Sindiwe Magona is a South African writer.
Mbongeni Ngema was a South African playwright, lyricist, composer, director, choreographer, and theatre producer, best known for co-writing the 1981 play Woza Albert! and co-writing the 1988 musical Sarafina!. He was known for plays that reflected the spirit of black South Africans under apartheid, and won much praise for his work, but was also the subject of several controversies. He died in a car accident on 27 December 2023.
Helen Beatrice Joseph OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Born in Sussex, England, Helen graduated with a degree in English from the University of London in 1927 and then departed for India, where she taught for three years at Mahbubia School for girls in Hyderabad. In about 1930 she left India for England via South Africa. However, she settled in Durban, where she met and married a dentist, Billie Joseph, whom she later divorced.
The following lists events that happened during 1958 in South Africa.
Lewis Nkosi was a South African writer and journalist, who spent 30 years in exile as a consequence of restrictions placed on him and his writing by the Suppression of Communism Act and the Publications and Entertainment Act passed in the 1950s and 1960s. A multifaceted personality, he attempted multiple genre for his writing, including literary criticism, poetry, drama, novels, short stories, essays, as well as journalism.
Christopher van Wyk was a South African children’s book author, novelist and poet. Van Wyk is famous for his poem "In Detention" on the suspicious deaths that befell South African political prisoners during Apartheid. He was also an editor at Ravan Press.
Donato Francisco Mattera, better known as Don Mattera, was a South African poet and author.
Miriam Tlali was a South African novelist. She was the first black woman in South Africa to publish an English-language novel, Muriel at Metropolitan, in 1975. She was also one of the first to write about Soweto. She also wrote Amandla in 1980 which focuses on the Soweto Uprising in 1976, as well as a collection of short stories called Soweto Stories which was published in 1989. Most of her writing was originally banned by the South African apartheid regime.
Patricia Schonstein, who also writes under the name Patricia Schonstein-Pinnock, is a South African-Italian novelist, poet, memoirist, author of children’s books and curator of anthologies. Schonstein, whose novels variously employ the genres of magical-realism, meta-fiction and narrative fiction, is famous for novels such as Skyline and A Time of Angels.
Eileen Jensen Krige (1905–1995) was a prominent South African social anthropologist noted for her research on Zulu and Lovedu cultures. Together with Hilda Kuper and Monica Wilson, she produced substantial works on the Nguni peoples of Southern Africa. Apart from her research she is considered to be one of the 'pioneering mothers' of the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa, where she taught from 1948 until retirement in 1970. She inspired many women to devote themselves to research. Krige is also associated with a group of South African anthropologists who were strongly against the segregation policies of apartheid in South Africa. These include amongst others, Isaac Schapera, Winifred Hoernlé, Hilda Kuper, Monica Wilson, Audrey Richards and Max Gluckman.
Zandile Ruth Thelma Gumede is a South African who has been serving as a Member of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature since 2020. She served as the Executive Mayor of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality from 2016 until 2019. Gumede is a member of the African National Congress. And the current Chair Person of the African National Congress (ANC) at EThekwini Region.
Book fairs and literary festivals are held throughout South Africa each year to promote literacy among children and adults. A country's literacy rate is often a key social indicator of development. In 2005, UNESCO Institute for Statistics reported a literacy rate of 94.37% among the population aged 15 years and older. The literacy rate among the male population in this age group was 95.4% and 93.41 for female counterparts. According to Statistics South Africa, functional illiteracy among those aged 20 years or older, was recorded at 15.4% in 2005. This has improved from 2002's 27.3%. Women are more likely to be functionally illiterate across all age groups, apart from those aged between 20 and 39 years old.
Nomzamo Mbatha, is a South African actress, accountant, television personality, businesswoman, human rights activist.
Phila Portia Ndwandwe, also known as Zandile or Zandi) was a fighter of the Natal cadre of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) formed by Muzi Ngwenya operating from Swaziland. MK was the armed wing of the African National Congress, created by Nelson Mandela in 1961. Zandi was a mother when she was abducted by Apartheid forces and tortured. She was executed.
Songololo: Voices of Change is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Marianne Kaplan and released in 1990. An examination of South Africa in the earliest days of the transition from apartheid to democracy, the film explores the power of music and art as tools of activism and social change, focusing primarily on writer Gcina Mhlophe and musician Mzwakhe Mbuli.
Thembi Mtshali-Jones, is a South African actress. Considered as one of South Africa's most celebrated artists, Thembi is notable for the roles in the several popular television serials including Sgudi 'Snaysi, Stokvel, Silent Witness and Imbewu. Apart from acting, she is also a renowned singer, playwright and Associate Teaching Artist at Global Arts Corps in Kosovo as well as a trainer in Cambodia.
Gcina Nkosi, is a South African actress. She is best known for her role 'Zinzile Ngema' in the popular television soap opera Scandal!.
Karen Jennings is a South African author.
David Eduard van Dijk is a Herpetologist and Paleontologist and author of a number of Biology textbooks.
Jabulane Johan Ncongwane, better known by his pen name J.J. Ncongwane, is a South African novelist, short-story author, poet and educator who writes in Siswati. He was born at a farm called KaMagwamazi in Chief Albert Luthuli's Carolina area.
