Last week the country lost another of its great stalwarts of democracy with the passing of Kesval Moonsamy. Popularly known as ‘Kay’, Moonsamy was a member of a number of political organisations, becoming a trade union member at a very young age. Having started work at Rhodesian Timbers Limited when he was just 14 years … Read more
While the large majority of the people viewed as heroes of the anti-apartheid movement are men, women too played a very significant role in the fight for democracy in South Africa. While for some that role was in the form of supportive mothers and wives, who made it possible for men to leave their families … Read more
The 16th of June 1976 is commemorated in South Africa as Youth Day, in remembrance of the countless children who lost their lives during the Soweto Youth Uprising. To read the list of the names of children killed during the 1976 student protests is beyond heartbreaking – unarmed students gunned down by police for trying to … Read more
The University of Fort Hare, possibly South Africa’s most famous educational institution, has had something of a checkered past. Opened in 1916 as the South African Native College by Christian missionaries, the school offered a European-style education for students from across sub-Saharan Africa. While the missionaries were part of colonial expansion, which came with its own set of prejudices, they did … Read more
The Congress of the People took place on the 26th June 1955, in Kliptown, just outside of Johannesburg. Attended by some 3000 people, the aim of the meeting was to discuss the content of the proposed Freedom Charter, with submissions for the document having been received from people all across the country. The Freedom Charter, some of the core tenets … Read more
Family members of fourteen political prisoners executed under the apartheid regime will finally have somewhere to visit their loved ones after their bodies were exhumed on Wednesday as part of the country’s Gallows Exhumation Project, led by the Missing Person’s Task Team. The men, who were hung in Pretoria in July 1964, were members of the armed wing of the Pan African … Read more