Winston Hugh Njongonkulu Ndungane was born in Kokstad in 1941. He graduated from Lovedale High Scholl, Alice, in December 1958. During March 1960 he was involved in anti-Pass Law Demonstration while a student at the University of Cape Town for which he was arrested under apartheid law. Between 1963 and 1966 Njongonkulu served a three-year sentence on Robben Island as a political prisoner. While in prison, he decided to enter the church. He was ordained as a priest of the Anglican Church in July 1974 in the Diocese of Cape Town. His higher education was completed at King's College, London by obtaining Bachelor of Divinity, Honours degree and in 1979 Master of Theology in Christian Ethics. From January 1985 to December 1986 he was Principal of St Bede's Theological College in Umtata and in September 1981 he became the Provincial Liaison Officer for the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. In September 1991 he was consecrated Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman. Five years later in 1996 he was nominated Archbishop of Cape Town - head of approximately 4 million Anglicans. The area covers 26 dioceses in Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and the island of St. Helena. The Archbishop has served as an Anglican representative to the Vatican, and in 1998 as one of the four chairmen of the Lambeth Conference, the largest and most important of all worldwide Anglican meetings.

The Archbishop Ndungane has been awarded several honorary degrees including Dr. of Divinity from Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Dr. of Philosophy from the University of Cape Town and, most recently, Dr. of Theology from the University of Stellenbosch. He has written many essays and made numerous contributions to books. During his tenure as Archbishop, Ndungane has devoted much of his energies to challenging the structural inequalities of post-apartheid South Africa and on a wider scale, of global society. The Archbishop has retired in 2008.