Sir Thomas Cullinan - (1862-1936)

He was born in the Eastern Cape, entered the building trade, and took part in the native wars during the eighteen seventies. He moved to the Eastern Transvaal where he was successful at his trade but soon entered the field of mining. In 1896 he founded a plant at Olifantsfontein for the production of brick and tiles. After taking part in the South African War, Cullinan secured the right to exploit the still unprospected property of Willem Prinsloo, on which in 1902 was discovered the Premier Diamond Mine, the world's largest diamond property. During his industrial career he was Chairman of the Premier Mine, Chairman and Director of the New Eland Diamonds Ltd., director of several gold mining companies and owner of the Consolidated Rand, Brick, Pottery & Lime Co, Ltd. In addition he was interested in farming and aforestaton and owned several farms.

Sir Thomas took a keen interest in politics, being an advocate of responsible government for the Transvaal and the Free State and representing Pretoria North in the first Transvaal parliament, He was a great advocate for Union and was elected for the same constituency to the first Union Parliament. In 1910 he was knighted for his services to the Diamond Fields. During the First World War he served as a major in the campaign against the Germans in S. W. Africa and was mentioned in despatches for gallantry in the field.

Achmat Dangor, born in Newclare on 2 October 1948, was a South African writer, poet and political activist against Apartheid.
He worked extensively in the field of development and civil society, with institutions such as the Kagiso Trust, the Independent Development Trust (IDT), UNAIDS, the Nelson Mandela Childrens Fund (NMCF) and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
His literary works included poetry collections such as Bulldozer (1983) and Private voices (1992), and novels such as Waiting for Leila (1981), the Z Town Trilogy (1990), Kafka's Curse: Novella & Three Other Stories (1997), Bitter Fruit (2001), Strange Pilgrimages (2013) and Dikeledi: Child of Tears No More (2017).
Achmat Dangor was a banned person from 1973 to 1978 by the South African government. He was active on several writers’ bodies advocating the end of segregation such as Black Thoughts, the Writers’ Forum and the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW).

Missionary and explorer