Category Archives: Brief Biographies

Dr Ian Player remembered and more on 28 December 2014 in 50/50

Posted on December 19, 2014 by moirads

Deep in the shadow of the Soutpansberg mountain range, the mysterious beauty of the lives of the mountain’s inhabitants has been unfolding here since the hills themselves can remember. People have been telling fire-side tales of prowling predators that lurk … Continue reading →

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Leonora van den Heever, South Africa’s first woman judge

Posted on August 12, 2014 by moirads

Leonora van den Heever, born in Windhoek on 9 July 1926, holds the esteemed position of being the first female judge to be appointed permanently to the appellate division of the South African Supreme Court in 1991.  She was the … Continue reading →

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Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa – as told by Zapiro

Posted on August 12, 2014 by moirads

“Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa is a quiet, stern 66-year-old black woman who has steadfastly avoided the limelight even as she rose from a poor township to the nation’s High Court. A former newspaper reporter, she was once arrested during a … Continue reading →

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Mantsopa, sister to a king and a prophet in her own right

Posted on August 10, 2014 by moirads

When I went to Bloemfontein, a stopover en route to Grahamstown for the National Arts Festival, I went to the Sand du Plessis Theatre to see Grandma’s Song.  It was here that I made one of the most interesting historical discoveries … Continue reading →

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Sophia Williams de Bruyn, the youngest of the Women’s Day march leaders

Posted on August 9, 2014 by moirads

Sophia Theresa Williams de Bruyn was born in 1938.  She is the youngest of the women who led the Women’s Day March on 9 August 1956.  She was just 18. Born in Port Elizabeth she became a union leader the … Continue reading →

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Helen Joseph

Posted on August 7, 2014 by moirads

Helen Joseph is the name of one of the big hospitals in Johannesburg.  It was named for Helen Beatrice Joseph née Fennell (8 April 1905 – 25 December 1992.  She is one of South Africa’s famous anti-apartheid activists. Born Helen Fennell … Continue reading →

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Lillian Cingo

Posted on August 6, 2014 by moirads

Lillian Cingo is one of those women identified by 21 Icons South Africa as one of South Africa’s extraordinary people.  A nurse by profession, a caregiver by calling, Lillian Cingo left Baragwanath Hospital to study as a neurosurgical nurse in … Continue reading →

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Olive Schreiner, one of South Africa’s greatest women writers

Posted on August 5, 2014 by moirads

Olive Schreiner was born on 24 March 1855, the daughter of Christian missionaries. She is best known for having written a particularly South African novel, The Story of an African farm, first published in 1883 (three years before the founding … Continue reading →

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Lady in White, Perla Gibson

Posted on August 4, 2014 by moirads

Here is a story about a woman that my late mother remembered well and told me about … my mother was a young teenager at the time and admired her greatly. Another wartime national South African treasure -the famous ‘Lady … Continue reading →

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Lizzie van Zyl, concentration camp victim

Posted on August 3, 2014 by moirads

Lizzie van Zyl is just one of the 27,000 women and children who died in English concentration camps during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). I had two great grandmothers who lived in those camps, one of whom (my paternal great … Continue reading →

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