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The following is a list of Notables maintained by the South Africa Project.
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just copy and paste {{Notables Sticker|South Africa, Notables}} to just beyond the first heading.
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Notable | Born | Died | Claim to Fame | Photo | Validated |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Neil Adcock | 1931 | 2013 | Cricketer | ![]() | No |
Ds Abraham Aucamp | 1905 | 1961 | Minister of the Reformed Church | ![]() | No |
Christiaan Neethling Barnard | 1922 | 2001 | Cardiac surgeon - worlds first heart transplant | ![]() | No |
Steve Biko | 1946 | 1977 | Anti-apartheid activist | ![]() | No |
Louis Botha | 1862 | 1919 | First Prime Minister of South Africa | ![]() | No |
Lawrence John Gabriel Bridges | 1946 | 2000 | South African singer inducted in the South African Hall of Fame - Performing Arts | ![]() | No |
Gerhardus Christiaan Coetzee | 1855 | 2023 | First South African to win a world Boxing heavyweight title | ![]() | No |
John Maxwell Coetzee | 1940 | - | 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature | ![]() | No |
Dr Danie Craven | 1910 | 1993 | Springbok rugby union player inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame, national coach, Rugby administrator, academic, and author | ![]() | No |
Allan MacLeod Cormack | 1924 | 1998 | Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine 1979 | ![]() | No |
Jan Albert Coetzee | 1902 | - | Lecturer in Political science, writer, journalis | ![]() | No |
Emanuel Herman Francois de Roubaix | 1880 | 1944 | Author of Hoe my oom sy ferjaarsdag gefier het, Stories of the Boesmanland, Piet en sy kossakkie, Oorlogsawenture van Nababebers in Boesmanland, also a Poet of various poems and this one, Daar is maar net een Boesmanland | ![]() | Yes |
Anna Johanna Dorothea de Villiers | 1900 | 1979 | linguist, writer, and educator | ![]() | Yes |
Daisy de Melker | 1886 | 1932 | Murderer | ![]() | No |
Barry Heatlie | 1872 | 1951 | Springbok union player inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame | ![]() | Yes. |
Daniël Mattheus Gerber | 1958 | - | Springbok union player inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame | ![]() | Living. |
Gérard Korsten | 1927 | 1999 | Gérard Korsten was a South African opera tenor and actor who had a great influence on Afrikaans culture | ![]() | No |
Miriam Makeba | 1932 | 2008 | Singer and civil rights activist | ![]() | No |
Nelson Mandela | 1918 | 2013 | Apartheid resister and president | ![]() | No |
Eugène Nielen Marais | 1871 | 1936 | South African writer, lawyer, and naturalist. | ![]() | Yes |
Dr Johannes Merensky | 1871 | 1952 | Geologist, Prospector, Scientist, Conservationist, Philanthropist | ![]() | No |
Bulelwa Mkutukana | 1987 | 2023 | Award-winning Afro-pop singer-songwriter | ![]() | No |
Benjamin Louwrens Osler | 1901 | 1962 | Springbok union player inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame | ![]() | Yes |
Pieter Johannes Pieterse | 1936 | 2002 | Author and TV presenter | ![]() | No |
Ds Durk Postma | 1818 | 1890 | Founder of the Reformed Church | ![]() | Yes |
Desmond Tutu | 1931 | 2021 | Bishop and human rights activist | ![]() | No |
Max Theiler | 1899 | 1972 | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (virologist and physician) in 1951 | ![]() | No |
Arnold Theile | 1867 | 1936 | Nobel laureate in 1951 in Physiology and Medicine. | ![]() | No |
Herman Dirk van Broekhuizen | 1871 | 1953 | Minister of the Reformed Church, Springbok union player | ![]() | No |
Joost van der Westhuizen | 1971 | 2017 | Springbok union player inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame | ![]() | No |
Jacob Louis van Deventer | 1874 | 1922 | South African military commander | ![]() | No |
Charles Percy de Villiers 2nd Baron (1871-1934) | 1871 | 1934 | Chief Justice of South Africa | No | |
Cornelius Gerhardus van Rooyen | 1938 | 1990 | South African paedophile and serial killer | ![]() | No |
- South African Notable page Dec 1, 2023.
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One thing to be aware of is that not all people who were involved in a notable event are themselves "Notable". For example, not every passenger on the Titanic was independently notable. Similarly, not everybody involved in the Houdenbek Slave Revolt would be considered notable, although certain individuals might be. That doesn't mean, however, that you couldn't create a Free Space page just for the Houdenbek Slave Revolt and include whomever you wished. Likewise, not all South African scientist or journalists are notable, although many of them are.
As for the individuals you named in your inquiry, Tregold, Pringle, Fairbairn and Afrikaner all qualify as notable and have been given the Notables Sticker on their profiles.
David Randall Notables Project Leader
edited by David Randall
But I agree: obviously not everybody related to the Houdenbek revolt should be 'notable'. I do think there would be a good argument for Galant, who was styled the 'leader', of something that was often called "Galant's revolt". Historical episodes can be helpful. In this case, the list of judges at the trial was very useful, and it was worthwhile identifying them in wikitree, and even creating those who were still absent.
So although Galant has no wikipedia page, I'm pretty sure he should be 'notable'.
Maybe you can assist with this. Susan
Another group of notables would be scientists. The first astronomers at the Cape, and the early geometers who surveyed the land, and produced reasonable maps describing this part of the world. But also the biologists who studied the enormously right flora and fauna before much of it was destroyed.
I also bumped into the extremely interesting character of Jager Afrikaner-1, and the adventurous hunter/trader he worked for/with, and also murdered, Petrus Pienaar-39. Many of the Notables had very messy lives, and played a messy and not always positive role in the conflictual South African history .. but exactly this can sometimes make them 'Notable'.
I think that all the early slaves and Khoi/San for whom there is enough information to produce a profile should be considered 'Notable'. Many of those became 'stam moeders' of white Afrikaner families, or of the 'coloured' people, for the much rarer cases that their historical information was recorded for prosperity. I have to think of the nearly unknown KhoiSan wife of the german adventurer and hunter, who was trampled to death by an elephant near the river now named "Klaas Voogds river" after him.
Another group are the early journalists, who in the face great difficulty set up the first newspapers, which were suppressed heavily by the early colonial administration. These headstrong troublemakers overlap with the early abolitionists. Thomas Pringle-833, John Harvey Tredgold-13, John Fairbairn-975, and a few of their friends.