The South African Committee for Higher Education (SACHED) was launched in 1959 by a small committee. At the time it supported black students that were excluded from white Universities by the Extension of Universities Act of 1959, which regulated racially and ethnically separate Universities. From these early beginnings, SACHED extended its work in distance education, and to reach those communities who were being denied basic educational access - workers, women, rural people, marginalised youth and the unemployed. In the 1970s it supported adults studying at secondary school level, especially teachers, and developed unique support programmes for tertiary level students at the University of South Africa (UNISA). From 1981 SACHED played a role in supporting mass-based organisations in their resistance to Apartheid. Educational programmes were developed with trade unions and community organisations, while SACHED's educational media aimed to build a learning culture among South Africa's youth.

Douglas Calderwood was born in Johannesburg, the son of DY Calderwood, mine manager of the New Kleinfontein Gold Mining Company. Educated at King Edward VII School. His architectural studies were done at the University of the Witwatersrand. Thereafter he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a foreign student’s scholarship. On his return he was appointed Chief Research Officer, National Building Research Institute (NBRI) of the SA Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), whereafter he became Head of the Architectural Division.
Calderwood’s doctoral thesis was published in 1953 as “Native Housing in South Africa” with funding from the CSIR. This focussed on the prevailing issue at that time: how to implement the new (1948) Nationalist government's post-Second World War township building programme and minimise costs. In the service of the CSIR, as a state-funded instrument for researching of the so-called ‘Native Housing problem’, Calderwood was charged with drawing up national standards for state funded housing while minimising cost. In his commendation of Calderwood's thesis, William Holford, then Professor of Town Planning at the University of London, describes the work as 'a breath of fresh air' because it shows that 'the technical, the social and the economics of housing must be looked at together'. Calderwood designed three housing types designated NE 51/6, NE 51/8 and NE 51/9 (where acronym ‘NE ’is non-European dated 1951 types 6, 7 and 9). While Calderwood stressed that these were intended as a demonstration of the outcome to the rational design process, they were nevertheless taken up by government and housing authorities to be reproduced in the thousands across South African for three decades from the 1950s. [Commentary précised from Haarhoff, 2010 (See Appropriating Modernism: Apartheid and the South African township.)]
Calderwood served as President of the Transvaal Provincial Institute of Architects for the term 1957/58. Calderwood was working at the National Building Research Institute when the University of the Witwatersrand invited him to manage the new Building Science course there in 1967. Calderwood overhauled the curriculum and improved its relevance. It was his subject, industrial organisation and management, rooted in Calderwood's father's mine management techniques, that characterized the whole building degree. In the course the importance of human relations in the building industry - welfare, incentives, conflict management, even body language, were taught.
He married Pauline Pearson of Port Elizabeth in 1949 by who he had two sons.

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

The Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company Ltd (JCI) was founded in 1889 by the British entrepreneur Barney Barnato and became leading force in the South African mining, property and engineering sectors for over a century and a significant role player in the growth of Johannesburg as the country's economic heart. With the advent of South African democracy in 1995, the business was divided into three parts. The mining side was incorporated into a vehicle for Black Economic Empowerment under a new Chairman, Mzi Khumalo, under the name JCI Ltd. The property and investment operations became Johnnic Communications and the platinum interests were moved to Amplats. JCI Ltd was later taken over by Brett Kebble, and after allegations of fraud and mismanagement, was wound down in 2011.

James Lycett had been an “influential Freemason, businessman, prospector, hotelier (?) and amateur actor and manager.” In 1855, he again performed with a theatre company called the “Amateurs of Cape Town, 1848-1857.

The Human Rights Institute of South Africa is a non-profit, non-governmental organization incorporated under Section 21 of the Companies Act, 1973. It was founded in June 1993 as the Institute for the Study of Public Violence and served as the research and documentation arm of the Commission of inquiry into Public Violence Chaired by Judge Richard Goldstone. (HURISA website)

Born in the Eastern Cape, Raymond Tucker grew up in Johannesburg. He studied at Rhodes University and later did a law degree at the University of the Witwatersrand. He was active in the Liberal Party and devoted himself to human rights. He increasingly handled political trial cases and thus became a known South African Human Rights solicitor, presenting at high profile cases such as Winnie Mandela, the Very Rev Gonville ffrench-Beytagh, Robert Sobukwe and the trial of the 'Pretoria 12' (Sexwale and 11 Others) . He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the Witwatersrand in 2004.

Hal White Miller was the former Managing Director and Executive Chairperson of The Argus Newspaper Group. Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, he was educated at Michaelhouse in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. He served as a lieutenant with the Black Watch Highland Regiment in World War 2. His career spans from working as a reporter for The Star newspaper, to manager of the Bulawayo Chronicle, to manager of the then Argus Printing and Publishing Company, The Star, and finally to Executive Chairman of the Argus Company. He died in 2006 at the age of 81.

Regina Twala was South African writer of books, columns, articles and letters. She was also a feminist activist, a teacher, researcher evangelist and political activist in Swaziland (eSwatini). She studied at the Jan Hofmeyer School of Social Work and later completed a BA degree in social studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. In her second marriage she was married to Dan Twala, and they had one child named Vusi who is deceased, but had a daughter Pinokie.