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.

Mabuza has been involved in politics from his mid-twenties, holding the position of secretary of the Azania Student Organisation (AZASO) at the age of 24 from 1984 to 1985. Mathews Phosa recruited Mabuza into the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1986. He moved on to become a Chairperson of the National Education Union of South Africa (NEUSA) from 1986 till the organisation’s banning in 1988. During this time he was also a Treasurer of the Foundation for Education with Production (FEP); a Co-ordinator of the National Education Crisis Committee (NECC) from 1987 to 1989 and a Chairperson of South African Democratic Teachers Union from 1988 to 1991. Mabuza worked at KaNgwane Department of Education from 1986 to 1988 and he was a Principal of Lungisani Secondary School from 1989 to 1993.

Mabuza served as a member of Executive Council (MEC) for Education from 1994 to 1998, a position for which he was recruited by his erstwhile mentor, Mathews Phosa. Ferial Haffajee and Amil Umraw wrote for the Huffington Post that Phosa then “ [...] axed [Mabuza] when Mpumalanga's highly inflated matric results caused a national scandal.”[1] During this period, Mabuza was also serving as a regional Chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC). He would then go on to be a member of the Provincial Executive Committee of ANC from 1998 to 2006. Mabuza became a member of the Mpumalanga legislature in 1999, a position he has held until today. He was a member of Parliament from 2001 to 2004.

Mabuza has been very involved in the running of the ANC in Mpumalanga. He was a leader of Government Business in the Mpumalanga Provincial legislature in 2007. He served as a Deputy Chairperson of the ANC Mpumalanga Province in 2005 as well as MEC for Road and Transport, from 2007 to 2008, and MEC for Agriculture and Land Administration from 2008 to 2009. He was Chairperson of the Mpumalanga ANC in 2008.

As a result of Mabuza backing Jacob Zuma in the 52nd ANC National Conference in 2007, Mabuza was voted onto the ANC National Executive Committee the same year. Two years later, he was elected to the position of Premier of Mpumalanga. Under Mabuza’s control as Provincial Chairperson, the number of delegates which the province takes to the ANC elective conference has ballooned. Mpumalanga, as of the recent 54th National Conference in 2017, has the second highest delegate total of 736 delegates. This is a large amount as Gauteng, with a population of 12 million, has 508. Mpumalanga has a population of 4 million.

Mabuza has been surrounded by controversy during his stint as Premier. Mandy Wiener writes for Eyewitness News that “[i]n 2009, R14 million in cash mysteriously disappeared from Mabuza’s home in Barberton known as ‘The Farm’. The entire incident was shrouded in secrecy, with police eventually confirming R4 million had been reported stolen, but only R1,200 was actually taken. It all smelt very dodgy, but disappeared into the news ether.”[2] Furthermore, Mabuza has allegedly had a relationship with the Gupta family, evidenced by him accepting a flight on the family’s private jet. He has since distanced himself from the Guptas.

The most serious controversies surrounding Mabuza regard the spate of political assassinations in Mpumalanga. The most high profile of which was Jimmy Mohala, who was killed in 2009. The Mbombela municipality speaker had been a whistleblower regarding corruption related to the building of the R1.2 billion 2010 FIFA World Cup stadium in Mbombela. A similar series of events played out in 2010 when Sammy Mpatlanyane, the Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation spokesperson who blew the whistle on corruption regarding the tender for the Mpumalanga archives building, was killed. James Nkambule, a whistleblower claiming a hitman had been hired by politicians to kill the rival political faction in Mpumalanga, was also found to have died by poisoning. The spate of politically linked murders prompted former Police Commissioner Bheki Cele to set up a commission of inquiry in 2011 into the murders in the province. The findings of this inquiry have yet to be made public.

In 2015, Mabuza accused Mathews Phosa of defamation after Phosa sent a memorandum to ANC headquarters, Luthuli House, which accused Mabuza of being an apartheid spy. Mabuza claimed R10 million in damages from Phosa. The lawsuit was dismissed in the High Court in 2017. The two men were involved in another confrontation in 2017 as Phosa alleged that Mabuza was operating a ‘private army’ in Mpumalanga and using it to intimidate opposition. Mabuza dismissed the allegation as fabrication.

Mabuza’s self-appointed moniker is ‘The Cat’. Mandy Wiener writes that “[w]hen he returned from a mysterious two-month hiatus due to apparent poisoning in 2015, he told his supporters “the cat was back”.”[3] This is in reference to his constant political renewal as well as his ability to bounce back from political defeats. Nothing epitomises this more than his recent election as Deputy President of the ANC at the 54th ANC National Conference at the Nasrec expo centre in Johannesburg. He defeated his opponent, Lindiwe Sisulu, by 379 votes with a total of 2538 out of a total 4708.

Keorapetse William Kgositsile (popularly known as Bra Willie) was born in Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng). He attended Matibane High School. Influenced by European writers such as Charles Dickens and D.H. Lawrence, Kgositsile began writing as a hobby. He soon got a job at the newspaper, New Age, where he contributed poetry and news reporting. The New Age was a radical anti-Apartheid newspaper edited by political activist Ruth First. Kgositsile, being a member of the African National Congress (ANC), through the newspaper, found a platform from where he could voice his contempt for the system. In one interview he was quoted as saying: "In a situation of oppression, there are no choices beyond didactic writing: either you are a tool of oppression or an instrument of liberation."

In 1961, under the instruction of the ANC, Kgositsile left the country. He first went to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he worked for Spearhead magazine. The following year, he left for the United States of America (USA), where he studied at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania University, University of New Hampshire and Columbia University. He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

Kgositsile gained much success in the USA. He published his first collection of poems, Spirits Unchained. It was well received and he was awarded the Harlem Cultural Council Poetry Award and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Award. In 1971, he published his most influential collection My Name is Afrika , which established him as a leading African poet. Kgositsile wrote extensively about the American jazz scene. He also founded the Black Arts Theatre in Harlem.

In 1974 he was a founder member of the African Literature Association together with Es'kia Mphahlele, Dennis Brutus, Daniel Kunene and Mazisi Kunene, among others.

From 1962 to 1975, he lived in exile in the United States of America (USA).

In 1975, Kgositsile took up a teaching position at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In 1977 he founded the ANC’s Department of Education, and its Department of Arts and Culture in 1983. In 1978, Kgositsile married Baleka Mbete, then a member of the ANC living in Tanzania. He took up several teaching posts in other Africans countries ”” Kenya, Botswana and Zambia.

When Apartheid ended,Kgositsile returned to South Africa in 1990. He resumed his political activism, stating that even though Apartheid was officially over, not much had changed.  He constantly criticised Black leaders and the ANC government. His poem collection, When clouds clear was published the same year – the first of his work to be available in his native country.  

He previously held the position of Advisor to the Minister of Arts and Culture and holds the same position for Minister Lulu Xingwana.

Kgositsile was honoured with the South African Poet Laureate Prize in 2006 by the South African Literary Awards, a project of the wRite associates, in partnership with the national Department of Arts and Culture, Sowetan and Nutrend Publishers.

In 1996 Kgositsile was inaugurated as South Africa’s first National Poet Laureate and was later a recipient of the 2008 National Order of Ikhamanga for his contribution to the field of literature.

Kgositsile is best known for taking the resources of poetry from Africa to the African Diaspora in North America and returning the resources of African-American poetry to Africa. Lebogang Mashile, one of the youngest authors ever to win the Noma Award for publishing in Africa, has expressed her indebtedness to Kgositsile, who is often seen sharing the stage with the new spoken-word poets to whom he has been passing on the baton. His influence and inspiration is also acknowledged by established authors such as Mongane Serote, Mandla Langa and Mbulelo Mzamane.

His work includes: This Way I Salute You (2004), If I Could Sing (2002), To the Bitter End (1995), Approaches to Poetry Writing (1994), The Present is a Dangerous Place to Live (1975), When the Clouds Clear (1990), Freeword - with Katiyo, Davis, & Rydstom - (1983), Heartprints (1980), Places and Bloodstains (1976), A Capsule Course in Black Poetry Writing– with Brooks, Madhubuti & Randall – (1975), The Word is Here, ed. (1973), My Name is Africa (1971), For Melba (1971), Spirits Unchained (1969). He is also the author of numerous articles, speeches, and other materials. His poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals including Guerrilla, Journal of Black Poetry, Negro Digest, The New African, Pan African Journal and Urban Review as well as in the anthologies Black Arts, Black Fire, For Malcolm andPoems Now. Worldwide appreciation of Kgositsile is evident by the presentations of his poetry, lectures on writing as a craft, revolutionary ideas on arts and culture and anti-apartheid activism.

Professor Keorapetse William Kgositsile passed away on 3 January 2018 in Johannesburg, Gauteng.

George Bizos was born in 1928 in Kirani, Greece. In 1941 he arrived in South Africa as a World War II refugee together with his father. He was then thirteen years old. They first place to arrive at was Durban and later moved to Johannesburg where their entry was made simple and smooth by the presence of other Greek community members. While in Johannesburg he enrolled for a law degree with the University of Witwatersrand.

In 1950 he completed his law degree at the University of Witwatersrand. In 1954 he was admitted to the Johannesburg Bar. He served as an Advocate in Johannesburg until 1990 when he worked as a counsel to 40 lawyers at the Legal Resources Centre and the Constitutional Litigation Unit. During the Apartheid years Bizos dedicated his working life to fight for the basic Human Rights. After the collapse of the Apartheid he turned his fight into ensuring that all South Africans equally enjoy those rights enshrined and guaranteed by the constitution.

In his legal career he represented lot of political activists in high profile political trials. He represented Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela in both Treason and Rivonia Trial. Apart from Mandela he appeared in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission representing families of killed heroes of our liberation struggle. He represented the families of Steve Bantu Biko, Chris Hani and the Cradock Four (Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlawuli).

In the TRC he blocked amnesty applications made by the perpetrators of these murders. In 1989 he published a book called No one to blame? In pursuit of Justice in South Africa.

In 2004 Bizos represented Morgan Tsvangirai, president of the main opposition party (Movement for Democratic Change) in Zimbabwe who was charged of high Treason by Zimbabwean government. When Bizos is not in courtroom he would spend his time in vegetable gardens. Bizos received quite number of awards for the splendid job he performed during his legal career. He also occupied high positions in different institutions. On 25 October 2004 he received the International Bar Association's (IBA) prestigious Bernard Simons Memorial Award at Auckland. On 3 November 2004 he received annual Sydney and Felicia Kentridge Award, from the General Council of the Bar.

He is currently living in Johannesburg and married with three sons.

Other Achievements and Positions held by Bizos.

1979 - 1993 - acted as defence counsel in numerous high profile political trials, founding member of the National Council of Lawyers for Human Rights.

1982 - 1994 - Senior Counsel at the Legal Resources Centre in Johannesburg in the Constitutional Unit; member of the Board of Trustees of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of Witwatersrand.

1985 - 1993 - Judge of the Court of Appeal in Botswana

1994 - Honorary Member of the Athens Bar

1990 - 1994 - Member of the ANC's Legal and Constitutional Committee.

In 1999 he received the Order for Meritorious Service Class II medal from then-president Nelson Mandela

A member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers in 1999

Leader of the team for the Constituent Assembly before the Constitutional Court to certify the country's new Constitution

In 1994 he was appointed to the Judicial Services Commission to recommend candidates for judicial office and reforms to the judicial system

Justice Arthur Chaskalson was born in Johannesburg on 24 November 1931. In 1952 he graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a B.Com, and in 1954 he obtained his LLB Cum Laude. Two years later he was admitted to the Johannesburg Bar.  A keen soccer player, he was a member of the University’s soccer team and was selected for the Combined  South African Universities soccer team in 1952. 

Chaskalson acted as defence counsel in a number of important political trials during the apartheid era, including the Rivonia trial in 1963-1964 in which former President Nelson Mandela and other African National Congress (ANC) leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment.

As founding member and director of an organisation that sought to pursue justice and human rights in South Africa, the Legal Resources Centre, he challenged the implementation of several apartheid laws.  Justice Chaskalson was director from its inception in 1978 until 1993. 

Recognized as an expert in constitutional law, Justice Chaskalson was a consultant to the Namibian Constituent Assembly, was a member of the Technical Committee on Constitutional Issues in South Africa, and a consultant to the Multiparty Negotiating Forum. He was a consultant to the African National Congress during the constitutional negotiations, and a member of the Multiparty Negotiating Forum's Technical Committee on Constitutional Issues. In that capacity he participated in drafting an interim Constitution. 

Chaskalson’s official role at the negotiations was as chairman of the "technical committee".  

He was a member of the Johannesburg Bar Council from 1967 to 1971 and from 1973 to 1984, the Chairman of the Johannesburg Bar in 1976 and again in 1982, a member and later Convenor of the National Bar Examination Board (1979-1991), and the Vice Chairman of the General Council of the Bar of South Africa (1982-1987).

He has been a member of the Board of the Faculty of Law of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (1979 – 1999), was an Honorary Professor of Law at that University from 1981 to 1995, a member of its board for the Centre for Applied Legal Studies from 1979 to 1994, a member of the National Council of Lawyers for Human Rights (1980-1991),  was Vice Chairman of the International Legal Aid Division of the International Bar Association (1983-1993) and Chairman of the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee for South Africa (1988-1993).

In June 1994, he became the first President of South Africa's new Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa where constitutional matters are concerned. On 22 November 2001 he became the Chief Justice of South Africa until his retirement in 2005.

He has received several honorary doctorate degrees: in 1986 from the University of Natal, in 1990 from the University of the Witwatersrand, from Rhodes University in 1997 and from the University of Amsterdam in 2002. Awards include the Premier GroupAward for prestigious service by a member of the Faculty of Lawat the University of the Witwatersrand (1983), the Claude Harris Leon Foundation Award for community service (1984) and the Wits Alumni Hour Award for exceptional community service (1984).

According to eminent South African advocate, Jeremy Gauntlett, "Chaskalson's professional life was marked by three stages. First he was the most cerebral of advocates. His manner was formal, even cold - a devastating cross-examiner, clear but soft-spoken in argument. His manner may have dissuaded an easy camaraderie, but he was a natural leader at the Bar. Twice chairman of the Johannesburg Bar, and for five years Vice-Chairman of the General Council of the Bar, he led South Africa's advocates in innumerable confrontations with the Vorster then Botha governments over legislative and executive measures striking at human rights and an independent administration of justice."

In 1990 he received (together with Dr S. Magoba) the Human Rights Award of the Foundation for Freedom and Human Rights in Berne, Switzerland. He has also received awards for his human rights work from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and the General Council of the Bar of South Africa.

In 2002, the South African Government conferred the Order of the Counsellor of the Baobab in Gold for Exceptional Service in Law, Constitutional, Jurisprudence and Human Rights on him. The Order of the Baobab is one of the highest awards given to citizens in South Africa.

On 31 May 2005, Chaskalson retired from his role as Chief Justice, and was replaced by his former deputy Pius Langa.

Chief Justice Chaskalson passed away in Johannesburg, South Africa on Saturday, 1 December 2012,after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife Dr. Lorraine Chaskalson and two sons, Matthew and Jerome.

The former President of the Constitutional Court and Chief Justice was given a Special Official Funeral, and all national flags were at half-mast at all flag stations in the country from Monday until the 7 December. The South African Government also arranged an official memorial service for the Chief Justice.

Ahmed Mohamed "Kathy" Kathrada was born on 21 August 1929, to Indian immigrant parents in Schweizer Reneke, a small town in Western Transvaal [now North West Province].  While he attended Johannesburg Indian High School, he came under the influence of Dr. Yusuf Dadoo and the Cachalia brothers, who were leaders of the freedom movement in the Transvaal.

Kathrada’s political work began in 1941, at the early age of 12 when he joined the Young Communist League of South Africa, distributing leaflets at street corners for the League.  During World War II, he was involved in the anti-war campaign of the Non-European United Front.

In the 1940s, Kathrada first met African National Congress (ANC) leaders, Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, I.C. Meer and J.N. Singh.  At the age of 17, he left school to work full-time in the offices of the Transvaal Passive Resistance Council. In 1946, the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) launched the Passive Resistance Movement against the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act, commonly referred to as the "Ghetto Act". The Act sought to give Indians limited political representation and defined the areas where Indians could live, trade and own land. The Act was vehemently opposed. Subsequently, Kathrada participated in the Passive Resistance Campaign of the South African Indian Congress.

Kathrada was one of the 2 000 volunteers imprisoned in that campaign and served a month in a Durban jail along with other ardent resisters such as Dr Monty Naicker, Dr. Yusuf Dadoo, Dr Goonam, George Singh, Mrs Cissie Gool, M.D. Naidoo and others. This was his first jail sentence for civil disobedience.

Kathrada was a founding member of the Transvaal Indian Volunteer Corps and that of its successor, the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress. In 1951, he enrolled as a student at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) but later abandoned his studies to devote himself full-time to political activism.  As chairperson of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress, Kathrada attended the World Youth Festival in Berlin in 1951 and was elected leader of the large multi-racial South African delegation. He remained overseas to attend a Congress of the International Union Students in Warsaw, Poland.

It was during this period that he visited the concentration camps at Auschwitz, which impressed upon him the urgent need to eradicate racism in South Africa. Thereafter, he finally travelled to Budapest and worked at the headquarters of the World Federation of Democratic Youth for nine months.

Ahmed Kathrada, shot taken by the police during the Liliesleaf raid. Source: South African National Archives

As the alliance between the African and Indian Congresses developed, Kathrada came into closer contact with Mandela, Sisulu, J.B. Marks and other African leaders. The signing of the Dadoo-Naicker-Xuma Pact in 1947 strengthened the Alliance, which comprised the ANC and the SAIC. Kathrada worked tirelessly to promote joint action as a leader of the Youth Action Committee, co-ordinating the youth wings of the African, Indian and other Congresses.

In 1952, he helped organise the 'Campaign of Defiance against Unjust laws', launched jointly by the ANC and the SAIC. The Defiance Campaign targeted six unjust Apartheid laws, amongst them the Pass Laws, Stock Limitation Regulations, the Group Areas Act, the Separate Representation of Voters Act, the Suppression of Communism Act and the Bantu Authorities Act. The Government was called upon to repeal these laws by 29 February 1952. Failing this, the ANC and the SAIC were to launch a joint campaign of Defiance.

In 1953, Kathrada was elected to the executive of the World Federation of Democratic Youth in absentia, a post he was unable to take up due to restrictions placed on him by the authorities.

Kathrada was among a group of twenty officials who were charged with organising the Defiance Campaign jointly organised by the ANC and SAIC. They were given a suspended sentence of nine months with hard labour, which was suspended for two years.

In 1954, he was served with banning orders prohibiting him from attending any gatherings and from taking part in the activities of 39 organisations. These bans curtailed his overall participation in politics, but it did not deter him. He was arrested several times for breaking his 'banning orders'.

In 1955, when Indian schools in Johannesburg were moved out of the city to the segregated location of Lenasia, some 22 miles away, he helped organise the Central Indian High School parents’ association. This served as a private school, established to combat the Group Areas Act, and he was duly elected as secretary.

In the same year, he helped organise the multi-racial 'Congress of the People', which proclaimed the 'Freedom Charter', a policy document of the Congress Alliance. Kathrada served on the Alliance's General Purpose Committee.

In 1956, he was among the 156 Congress activists and leaders charged for High Treason. The trial continued for four years from 1957 to March 1961. Eventually, all 156 leaders were found not guilty and acquitted. Kathrada, Mandela and Sisulu were among the last 30 to be acquitted. Despite constant harassment by the police, Kathrada nevertheless continued his political activities.

Kathrada was restricted to the Johannesburg area in 1957, and following the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, he was detained for five months during the State of Emergency, after which the ANC and PAC were banned. In 1961, Kathrada was arrested for serving on a strike committee that opposed Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd's plan to declare South Africa a Republic.

In December 1962, he was subjected to 'house arrest' for 13 hours a day and over weekends and public holidays. He went underground and continued to attend secret meetings in Rivonia - the underground headquarters of the ANC. The following year, Kathrada broke his banning orders, and went “underground”, to continue his political work.

In July 1963, the police swooped on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, a Johannesburg suburb where Kathrada and other “banned” persons had been meeting. This led to the famous 'Rivonia Trial', in which eight accused were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.

This was Kathrada’s 18th arrest on political grounds. Although he was then no longer a member of the Umkhonto we sizwe (MK) Regional Command, he was tried with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Dennis Goldberg, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni.  All the accused were charged with organising and directing MK, the military wing of the ANC, and were found guilty of committing specific acts of sabotage. In 1964, at the age of 34, he was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island where he spent the next 18 years with his colleagues in the isolation section, known as B Section, of the Maximum Security Prison. His prisoner number was 468/64. This was a section where those considered by the Apartheid government as influential leaders or members of banned political organisations were kept. While he was still serving his sentence, the ANC bestowed on him, with its highest possible accolade, the Isitwalandwe Award.

In October 1982, Kathrada was moved to Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison in Cape Town to join Mandela, Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni who had been moved there a few months before. He was released on 15 October 1989, at the age of 60. On his release, Kathrada had spent 26 years and 3 months in prison, 18 of which were on Robben Island.

On his release, he was given a hero’s welcome in Soweto where he addressed a crowd of 5 000 people. Kathrada remarked, "I never dreamed I would be accorded such status." Walter Sisulu wrote of him: "Kathy was a tower of strength and a source of inspiration to many prisoners, both young and old."

While in prison, Kathrada pursued his academic studies and first obtained a B.A. (History and Criminology). He went on to attain a B. Bibliography (Library Science and African Politics) and two B.A. (Honours) degrees from the University of South Africa (UNISA) in African politics and History. In addition, he was awarded four Honorary Degrees, including one from the University of Missouri.

Following the unbanning of the ANC in February 1990, at its first legal conference in Durban, South Africa, Kathrada was elected onto its National Executive Committee. He also served on the ANC Interim Leadership Committee and Interim Leadership Group of the South African Communist Party (SACP). He gave up the latter position when he was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee at its conference in July 1991. That same year Kathrada became Acting Head of the ANC's Department of Information and Publicity and Head of Public Relations until 1994. Also that year he was appointed a fellow of the University of Western Cape’s Mayibuye Centre. In 1992, he went on Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). He was elected a Member of Parliament in 1994, after South Africa's first democratic elections, and in 1994-5 he was elected Chairperson of the Robben Island Museum Council. He served in that capacity until his term expired in 2006. He also served as a Parliamentary Counsellor in the Office of the President. At the ANC Conference in 1997, Kathrada declined nomination to the National Executive Committee. Then in June 1999, Kathrada took leave of parliamentary politics.

On March 4 2017, Kathrada was hospitalised for surgery related to blood clotting on the brain. Kathrada passed away on March 28th 2017 at the age of 87.

Awards:

• Honorary Degree, Central London Polytechnic, February 1986
• Honorary Degree, Canada University of Guelph, February, 1986
• “Isithwalandwe”, the highest award bestowed by the ANC, 1992
• Fellow of the Mayibuye Centre, University of the Western Cape, 1991
• The ANC's Merit Award for Long ServicePresidential Order for Meritorious Service Class 1: Gold, 1999
• Honorary Doctorate: University of Massachusetts, May 2000
• Honorary Doctorate: University of Durban-Westville 2002
• Mahatma Gandhi Award by the Congress of Business and Economics, October 2003
• Doctorate of Humane Letters: University of Missouri, January 2004
• Voted 46th in the Top 100 Great South Africans, 2004
• Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award by President of India, January 2005
• Doctor of Humanities: Michigan State University, December 2005
• Recognition award of his sacrifices and outstanding contribution to democracy, constitutionalism and human rights in South Africa, Constitution Hill Trust, October 2009
• Kentucky State Award, April 2011
• Honorary Degree from Kentucky University, April 2011
• Honorary Doctorate: University of Kentucky, May 2011
• Freeman of the City of Johannesburg, August 2012
• Honorary Doctorate: University of the Witwatersrand, 2012
• Centenary Distinguished Leadership award from ANC Rivonia “Heroes” branch, March 2012
• Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oliver Transformation and Empowerment Awards, April 2014
• Founders Award by the Asian Awards, April 2014
• Medal of the Prefecture of Reunion Island and honorary citizenship from the city of Le Port, August 2014
• Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur from the French Government, Bastille Day 2015
• City of Cape Town’s Freeman of the City, August 2015
• Doctor of Law, University of Cape Town, June 2015
• Freedom of Sedibeng Region, January 2016
• Freedom of the City of London, January 2016
• Honorary Doctorate: Durban University of Technology, April 2016
  
  
• Desmond Tutu Social Justice Award from South Africa Partners (Boston USA), May 2016
  
  
• Ad Portas’ most prestigious award honouring South African heroes from Michealhouse, October 2016
  
  
• South African Men of Year Awards: Honoured Legend, 2016

Books by and about Ahmed Kathrada include:

• 1999 – Letters from Robben Island
• 2004 – Memoirs
• 2005 – A Free Mind: Ahmed Kathrada's Notebook from Robben Island
• 2008 – A Simple Freedom
• 2009 – Dear Ahmedbhai, Dear Zuleikhabehn
• 2015 – Triumph of the Human Spirit - Ahmed Kathrada and Robben Island
• 2017 – Conversations with a Gentle Soul

Peter Magubane,  one of South Africa’s most distinguished award winning photo-journalists  was born in Vrededorp, now Pageview, a suburb in Johannesburg in 1932. He grew up and completed his high school in Sophiatown.

His interest in photography began as a schoolboy when he was given a Kodak Brownie camera. After completing his high school the young Magubane worked at a number of odd jobs but he wanted to work as a photojournalist.  In 1954 he managed to get a job at Drum magazine as a driver and messenger. The highly motivated and resourceful Magubane landed a job as Jurgen Schadeberg’s, the magazine’s chief photographer and picture editor, darkroom assistant. A year later he was given his first photographic assignment to cover the 1955  African National Congress annual conference held in Bloemfontein.  Joining Drum allowed Magubane to become part of the legendary Drum generation of black and white writers, artists, musicians and photographers.  

Between 1955 and 1963, when he left Drum magazine, Magubane covered most of the major political events in the country and befriended  the leading political figures  of the liberation movements, in particular he was a close friend of Nelson and Winnie Mandela.

In 1957 Magubane applied to join the all white Photographic Society of South Africa and his application was turned down. On the urging of Tom Hosking the then editor of Drum magazine the drum photographers spearheaded the formation of the Progressive Photographic Society and they organised the first non racial Salon at which Magubane won the first prize. He has over the years went on to won a large number of local and international awards and holds honorary doctorates from a number of South African and international universities.

In 1961 he held a one person exhibition making him one of the first photographer’s to exhibit in South Africa.

In 1963 he went abroad and worked as a freelance photographer.  Magubane held his second exhibition of his work at the London School of Printing in 1964.  In 1966 Magubane came back to South Africa and worked for the Rand Daily Mail until 1980.

 In June 1969 he was arrested while photographing protesters outside the prison where Winnie Mandela and 21 other political activists were being detained.  He was held in solitary confinement for 586 days and when he was released,  he was served with a five year banning order which meant  that he could not work for any publishing company and was forced to resign from the Rand Daily Mail. 

In March 1971, he was arrested again, spent 98 days in solitary confinement  and  then jailed for six months for breaking his banning order. When the banning order expired in 1975 he resumed work for the Rand Daily Mail. From June through to August 1976 he documented the Soweto student uprisings and was assaulted and harassed by the police on a number of occasions. In August Magubane and other black journalists were detained for 123 days and his house was destroyed in a fire.

Magubane’s coverage of the 1976 June 16 student uprisings earned him worldwide acclaim and led to a number of international photographic and journalistic awards. Magubane became an international icon of the struggle of journalists and photographers working under repressive regimes.  In 1986 he was awarded the American National Professional Photographers Association Humanistic Award in recognition of one of several incidents in which he put his camera aside and intervened to help prevent people from being killed.

From 1978 Magubane worked for Time Magazine and later freelanced for the United High Commission for Refugees and UNICEP. With the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 until he become president, Magubane was his official photographer.  Magubane has published 17 books, two of which were banned by the Apartheid government,” Black As I Am” (with poetry by Zindzi Mandela),1978 and “Black Child” in 1982.

Since the establishment of the new democracy he has stopped covering news, and has concentrated on exhibitions and publishing work from his extensive archive done over a long and distinguished career as South Africa’s foremost  photojournalist.

Mannie Manim was born in June 1941, in Cape Town. With more than 50 years’ involvement in theatre, Manim has left indelible imprints in the arts and entertainment industry in South Africa and globally. His involvement in the arts industry began as an usher at the Brook Theatre in 1955, where he worked for five years, rising through the ranks to become company manager. He left to join Leonard Schach Productions.

He worked for two years as a technical director of the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg when it opened, then moved to Theatre International for some years, eventually joining the Performing Arts Company of the Transvaal (PACT) Drama Theatre in 1967, where he was the administrative head. 

In 1973, he left PACT to start a theatre production company, known simply as The Company, with Barney Simon and a group of actors. The Company was an independent outfit committed to non-racial theatre. Manim was a co-founder of the Market Theatre in 1976 and became the trend-setting theatre’s managing director. The Market Theatre was home to international playwrights who wanted to have their plays presented there because of the commitment to non-racialism and their opposition to segregation in both society and on stage.

As the work of the Market Theatre Company became known internationally, he was also the co-producer of various productions, visiting Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the United States of America and Japan, where he was the lighting designer on many of these tours. The Market Theatre Company achieved the feat of 33 international tours from its inception until 1991.

As managing director and producer of Mannie Manim Productions from 1991 he has been presenter, co-presenter, executive producer and lighting designer for many plays in various theatres locally and abroad.

Manim's association with Athol Fugard as lighting designer or producer started in 1970 with Boesman and Lena and People are Living There at the Alexander Theatre. Since then he has lit and produced all the first South African productions of Fugard's plays in South Africa.  He worked with the inimitable Fugard on his international tours to London, Toronto, Australia and Singapore. He also worked with Mbongeni Ngema in Mama as a co-producer and lighting designer for its Australian and New Zealand tour.

Among the many highlights of his career as a lighting designer are the Cape Town Opera’s Show Boat in Sweden; Noah of Cape Town and the acclaimed I Am My Own Wife and The Tempest at the Baxter Theatre Centre; the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and in five other cities in the United Kingdom; and Sheila’s Day and John Kani’s Nothing but the Truth at the Market Theatre.

He was also responsible for the lighting on The Magic Flute and A Christmas Carol at the Young Vic and in the West End; Sizwe Banzi is Dead at the National Theatre, London; Nothing but the Truth at the Hampstead Theatre, London, the Lincoln Centre in New York, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and the National Theatre of Namibia in Windhoek; The Real Thing at the Strindberg Intima Theatre in Stockholm; Janet Suzman’s production of Hamlet in Stratford-upon-Avon; and Porgy and Bess in Umea, Sweden.

Other productions he participated in include The Island at the National Theatre and the Old Vic in London, in Toronto, at the Kennedy Centre in Washington and at BAM in New York; Carmen and The Mysteries at Wilton’s Music Hall in London, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, at the International Theatre Festival in Perth, at the Queen’s Theatre in London and at the World Stage Festival in Toronto; and Sorrows and Rejoicings at the Tricycle Theatre in London.

Some of the awards which he received include the Shirley Moss Award (1980) for the Greatest Practical and Technical Contribution to Theatre in South Africa, the South African Institute of Theatre Technology Award for Outstanding Achievement as a Theatre Technician, Administrator and Lighting Designer, and the first Vita Award for the Most Enterprising Producer. He was 10-time winner of the Vita Best Original Lighting Award.

In 1990, he was made Chevalier des Artes et des Lettres by the French Government, and the following year he received a gold medal for Theatre Development from the South African Academy of Arts and Science. He was also awarded the 2001/02 Dora Mavor Moore Award for best Lighting Design in Toronto.

In 2004, he was awarded the Naledi Lifetime Achievement Award by the Theatre Managements of South Africa.

On 27 April 2011, the State President, Jacob G Zuma, conferred Mannie Manim with the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver for his excellent contribution to the development of South African theatre and in the field of creative arts in general.

Arthur Goldreich was born in Johannesburg on 25 December 1929. He grew up in Pietersberg in the Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo). 

One morning, his secondary school headmaster announced that students would be learning a foreign language, German. The implication was clear, many Afrikaners, including some of their political leaders, hoped and believed that Hitler would win the war. When Goldreich's teacher distributed the German "textbook", Goldreich a Jewish boy found himself staring at a Hitler Youth magazine. He balked and wrote to the Prime Minister, Jan Smuts, refusing to learn German and demanding to be taught Hebrew. Goldreich got his way.

Goldreich moved to Israel to fight in the Arab-Israeli war as part of an elite underground Jewish army.  During the 1940s he was a member of the Palmach, the military wing of the Jewish National Movement in Palestine.  He returned to South Africa in 1954 and won South Africa's Best Young Painter Award the following year for his figures in black and white. He created the sets for King Kong, a celebrated South African musical tracing the tragic story of a real-life boxer.

Goldreich and lawyer Harold Wolpe bought Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, Johannesburg, in 1961 as headquarters for the South African Communist Party which was forced underground by the apartheid state. Lilliesleaf Farm also became the secret headquarters of Umkonto We Sizwe (MK), where the underground leadership of the banned African National Congress (ANC) met secretly.   Goldreich and his family provided refuge at their home on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, to Nelson Mandela and other freedom fighters in 1961. Mandela moved to the farm in October 1961, using the alias of a gardener named "David Motsamayi" to hide from the police.

During his speech from the dock on 20 April 1964 in the Rivonia Trial Mandela said: "Whilst staying at Liliesleaf farm, I frequently visited Arthur Goldreich in the main house and he also paid me visits in my room. We had numerous political discussions covering a variety of subjects. We discussed ideological and practical questions, the Congress Alliance ... Because of what I had got to know of Goldreich, I recommended on my return to South Africa that he should be recruited to Umkhonto weSizwe, the armed wing of the ANC."

As a member of the military arm of the ANC, Goldreich helped to locate sabotage sites for MK and draft a disciplinary code for its guerrillas.

Goldreich was arrested at the farm on 11 July 1963 in the now infamous Rivonia Raid.  On that day, the security police raided the farm and captured 19 members of the underground, charging them with sabotage.

Goldreich, along with Harold Wolpe, Mosie Moolla and Abdulhay Jassat escaped from custody at Marshall Square Police Station in Johannesburg on 11 August 1963, after bribing a young prison official.

Eventually he made his way to Swaziland disguised as a priest. His escape infuriated the prosecutors and police since Goldreich was considered to be "the arch-conspirator."

He moved to Israel in 1964 after his dramatic escape. He lived in Herzliya on Israel's Mediterranean coast. Goldreich became an architect in Israel and went on to found the architecture department at Jerusalem's Bezalel Academy where he also taught.

Goldreich briefly returned to South Africa after 1994 to attend a reunion at Liliesleaf. Today the farm has been restored into a museum detailing the events leading up to the Rivonia Raid.

Arthur Goldreich, passed away on Tuesday, 24 May 2011 in Tel Aviv, Israel, aged 82.   He is survived by his sons Nicholas, Paul, Amos and Eden.

Professor Sir Bob Hepple was born on 11 August 1934 in Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng). His father, Alex Hepple, was a trade unionist and Labour Party member, Member of Parliament, the Chairman of the Treason Trial Defence Fund and Chairman of the South African Defence and Aid Fund

The young Hepple attended Jeppe Boys High School in Johannesburg from 1945 to 1952 and then the University of Witwatersrand where he obtained a BA degree in 1954 and a LLB degree, cum laude, in 1957.  He was awarded the Society of Advocates Prize for being the best law graduate in 1957.  He was admitted as an attorney in South Africa in 1958.  From 1959 to 1961, he was a lecturer in Law at the University of Witwatersrand.  He practised as an advocate in South Africa between 1962 and 1963. 

At the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, he was arrested in 1952 while chairman of the Student Liberal Association and went on trial under the Illegal Squatting Act for organising a political meeting in Orlando Township (Johannesburg) under the pretext of a concert.  Although it was illegal for whites to spend the night in "black" areas, all the students, including Hepple, were acquitted of the flimsy charge.  Later he and his fellow African National Congress (ANC) sympathisers had a narrow escape from rustication by the then University Principal for organising protests over the exclusion of black students from the Wits Great Hall.

From its formation in 1955, Hepple devoted himself to building up the newly formed multi-racial South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU).  He was joint editor of the SACTU newspaper, Workers’ Unity, and helped the black Metal Workers’ Union and other small unions survive the near-illegal conditions with legal advice, practical aid and education.  At the same time, Hepple was working with a few friends  to work out a new ideological position and strategy for democratic socialism.

Following the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, outside Johannesburg, the police shot dead 69 Pan Africanist Congress demonstrators.  A state of emergency was declared after this event.  The South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) executive had appointed Hepple with “absolute powers” to keep SACTU alive if the executive wereever arrested.  When the expected arrests took place, he immediately set about the task, establishing contact with the few management committee members still in the country.  He took personal responsibility for maintaining the Laundry Workers and Metal Workers’ unions.  They formed a provisional National Executive Committee and gradually re-established links with shop floor workers and international organisations.  He did all of this under cover while still holding his job as a university lecturer.

He moved out of his home and was constantly on the move in order to avoid arrest. He worked through the offices of a detained lawyer, Shulamith Muller, with the help of her personal assistant, Shirley Goldsmith, whom Hepple married in July 1960.  He resigned from his Wits lectureship at the end of 1961 to have more freedom for these activities and took up practice at the bar.  He was also a member of the Congress of Democrats.

On 5 August 1962, Nelson Mandela was arrested near Howick in Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal) and brought to court.  When Mandela’s attorney, Joe Slovo, was prevented from representing him by the Government, Mandela turned for legal guidance to Hepple as someone he knew and trusted, and who had helped him evade capture by organising safe houses and holding secret meetings in his home.

On 11 July 1963, Bob Hepple was one of seven people arrested at Lilliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, near Johannesburg.  After three months’ detention in solitary confinement, they, together with four others, were brought before the Supreme Court and charged with sabotage (which carried the death penalty).  Nelson Mandela was the first accused, while he was still serving a five-year sentence following his trial in 1962 when Hepple had acted as his legal representative.

Bob Hepple was the eleventh accused.  Whilst in detention, the notorious Security Police subjected him to severe physical and psychological torture.

The defence lawyers launched an attack on the indictment.  Shortly before it was quashed by the Judge-President, the State Prosecutor, Dr Percy Yutar, announced that all charges against Hepple were being withdrawn, and that he (Hepple) would be called as the first witness for the State.  Following this, Hepple was released from custody.

Hepple did not intend to testify against the accused that he admired and respected.  With the assistance of Bram Fischer, the lead counsel for the defence, and others, Hepple escaped with his wife Shirley via Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana) and Tanzania to England.

Hepple wrote his memoirs, Rivonia: The Story of Accused No.11, in May and June 1964 as the Rivonia Trial ended and while the events were still fresh in his mind.  They were intended to provide a factual account of the events leading up to the trial by one of the participants who “got away.”  At the time, he decided  that it was too dangerous for those still on trial or active in South Africa for him to allow its distribution even on a limited scale.  Nothing Hepple wrote could be published until his banning orders were lifted in February 1990, the day after Mandela’s release.

On Saturday 25 November 1963, Hepple and his wife Shirley left their children and parents, home and friends, and the country they loved.  With the assistance of two colleagues, they climbed over a fence into Bechuanaland Protectorate en route to the ANC in Dar es Salaam, and eventually to London, where they started a new life.  Their children joined them shortly after.

Although legally trained, Hepple realised he needed to acquire further, English, legal qualifications.  He went to Clare College, at Cambridge University and he was admitted into the 1964-65 academic year to read for his LLB.  He rose to become a Queens Counsel and a distinguished internationally renowned legal academic.

Hepple became a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003.  He retired from his Cambridge chair in 2001 and the Mastership of Clare in 2003.

In 2004, Hepple was Knighted.

Deon T Daniels aka DJ Ready D, was born in District Six, Cape Town on 11 December 1968, before the residents there were forcibly removed. Ready D and his family would be moved to Lentegeur, Mitchell’s Plain towards the end of the forced removals period. His father, however,  passed away a year and a half before their forced removal.

He would hear hip hop for the first time on a portable record player, owned by friends of his older sister. These friends worked on the boats and travelled around the world, bringing home music on vinyl. Ready D cites Rapper’s Delight as the first hip-hop song he heard, when he was 11. He says that “When [he] heard Rapper’s Delight it completely blew [his] mind because [he] recognised the sample from Good Times from a group called Chic.” [1] Ready D’s father used to listen to this music during the disco era. For Ready D, this was a mind-blowing experience as the artists, the Sugarhill Gang, were rapping about experiences that he could relate to, to music that he was familiar with through his father.  As he was the youngest in group, he used to be the one who played the music for everyone. He credits this, in an interview for Goodhope Radio, as being a reason he became a DJ. [2]

He was very influenced by music from overseas, as well as the hip hop culture. In the early 1980s, Michael Jackson was huge in Mitchells Plain. Yet, Ready D was still “stuck on the sound he had heard” before. [3] His first exposure to the wider hip hop culture was through an avant-garde music producer named Malcolm McLaren. McLaren was making music by fusing together South African music, punk rock and hip hop. [4] This was Ready D’s first exposure to scratching records, as well as the B-Boy dance culture. Despite the state of emergency in the 1980s, Ready D and his friends would find space on street corners to dance and play their music. Ready D recalls how they used to set up on the ‘White side’ of the train station, as the floor was cleaner and easier to dance on. [5]

A haven for hip hop at the time was Teasers Club on Harrington Street. Ready D recalls how it was the first time he was interacting with white people without fear of violence. This was something he would have to get used to over time. Teasers Club was a melting pot of different genres. He recalls that when confronted with coloured guys dressed as punks, he was very confused. [6] As time went on, hip hop came to dominate the scene at the club. Teasers would move to Shortmarket Street and be renamed, The Base. [7] It was here that Ready D met Shaheen Ariefdien, one of the future founding members of Prophets of the City. Ready D recounts how he knew that Ariefdien’s father, Issie, owned a recording studio. For this reason, Ready D knew he needed to demonstrate his skills. Shaheen Ariefdien was impressed by D’s ability and Prophets of the City (POC), the first South African hip hop group to record and release music through a major label, was born. At first, Shaheen’s and Ready D’s goals were not aligned. Ariefdien was a political activist who spoke about Mandela and Biko. Ready D, however, simply wanted to become a ‘ghetto superstar’, and have the possessions that the Sugarhill Gang had sung about on ‘Rapper’s Delight’. [8] Yet, as the socio-political situation in Cape Town and South Africa worsened, Ready D found himself becoming more politically conscious.

POC released their first album, Our World,  in 1990. It featured the first ever Afrikaans hip hop song, Dala Flat. Two years later, after the additions of Ramone Dewet, Clement Snyders aka Jazzmo, Ishmael Morabe and Junior Dredd, POC had become more representative of the country as a whole with local languages incorporated into their songs other than just English, Afrikaans and Cape Flats slang. As the political climate intensified in the early 90s, so did the lyrics of POC’s songs. It was in this climate that POC’s most groundbreaking album was produced, Age of Truth. Indeed, the album very nearly did not see the light of day. When recording Age of Truth in Boputhaswana, at a state of the art recording studio, POC ran into trouble with an engineer who overheard the highly incendiary nature of the song they were recording. In Ready D’s words, the engineer ‘threw a fit’ and confiscated all the tapes, masters and equipment. POC’s manager, however, was able to slip a backup master into his back pocket and it was from this master that the album was circulated. [9] Yet, this increasing politicisation of POC’s message was hurting the group as they were losing many gigs and work.

The group was, however, booked to perform at Nelson Mandela’s presidential inauguration in 1994. The performance was almost not to be as their part in the proceedings was cancelled before the event. POC’s manager once again came to the rescue and negotiated the group back into the programme, albeit without their equipment and backing tracks. Ready D states that this was done to discourage them from performing, due to their critical political message. [10] They circumvented this setback by utilizing Jazzmo’s beatbox abilities. With him providing the beat, the group performed as if they would if they had their equipment. This high would not last long, however, as their music was banned after the inauguration due to the content. POC’s critical view of the transition process was deemed too radical in the reconciliatory atmosphere that Mandela’s government was striving to foster. [11]

Due the banning, Prophets of the City now had to record and produce their music in the United Kingdom. They released the album, Universal Souljaz, from the UK. [12] POC grew in popularity overseas and toured Western Europe, Scandinavia, Ireland and Scotland. The group was also travelling between South Africa and the UK. They were also part of Right to Hope from 1996 to 1999, dealing with issues relating to trouble spots around the world. This was an opportunity for POC to both represent South Africa and learn from other people from places such as Northern Ireland, The Middle East, Rwanda and the USA.

It was at this time that Brasse Vannie Kaap (BVK) came into being. Ready D describes the group as a ‘different direction’ with the primary language being Afrikaans and Cape slang, with less of an ‘in your face’ political angle. [13] As a result, Ready D was part of two groups making music on opposite sides of the globe.

By 2002,Ready D had become the resident DJ on The Phat Joe Show which aired on SABC 1. [14] This show would run between 2002 and 2004. DJ Ready D recounts that in 2002, he was invited to DJ at an event in Mozambique. The event was a premiere for a film, Ali, which starred Will Smith. At the party, Ready D would meet Will Smith and DJ for him. D recounts that he admired Smith’s professionalism. [15]

DJ Ready D released his first solo album in 2005, entitled Not For The Fainthearted, Vol 1. However, he would go on to be more than just a DJ in the coming years. That same year, he set up Full Contact records. He would then be the presenter and creative director of a television show, Mzanzi Rides in 2006. A year later, he would be back on television as the presenter of the show, Decktales with Ready D. In 2010, DJ Ready D would have his own show on Good Hope Radio, which continues as of 2018. He then released his second solo, but first self-produced, album in 2014. This album was entitled, Big Air Society. A year later, DJ Ready D would receive an Honorary and Lifetime Achievement Award at the South African Hip Hop Awards ceremony. [16]

Endnotes

[1] Interview with Dan Corder, “DJ Ready D’s Hip Hop Heritage: Part 1”, https://youtu.be/FYI4rIQRCek↵

[2] Ibid↵

[3] Ibid↵

[4] Gasant Abarder, “#FridayFiles: How Ready D became a Grandmaster DJ”, 14 October 2016, https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/fridayfiles-how-ready-d-became-a-grandmaster-dj-2079889↵

[5] Mohato Lekena, “The Life and Times of DJ Ready D: Part 1”, 18 April 2016, https://www.redbull.com/za-en/the-life-and-times-of-dj-ready-d-part-1↵

[6] DJ Ready D’s Hip Hop Heritage: Part 1, https://youtu.be/FYI4rIQRCek↵

[7] Mohato Lekena, “The Life and Times of DJ Ready D: Part 1”↵

[8] Mohato Lekena, “The Life and Times of DJ Ready D: Part 1”, 18 April 2016, https://www.redbull.com/za-en/the-life-and-times-of-dj-ready-d-part-1<↵

[9] DJ Ready D’s Hip Hop Heritage: Part 1, https://youtu.be/FYI4rIQRCek↵

[10] Ibid ↵

[11] Mohato Lekena, “The Life and Time sof DJ Ready D: Part 2”, 25 April 2016, https://www.redbull.com/za-en/the-life-and-times-of-ready-d-part-2↵

[12] Ibid↵

[13] Mohato Lekena, “The Life and Times of DJ Ready D: Part 2”, 25 April 2016, https://www.redbull.com/za-en/the-life-and-times-of-ready-d-part-2 ↵

[14] DJ Ready D website, “About”, http://djreadyd.com/about-2/↵

[15] DJ Ready D’s Hip Hop Heritage: Part 2, https://youtu.be/OY3N8DV7jtI ↵

[16] DJ Ready D website, “About”, http://djreadyd.com/about-2/↵

Vicky Sampson was born in 1969, to Faye and Victor Sampson. Her father, Victor, was a member of the Golden City Dixies, a travelling vaudeville group. When Sampson was 6 years old, she moved to District 6 with her parents. This was the last time she was with her parents as a family. A year later, she went to live with her grandmother in Bishop Lavis due to her parents having issues. She would be reunited with her mother when she was 10 years old. Her mother had a job as a housekeeper in Bishopscourt. At this time, Sampson was attending school at Cecil Road Primary in Salt River. This meant that she would travel each day from Bishopscourt to Salt River via a bus. She would spend two years at this school, until her mother moved them to Hanover Park.

While living in Hanover Park, Victor Sampson was battling mental health issues. This put huge strain on her parent’s marriage, and when she was 12, they divorced. Victor Sampson would be admitted into Valkenberg mental hospital in his later years. While living in Hanover Park, Sampson went to school at Greenlands Primary and joined the Hanover Park Youth Club. Sampson states that this “was [her] entry into the exciting world of political and community activism and which contributed significantly to making [her] the person [she is] today.”[1] The organisation’s actions included events to raise funds for an old age home, protest action with posters reading slogans such as ‘Down with Vorster’ and even ran a magazine called ‘Grassroots’. The organisation also collaborated with other youth movements such as those from Kensington and Bonteheuwel. While she had been a natural performer from a young age, Sampson’s singing career truly began when she was entered into a talent competition by her aunt which she won. She was also part of a band, named ‘Last Dawn’, in her teenage years. At this point, Samson had dropped out of school at 16 and was working as a runner for an optometrist during the day. In the evenings, she was the lead singer of Last Dawn,

performing at a venue named Last Fiesta. Her career would continue its rise when Sampson’s aunt entered her into the SABC’s ‘Follow That Star’ talent competition in 1983. She placed 2nd, which was enough to claim her a place on a follow up television show, ‘Soft Shoes’. From here, Sampson would travel and perform with different bands in Swaziland (at the ‘Why Not’ night club in Mbabane), Botswana (at the Oasis motel), Mafikeng and Johannesburg over the next few years. In fact, Sampson recounts that her friends and family had thought she had gone into political exile at this time.

In 1990, Sampson was cast in a musical tribute act to Billy Joel by Colin Law, a theatre producer. This began a series of appearances in Colin Law productions, including ‘Elton John’ and ‘Showstoppers’. Sampson states on her website that “Colin was instrumental (pardon the pun) in my development as a performer, not just as a singer.”[2] The next breakthrough in Sampson’s career came after she featured in a music video for a duo act, ‘MarkAlex’, in 1991. Their recording company, Tusk Music, was interested in Sampson and she signed a contract with them at the beginning of 1992. Sampson was at a crossroads at this time, as she had been offered the part of Magenta in Christopher Malcolm’s ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’. Sampson ultimately decided to pursue the record deal and turned down the part. Her first album was named ‘Shine’ and was released by Tusk in 1992. Two songs off the album, ‘Love Will Shine on You’ and ‘Walk on By’ were major hits.

Sampson would record her second album, entitled ‘Zai’, in 1994. The first song on the album, ‘Afrikan Dream’ would become one of the most recognisable songs in South Africa. It was used as the theme song for the 1996 African Cup of Nations; a tournament in which Sampson performed at the opening and closing ceremonies. Bafana Bafana (the South African national men’s soccer team) would go on to win the tournament. This only increased the demand for Afrikan Dream, with the song being ubiquitous on radio stations across the country. Another consequence of the popularity of the song was the high number of corporate functions which Sampson was asked to perform at over the next few years. The album, ‘Zai’, won 4 SAMAs in 1996, namely: best pop album, best video, best female artist, and best director.

Throughout 1997, Sampson performed in Austria, Holland and Germany as well as at several rugby matches in South Africa. In 1999, Sampson performed at President Thabo Mbeki’s inauguration at his personal request. In the same year, ‘Afrikan Dream was used for the National Lottery, despite Sampson not being contacted about it. In 2005, ‘Afrikan Dream’ was nominated for a Song of the Decade award. Sampson had not forgotten her performer roots, however, and auditioned for the role of Killer Queen in the show ‘We Will Rock You’ later that same year. The show would go on tour in 2006 around South Africa. In 2007, Sampson released her third album, ‘License to Sing’, which had tracks that had been recorded in Sweden and was produced by Cedric Samson with the record label, EMI.

In 2008, Sampson sang at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday celebration at the Johannesburg Stadium. She would return two years later and perform at a opening of the rebuilt Soccer City stadium in 2010. In 2018, Sampson started work discovering and developing young talent in South Africa, as co-director of a company named Mzanzi Cultural Industries (MCI). MCI took on 46 young people in order to develop and nurture them into exposed and earning artists by passing on the experience that Sampson has gained over her career. MCI’s long term goal is an academy for young artists.

End notes:

[1] www.vickysampson.com/modules/home/biography.php↵

[2] www.vickysampson.com/modules/home/career.php↵

Born in Debre Birhan, Showa Province, Ethiopia, in 1946 to parents of Amhara and Oromo descent, Mergia grew up absorbing traditional Amhara, Tigrinya and Oromo songbook melodies. At the age of 10, Mergia and his mother settled in Addis Ababa.

At the age of 14 he started playing the accordion. He went to school in Addis Ababa and then joined the army music department. When he left the arm at the age of 16, he started his career as a singer and accordion player by fronting various touring groups around the country. [1] Mergia is known as a keyboardist, arranger, accordionist and bandleader. Mergia played with the Walias Band, an instrumental funk and jazz ensemble and fixture of the Addis Ababa hotel circuit. [2] Mergia and the Walias, Tche Belew released an LP album of instrumentals in 1977.

In 1981, Mergia and his Walias Band were part of the first ever US tour of an Ethiopian music group.They used this US tour to escape the dictatorial Mengistu Haile Mariam regime. Mariam was the President of Ethiopia between 1977 and 1991. [3] The US tour took two years. Mergia and some members of the Walias Band decided to remain in the US. Mergia settled first in Virginia before making Washington DC his permanent home.  He is well known as a singing cab driver at the capital's Dulles Airport. Mergia, who has been playing his composed music privately, was rediscovered by the Awesome Tapes from Africa label, whose re-releases in the 2010s assisted him mount an effective late-career surge that resulted in the 2018 comeback album Lala Belu [4]. Mergia plays live in the US with the New York based Afrobeat band, Low Mentality, and in Europe with two leading Australian improvisors.Tony Buck, and Mike Majkowski, who live in Berlin [5].

End Notes

[1] https://www.factmag.com/2016/06/12/hailu-mergia-interview-ethiopia-awesome-tapes-from-africa/↵

[2] https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hailu-mergia-mn0000740057/biography↵

[3]https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mengistu-Haile-Mariam↵

[4] https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hailu-mergia-mn0000740057/biography↵

[5] https://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/hailumergia/biography↵

Denis Farrell’s aerial photograph in 1994 of a snaking queue of Soweto voters pipped that of Nelson Mandela casting his vote, earning him a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

Herbert Mabuza was an outstanding photographer, who was promoted to the position of managing editor at the Sunday Times and later to the same position at the Sowetan and Sunday World.

Mabuza was for a very short period a member of the photographic collective Afrapix.

After leaving journalism in 2015, he became an emerging cattle farmer.

Herbert Mabuza passed away on 2 June 2019 in Johannesburg, Gauteng.

Peter Rudolf Gisela Horn was born 7 December 1934 in Teplice, Czechoslovakia (currently in Czech Republic). At the end of World War II he had to flee his home and settled with his parents first in Bavaria and later in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he completed high school in 1954. He then immigrated with his parents to South Africa.

After his study at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng), he worked for some time as a packer, builder, lab assistant, photographer, insurance agent, and a teacher. He then taught at University of the Witwatersrand, the University of South Africa and the University of Zululand, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal).

 He was professor and head of department of German at the University of Cape Town (1974-1999). He served as Dean and Deputy Vice Chancellor, and was an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cape Town. He was an Honorary Professorial Research Associate at the University of the Witwatersrand.

 He is a well-known South African poet, who made his mark especially with his anti-Apartheid poetry. During the eighties all his writing in English was banned for possession. Only in 1991 his collected poems 1964 -1990 could be published by Ravan Press. Because of his poetry he faced disciplinary hearings, threats of deportation, and even death threats. He was one of the founding members of Congress of South African Writers (COSAW) and served on the Western Cape regional and on the National Executive.

Professor Horn has published seven volumes of poetry. His poetry has appeared in many anthologies, journals and has been translated into many languages. He has also published a collection of short stories My voice is under control now.

He has received many prizes, among others the 1993 Alex La Guma/Bessie Head Award for My voice is under control now. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cape Town in 1994. In 2000 he was awarded the Charles Herman Bosman Prize for My voice is under control now.

Professor Horn was included as one of the ‘Top 10 contemporary poets of the world’

Poetry: 

• Voices from the Gallows Trees. (Poems) Ophir (1969)
• Walking through our sleep. (Poems) Ravan Press (1974)
• Silence in Jail. (Poems: banned). Scribe Press (1979)
• The Civil War Cantos. (Poems: banned) Scribe Press (1987)
• Poems 1964 -1990. Johannesburg: Ravan (1991)
• An Axe in the Ice. Poems. Johannesburg: COSAW Publishing House 1992
• Derrire le vernis du soleil, pomes 1964-1989. Choisis et traduit de l’anglais sud-africain par Jacques Alavarez-Preyre. Dessins de Nils Burwitz. Paris: europePoesie (1993)
• The Rivers that Connect us to the Past. Survivors. Poems. Belville: Mayibuye Press 1996
• Poems. Translated into Bangla by Aminur Rahman. Montreal, Dhaka, London: SACAC, KATHAK 2003

Prizes and Honours:

• 1992 Noma Award: (Honourable Mention for Poems 1964-1989
•  1993 Alex La Guma/Bessie Head Award for The Kaffir who read Books (published as My Voice is under Control now)
• 2000 he was awarded the Charles Herman Bosman Prize for My Voice is under Control now
•  2000 he was a finalist for the Caine Prize for African Literature
• Served on the COSAW (Congress of South African Writers) Western Cape Executive (1988-1990) and the COSAW National Executive (1991 - 1992)
• Honorary Vice President NUSAS (1977-1981)
•  Trustee of the South African Prisoners' Educational Trust Fund (1980-1985)
•  Interim Committee of the Unemployed Workers' Movement (1984/5)