Republic of South Africa (17 June 1999 - 28 April 2004), Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of South Africa (29 April

Member of the ANC and MK, political prisoner

Member of the ANC and MK, political prisoner

A member of the African National Congress (ANC) and uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK). Was killed in Angola

Trade unionist and provincial secretary of the ICU

Political Activist, Chair of the ANC in Alexandra, later joined the PAC

Member of the Society of Young Africa, political activist, Director of the Multidisciplinary Research Centre at the University of Namibia, Author, Member of CODESRIA and Professor of Anthropology and Sociology of Development. 

Trade unionist, National Vice-President of the ANC Women's League and member of the National Executive Committee of the 

Trade unionist, National Vice-President of the ANC Women's League and member of the National Executive Committee of the 

Television personality, actor, writer, director, producer, musician and businessman

President of the African National Congress in the Orange Free State and ex-officio member of

Political Activist

Journalist, detained, banned. Exiled in Paris

Executed by order of MK Military Tribunal 

June 16 casualty

Artist

Killed in Lesotho - raid/assasination

Member of the ANC and MK

Banned

Died in exile

Teacher, civil servant, novelist, poet, playwright, women’s activist, awarded the Order of Ikhamanga in Bronze for her literary and humanitarian contributions and her outstanding achievements in literature and for using her pen as a weapon in the

South African photographer, politcal detainee and banned person

Banished person

Banished person.

Teacher, court interpreter, minister and first President-General of the ANC

Killed in battle 

Member of the ANC and MK

Trade unionist, member of SACTU, 1956 Treason trialist

Member of the ANC and MK

Chief and Community leader in Ndzundza-Mabhoko tribe.

Chief Minister of former KwaNdebele homeland and founder member of the Intando Yesizwe Party, Founder member of CONTRALESA, Member of the ANC and UDM.

Banned person

Chairperson of COSAS (KwaThema, Springs, East Rand), member of the ANC and MK

Artist, educator

Printmaker and artist

Member of the ANC and MK. Killed in exile in Angola

Sharpeville massacre casualty

Banned person

Advocate, first Black judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa

Lawyer, business person and member of the ANC and SACP, Regional Secretary of the UDF (Natal)

Businessman, member of the national executive committee of the Pan Africanist Congress, editor and filmaker  

Journalist and writer

Leader of South Africa’s official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA).

Advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa, volunteer in the South African Armed Forces, appointed King’s Counsel (KC) and Queen’s Counsel (QC), Chair of the Johannesburg Bar Council from 1952 -1960, Vice-Chair and Acting- Chair of the General Council of the South African Bar from 1954 – 1960, Judge of the High Court of Rhodesia, Judge President of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, President of the United Hebrew Congregation, President of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, the South African Zionist Federation and the Israel United Appeal, member of the Board of Governors of Israel’s Jewish Agency, Trustee of the Weizmann Institute, author.

Death in exile

Banned person

Teacher and member of Liberal Party

Medical practitioner and Provisional Secretary of the ANCYL

Clerk, miner, founding member and secretary of the African Mineworkers' Union. Organizing secretary of the Orlando branch of the ANC 

Trade unionist, ANC Treasurer-General, member of the SACP

Former Apla Cadre, SA Boxing & IBO Champion

Banished person, Civil Rights Activist, member of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League, active in the Evaton bus boycotts in 1955 and an accused in the 1956 Treason Trial. Make was also a Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) representative in Cair

South African singer and human rights campaigner, Makeba was the first vocalist to put African music onto the international map in the 1960s. Makeba is well known throughout the world known as 'Mama Africa' and the 'Empress of African Song'. 

Politician, journalist, teacher and president of the South African Native National Congress, 1917-24.

Banished person.

Member of the ANC

Teacher,  President of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League; accused in the 1956 Treason Trial. Makgothi was also detained on Robben Island for 8 years for trying to leave the country without a passport; member of the SACP and ANC Depu

Painter

Member of ANC and MK, ANC head of the Department of International Affairs, teacher, political activist and freedom fighter. 

ANC Chief Representative in Cuba, served in the Foreign Affairs Department in numerous countries, recipient of the Order of the Lion for meritorious service in Senegal  

Artist

Member of Black Sash, imprisoned for attempting to undergo military training.

Trade unionist, Chairperson of the Langa Batchelors Quarters branch of the African National Congress (ANC), 1956 Treason trialist

Painter

Banished person. 

Political Activist, Chairman of the ANCYL branch, Secretary of the Laundry Workers Union, ANC NEC member and member of MK.

Political Activist, Chairman of the ANCYL branch, Secretary of the Laundry Workers Union, ANC NEC member and member of MK.

The first registered professional Black nurse in South Africa, early activist in the struggle for women’s rights and protestor in the first anti-women’s pass campaign in 1912.

Member of the ANCYL, ANC and 1956 Treason trialist

Artist

Teacher, tailor and member of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union. Participated in the 1946 Indian Passive Resistance Campaign

member of SASM, ANC, SACP and MK, exile and Deputy Minister of Defence

Political activist, political prisoner and President of the PAC.

The first Black woman to register as a medical doctor in South Africa, founder member of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YMCA). 

Dutch Reformed Church Minister, editor, National Party leader and First Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, 1948 - 1953

Magnus Malan was South African Defence Minister in the apartheid governement for eleven years, between 1980 and 1991. In 1996, he and ten other retired military leaders were acquitted of murder and conspiracy charges in connection with 13 political murders that occurred in 1987. Prior to being acquitted they were released on bail ranging from $800 to $2 700 in South Africa's biggest post-Apartheid political trial.

Scriptwriter, theatre director, poet, cultural worker and activist, trade unionist, conductor of creative writing workshops for youth and children who are victims of violence and abuse, gender activist, editorial and film consultant and filmmaker

Printmaker and founder of The Caversham Press

Member of the African National Congress. Planned an attempted coup d'etat in Bophuthatswana. MEC for Agriculture in North West Province 

Chief of Bahananwa people imprisoned for defending the independence of his chiefdoms against the Traansvaal Boers.

A member of the African National Congress (ANC), Malele was an activist involved in the 1952 Defiance Campaign, one of the accused in the 1956 Treason Trial and a detainee under the Suppression of Commu

Chairperson of Cosas and President of the African National Congress Youth League, Founding Member and President of the Economic Freedom Fighters

Political activist

Novelist, poet, dramatist and scholar who helped establish Afrikaans as a cultural language in South Africa

Trade unionist, member of the ANC, President of the UDF (Western Cape)

A bookeeper involved with the CPSA.

Trade unionist and member of the ANCYL

South African Gospel music singer & talk show host

founder of the African Democratic Party

member of the ANC and MK, died in exile

Political activist

Political activist

Artist

exile, artist

Teacher, Provincial secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) in the OFS

Artist

Miner, Worker, Marikana Casuality

Lawyer and Political leader.

Member of the SRC at University of Zululand, member of SASO, National Organiser BPC, President of AZAPO, Chairperson of the BCMA, former Deputy Minister of Education and Minister of Science and Technol

First Black qualified nurse in the Transvaal.

Nurse, lecturer, consultant in development studies, National President of the YWCA of South Africa, Regional Director of the Christian Institute of Southern Africa, political prisoner, banned person and exile

President of Bophuthatswana and Chief Councilor.

Banned person

resident of Bophuthatswana and Chief Councilor.

Producer, director and lighting designer, awarded the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver for his excellent skills in theatre lighting design and administration, and his practical and technical contribution to theatre in South Africa and the field of art.

A member of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and the NUDW.

Editor and Journalist 

Trade unionist, General Secretary National Union of Mine Workers (NUM), Chairman of the SACP and ANC Secretary General.

banished person

Minister in the Presidency: National Planning Commission of the Republic of South Africa since 11 May 2009 and Member of National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC since 1991.

Visual Artist

Labour activist, member of the ANC, SACP and SCATU, Member of Parliament

Member of ANC and MK, Chief Logistics Officer for the Luthuli Detachment and Member of the Limpopo Legislature

Chief of the Maphumulo tribe and first President of Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA)

Chief of the Maphumulo tribe and first President of Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA)

Political Activist and founder member of the ANC.

Businessman

Once an unrehabilitated terrorist,now an administrator.

Author and poet

A member of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and the African National Congress (ANC)

A bookeeper and a member of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and the African National Congress (ANC)

Member of the African National Congress, business woman, Governor of the Reserve Bank.

Banished person.

Film Director

Community activist, member of the Ratepayers’ Association of Merebank, participated in protests and demonstrations. 

Photographer

Photographer

Teacher, political activist,  trade unionist, banned person, political prisoner, exile, President of the Transvaal Branch of the African National Congress, one of the leaders of the 1952 Defiance Campaign, co-conspirator in the Rivonia Trial, Pres

Political activist, member of ANC, MK, UDF and SACP, Democratic Party Member of Parliament, Vice President of UDF

 teacher, political activist,  trade unionist, banned person, political prisoner, exile, President of the Transvaal Branch of the African National Congress, one of the leaders of the 1952 Defiance Campaign, co-conspirator in the Rivonia Trial, Pres

An entrepreneur.

A founding member of the Liberal Party of South Africa.

Founder member of NUSAS and the Liberal Party, member of the Editorial Board of Reality, founder member of the Institute of Race Relations, Author and Historian. 

A member of the African Resistance Movement (ARM)

Artist, Poet and activist, member of the African National Congress (ANC); the South African Communist Party (SACP) and a Member of Parliament since 1994

Sculptor

Banished person.

Trade unionist

MK soldier, one of the accused in the  "Delmas Four" case, news reader, news writer, member of the National Assembly.

Nurse, Entrepreneur, Nelson Mandela’s first wife

Teacher, poet, head the ANC's Department of Arts and Culture, ANC's NEC member, executive director for public and corporate affairs for De Beer Consolidated Mines, trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and the Nelson Mandela Foundati

Celebrated musician, singer, composer and trumpet player

A self-taught artist with little formal schooling, Maseko began painting in 1959.

Chairman of the Orlando Branch (ANC) during the 1952 Defiance Campaign, ANC national executive committee, President of the Swaziland National Union of South Africa, Deputy-president of the Swaziland Progressive Party and m

SA painter and Zion Christian Church Deacon

Member of the ANC. Active in anti-pass campaign

Teacher, member of the ANCYL, member of the Pan Africanist Congress, and political prisoner. 

founder member of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) and the Azanian Student's Organisation, Member of the ANC’S NEC, former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency

founder member of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) and the Azanian Student's Organisation, Member of the ANC’S NEC, former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency

ANC member

Member of COSAS, Co-founder of AYCO, UDF in the Transvaal and presently Minister of Arts and Culture in South Africa.

ANC member. Was active in the Defiance Campaign of 1952

Member of the Lebowa Legislative Assemblyand banished person.

Member of the ANC and SACTU, Bishop in the Bantu Apostolic Faith Mission Church, faith healer, member of the Lebowa Legislative Assembly, political detaineeand banished person.

Trade Unionist

Student leader,in the Soweto student uprising of 16 June 1976

Provided a safe house for exiled South Africans living in Swaziland (now Eswatini), recipient of the Government’s National Order of Luthuli

International soccer player and former SA team member of Cosmos and Mamelodi Sundowns

Member of BCM, PAC and Robben Island prisoner.

Judith Mason was a prominent South African visual artist. 

Political activist and MK Commissar,  Robben Island prisoner. Later in life he played a key role in the formation of the new SA National Defence Force.

Secretary of the Transvaal Council of Non-European Trade Unions, Deputy volunteer-in-chief for the Transvaal in the 1952 Defiance Campaign, Treasurer of the Transvaal ANC, first general secretary of the South African Congress of Trade Unions,

Musician and Singer, exiled person

Sculptor

Banished person

Member of the ANC’s armed wing (MK), imprisoned on Robben Island.

Leader of the former homeland of Transkei between 1963-1985, Eastern Cape

banished person

Photographer

Organiser for the African Mineworkers' Union. Participated in the Defiance Campaign of 1952. Elected secretary of the Transvaal ANC,  served on the national executive committee of the ANC, accused in the Treason Trial, from 1956 to 1961.

Singer and Actress

mine worker, President of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU)

Miner, Worker, Marikana Casuality

Member of the  African National Congress, imprisoned during the 1952 Defiance Campaign 

Member of the ANC, ANCYL and MK, political prisoner and secretary of the UDF’s Border region.

Member of the African National Congress (ANC). One of the chief organizers of the 1952 Defiance Campaign in Port Elizabeth, Provincial Secretary of the Cape Congress in 1952 Joined the Basutoland Congress Party, later left the BCP a

banished person

Banished person

Four-time world flyweight boxing champion.

Banished person

banished person

banished person

banished person

Banished person

Banished person

Banished person

Nursing sister, woman activist, for her outstanding contribution to the struggle for liberation and for the ideals of a just, non-racist and democratic South Africa was awarded the Order of Luthuli in Bronze.

Banished person

Teacher, anti-pass activist, and civil rights campaigner. Cape provincial organiser of the African National Congress Women's League and vice-president of the Federation of South African Women defendant in the 1956 Treason Trial

Driver for the Boer commandos during the South African War, court interpreter, member of the Pretoria Location Advisory Board, served on the National Executive of the ANC,  member of the Transvaal African Congress and African Mineworkers Union (AMWU)

MK member, for his contribution to the struggle against apartheid and standing for the ideals of a free, just and democratic South Africa was awarded the Order of Luthuli in Silver.  

Northern Sotho Novelist

Banished person.

South African jazz pianist, composer and journalist.

Writer, poet, dramatist and  political activist

Pianist, singer and composer

Radiographer, literacy director of SASO, political prisoner, banned person

South African printmaker

Poet, Musician, and Community Activist

Poet, novelist, writer and political prisoner

Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister of Botswana and Assistant Attorney General in Botswana, Chairman of the ANC Youth League in Rosettenville, member of the ANC and Central Committee of the SACP, lawyer, Chief Executive Officer

South African academic, African National Congress politician, Botswana's first ambassador to the USA and envoy to the UN

A member of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), South African Communist Party (SACP) and uMkhonto weSizwe (MK)

Artist and graphic designer

Member of the African National Congress national executive committee, defendant in the 1956 Treason Trial 

Banned person

banned person

banned person

Activist, one of the first Black women graduates in South Africa and one of the first Black South Africans to fight for freedom from exploitative and social conditions of African women.