uMkhonto weSizwe was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC), founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre. Its mission was to fight against the South African government.
Albertina SisuluOMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she was the founding co-president of the United Democratic Front. In South Africa, where she was affectionately known as Ma Sisulu, she is often called a mother of the nation.
Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo was a South African anti-apartheid politician and activist who served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1967 to 1991.
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.
Johannes "Joe" Modise was a South African political figure. He helped to found uMkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress, and was its longest serving Commander in Chief, deputised at different points in time by Joe Slovo and Chris Hani. Modise headed MK for a 25-year period, from 1965 to 1990. He served as South Africa's first black Minister of Defence from 1994 to 1999 and led the formation of the post-independence defence force.
The International Freedom Foundation (IFF) was a self-described anti-communist group established in Washington, D.C. founded in 1986 by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Its purported aim was to promote individual and collective freedoms worldwide: freedom of thought; free speech; free association; free enterprise; and, the free market principle. It came into being after the Democratic International, a 1985 meeting of anti-Communist rebels held at the headquarters of UNITA in Jamba, Angola. The IFF campaigned against regimes and movements it described as Soviet allies. To achieve its aim the IFF, with offices in London and Johannesburg, sponsored symposia with high-profile speakers such as Henry Kissinger. Among its eight periodicals, the IFF published a monthly newsletter—the Freedom Bulletin—with three editions: International; UK/Europe; and, Republic of South Africa. The IFF ceased its activities in 1993.
Ronald Kasrils is a South African politician, former guerrilla and military commander. He served in a number of ministerial posts, including the as Minister for Intelligence Services from 2004 to 2008. He was a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1987 to 2007 as well as a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) from December 1986 to 2007.
Endgame is a 2009 British film directed by Pete Travis from a script by Paula Milne, based upon the book The Fall of Apartheid by Robert Harvey. The film is produced by Daybreak Pictures and reunites Travis with Vantage Point actor William Hurt. It also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jonny Lee Miller and Mark Strong. The film dramatises the final days of apartheid in South Africa. It was filmed at locations in Reading in England and Cape Town, South Africa in the first half of 2008 and was completed in December that year.
Ben Voss is a South African comedian, actor and satirist. He has been a professional actor, playwright and producer since 1998. He has also starred in films alongside John Cleese and Troye Sivan and in the TV series Desert Rose on Mnet and Showmax.
Timothy Peter Jenkin is a South African writer, anti-apartheid activist and former political prisoner. He is best known for his 1979 escape from Pretoria Local Prison, along with Stephen Lee and Alex Moumbaris.
London Recruits: The Secret War Against Apartheid is a 2012 book edited and compiled by Ken Keable, with an introduction by Ronnie Kasrils and a foreword by Pallo Jordan. It inspired a documentary film, London Recruits, directed by Gordon Main.
Zanele Mbeki OMSS is a feminist South African social worker who founded the Women's Development Bank. She is also a former first lady of South Africa.
Stephen Bernard Lee is a South African former political prisoner best known for his 1979 escape from Pretoria Local Prison with friend and fellow activist Tim Jenkin and a third inmate, Alex Moumbaris.
Alexandre Moumbaris is a political activist and former political prisoner. He was born in Egypt to Greek parents, grew up in Australia, lived and worked in the UK, was imprisoned in South Africa and now lives in France. He is known for his political activism against the apartheid régime in South Africa in the 1970s, and his subsequent incarceration in, and 1979 escape from, Pretoria Local Prison with Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee. He returned to France after his escape.
Frank Barat is a French activist, author and film producer. He was the coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine from 2008 until 2014. He is the co-founder of BARC Productions, a film production company, created in Brussels in February 2019. He has edited books with Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé, Ken Loach and Angela Davis. He was part of the founding team of the Festival Ciné-Palestine in Paris and the Palestine with Love festival in Brussels.
Operation Vula was a secret domestic programme of the African National Congress (ANC) during the final years of apartheid in South Africa. Initiated in 1986 at the ANC headquarters in Lusaka and launched in South Africa in 1988, its operatives infiltrated weapons and banned ANC leaders into the country, in order to establish an underground network linking domestic activist structures with the ANC in exile. It was responsible for facilitating the only direct line of communication between ANC headquarters and Nelson Mandela, who at the time was imprisoned and was discussing a negotiated settlement with the government on the ANC's behalf. The operation was disbanded in 1990, after its existence had been publicly revealed and eight of its leaders charged under the Internal Security Act with terrorism and plotting an armed insurrection.
The 48th National Conference of the African National Congress (ANC) took place from 2 to 7 July 1991 at the University of Durban–Westville in Durban, Natal. It was the first national conference of the ANC since the organisation was banned by the apartheid government in 1960 and marked the ascension of Nelson Mandela to the ANC presidency, which since 1967 had been held by Oliver Tambo.
Riaz "Moe" Shaik, also spelled Mo Shaik, is a South African civil servant, diplomat, businessman, and former intelligence operative who has been the South African High Commissioner to Canada since 2022. He is a former chief of the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee and a former director of the foreign intelligence wing of the State Security Agency, at that time still called the South African Secret Service.
Mzwandile "Mzwai" Piliso was a South African politician and former anti-apartheid activist. He was a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1962 to 1985 while the organisation was banned in South Africa and operated in exile. He is best known for his tenure as head of the National Intelligence and Security Department (NAT) of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC's armed wing, and briefly represented the ANC in the post-apartheid National Assembly after the 1994 elections.
Muzivukile Curnick Ndlovu, also spelled Muzuvukile, was a South African politician, anti-apartheid activist, and trade unionist. A veteran of the African National Congress, he represented the party in the National Assembly during the first democratic Parliament from 1994 to 1999. He was also a former national chairperson of the United Democratic Front, a former secretary of the Railway and Harbour Workers' Union, and a former regional commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in Natal Province.
