Sylvia Neame was born in 1937, one of twins. There were 4 children in the family, Peter, Graham, Sylvia and her twin sister Jennifer. She studied at Rhodes University and obtained her BA in History and Social Anthropology there in 1961. Her first 90 Day detention was in 1963. Neame was again detained under the 90 Day law in mid-1964, 2 weeks in Pretoria Central prison, and 1 1/2 months at the Fordsburg police station. She was one of the accused in Case 375/64, The State vs. Abram Fischer and 13 Others, during which Bram Fischer absconded (he returned to face a second arrest and trial in 1966), where she was charged with furthering the aims of the banned Communist Party, convicted and sentenced to 4 years imprisonment, 2 years to run concurrently.
She, together with the other accused was to spend the 9 months awaiting trial period in the 'Fort' in Johannesburg. Directly after being sentenced she was transferred to the North End prison in Port Elizabeth and was to face trial in the Humansdorp Magistrate's Court, for 'becoming or continuing to be an office-bearer of the ANC in Grahamstown from April 8 1960 to March 31 1961', advising or encouraging activities that furthered the aims of the ANC and with contributing funds to the ANC, to be sentenced to another 4 years but acquitted on appeal.
After being released from Barberton Prison (in what was then the Eastern Transvaal and is now Mpumalanga) in April 1967 she left South Africa on an exit permit, and lived in Britain for 4 1/2 years studying for part of this time at the University of Oxford, and later, from 1971, in in East Germany, where she completed a D.Phil (on the expulsion of the communists from the ICU ) at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig and was also awarded a 'Diplom' (equal to MA). Her doctorate was awarded in 1976. Thereafter she joined the staff of the University.
She returned to South Africa in 1993 with her husband but after some months returned to Germany. She returned to South Africa again for 1 1/2 years, 1999-2000, but again returned to Germany. Her published works include a three volume history entitled 'The Congress Movement: The Unfolding of the Congress Alliance 1912-1961' (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2015), and 'Imprisoned' (Jacana, 2018).

NB: Sylvia testimony to the United Nations in 1967/68 - see link: E/CN.4/950: http://undocs.org/E/CN.4/950

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.

The Commission was appointed in 1930 and headed by Dr. John Edward Holloway. The Terms of Reference of the Commission included an inquiry into "The economic and social conditions of Natives especially in the larger towns of the Union", which in essence was its main concern.

The Commission gathered its evidence mainly through submissions from all sectors of society and through public hearings throughout the Union of South Africa. The areas of inquiry were defined by a list of subjects, which were published in the Government Gazette and included amongst others: 'Tribal and Detribalised Natives', 'Land', 'Landless Native Population', 'Native Migrations', 'Native Agriculture', 'Rural and Urban Native Areas', 'Native Labour', 'Education of Natives', 'Native Taxation'.

NUSAS was founded  in 1924 by members of the Student Representative Councils (SRC) of South African Universities. The union was made up mostly of students from nine white English-language as well as Afrikaans South African universities, and later opened up to all students. Its aim was to advance the common interests of students and its mottos included non-racialism and non-sexism.

In 1945 the first black campus was admitted to NUSAS leading to a walkout by the Afrikaans Campuses. The State clampdown in the early sixties left NUSAS as one of the few organisations who were mobilising opposition against apartheid.

Beyers Naude was the honorary president of NUSAS and Helen Joseph was fondly known as the 'Grandmother of NUSAS'. NUSAS was not only concerned as an organisation with representing students in the political arena. It also concentrated on issues which affected students on a daily basis

NUSAS operated on a national level drawing students of diverse backgrounds and concerns together. By 1990 the Students' Representative Councils on all the 'liberal' campuses were affiliated to NUSAS. NUSAS was also represented through a Local Committee at Stellenbosch University and it had made contact with progressive organisations at the Universities of Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and RAU.

NUSAS was replaced by a non-racial student's organisation, The South African National Students Congress (SANSCO) in the early nineties

NUMSA was founded in 1987 as one of the largest affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and remains the biggest metal workers trade union. It was expelled from COSATU in 2014 and is now one of the biggest affiliate in the South African Federation of Trade Unions which was formed in 2017.

The National Union of Distributive Workers (NUDW) was a trade union representing workers involved in retail and goods transport in South Africa.