Helen Suzman was born Helen Gavronsky on the 7 November 1917, in Germiston, Transvaal Province. She studied Economy and Statistics at the University of the Witwatersrand. In 1937 she married Dr. Moses Suzman and they had two daughters. Between 1941 and 1944, Suzman worked as a statistician for the War Supplies Board. In 1944 she returned to the University of the Witwatersrand as a lecturer in Economic History, where she remained until 1952. During that time she joined the South African Institute of Race Relations

Suzman gave up teaching for politics when she was elected to parliament in 1953 as a member of the United Party. Six years later, when the Progressive Party (PP) was founded, she represented the Houghton constituency as that party's sole member of Parliament from 1961-1974, winning international fame for her courage and ability. She remained in Parliament with its successors, the Progressive Reform Party and then the Progressive Federal Party (PFP).

During her time in Parliament she defended the right to freedom of expression for all South Africans. As an English speaking Jewish woman in a Parliament dominated by conservative Afrikaner men she was even more of an outsider and often treated with disrespect. As a member of Parliament she was able to visit prisons, amongst them Robben Island, and inspected the living conditions of prisoners. She also visited Nelson Mandela numerous times in prison. In 1989 she retired from Parliament while remaining actively involved in South African politics. She spent a total of 36 years in Parliament.

Outside Parliament she became 'ombudsman' to the oppressed and unrepresented, and though sharply reviled by the nationalist government, she nevertheless achieved success in promoting human rights. Suzman won important changes for example in prison conditions. She campaigned against the reintroduction of the death penalty and also defended the right of women to choose on the issue of abortion.

Internationally, she has been awarded over 28 honorary degrees and nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1993 she published her autobiography "In no uncertain terms: A South African memoir". In 1996 she was awarded the Politeken and Dangens Nyheters Freedom Prize, jointly with Nelson and Winnie Mandela.

Helen Suzman died on the 1 January 2009, aged 91.

Brigadier the Hon. Ernest Thomas Stubbs, C.B.E., was born 1878 in the Queenstown district into a family of pioneers and early English settlers. He fought in the Anglo-Boer War, later served for the Department of Native Affairs in the Northern Transvaal from 1902-1913. He was an Assistant Magistrate ad Native Commissioner at Louis Trichardt in 1907. By 1913 he was Senior Magistrate, and in 1924 Magistrate and Native Commissioner in the Rustenburg district. During the First World War he was involved in the suppression of the rebellion in the Northern Transvaal in 1914. He was Senator representing the Dominion Party but later resigned from the Dominion Party in 1948 because of its anti-Native policies. During the Second World War he served as Director in the Non-European Army Services, and received the Grant of Dignity as a Commander of the Most Escellent Order of the British Empire. He died in January 1959.

Noel Stott was educated in Cape Town. He obtained his B.A. and B.Bibl (Hons) degrees as well as Higher and Final Diplomas in Library and Information Science from the University of Cape Town UCT). In the 1980s and 1990s he was employed by UCT in various librarian and research capacities. Noel Stott also worked for the Southern African Catholic Bishop's Conference (SACBC) and the Institute of Contextual Theology (ICT) as a Documentation, Communications and Research Officer. He was also one of the founding members of the South African History Archive (SAHA), where he spent almost 20 years serving as a volunteer Board member of the SAHA Trust and its various management structures. Noel's involvement in SAHA'S activities also included collecting 'struggle' material and representing the Trust on fact-finding/study tours/missions as well as securing founding. Since 2002, he has worked for the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) with a focus on arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation with particular reference to Africa's development and the threat of weapons of mass destruction.

South African journalist and academic. Involved in the Rand Daily Mail investigative report for SAAN in the 1970s. Lectured at the Drum school of journalism in the late 70s and 80s. Became Professor and Head of Department (Journalism and Media Studies), Rhodes University. Also taught at Walter Sisulu university. Highest qualification BA(HONS), UNISA in 1979. Editor of Daily Dispatch 1993 - 2004. Founding member of the SA National Editors’ Forum (Sanef).

Sylvester Stein was one of the first editors of the DRUM magazine from 1955 to 1958.

Senior official of the Dutch East India Company.
Van Steelant was returning with his family to the Netherlands, after a stay in Batavia of over 30 years during which he served as Governor and Director and Member of the Extraordinary Council of the Dutch East Indies.

Sol. T. Plaatje was born on the farm Doornfontein in the Boshof district on October 9 1876. He was educated at Pniel at the mission school established by the Berlin Missionary Society, from 1884 to 1890. In 1894 he worked as a postman in Kimberley, while studying for the Cape Civil Service Certificate. He moved to Mafeking where he became a court interpreter and magistrate's clerk, having at his command a knowledge of about ten languages. He rendered valuable service as an interpreter to the British during the South African War.

In 1901, backed financially by Chief Silas Molema, he begun editing the Koranta ea Becoana, the first Tswana-English weekly newspaper. In 1910 he moved to Kimberley where he edited the Tsala ea Becoana which changed its name to Tsala ea Batho in 1912. The newspaper ceased publication in 1915 because of Plaatje's presence in Britain.

Plaatje was not only an interpreter, journalist and an author but also a politician. When the South African Native National Congress was formed in 1912, Plaatje became General Corresponding Secretary. When the question of native land arose in 1913 Plaatje became a member of the delegation which went to Britain in 1914 to petition the British government. Despite the outbreak of World War I, which prevented the delegation from achieving its mission, Plaatje remained in England. During this time he wrote Native life in South Africa, before and since the European war and the Boer rebellion (London,1916), arguing the cause of the deputation and the land issue. Returning to Kimberley, he then established The Diamond Fields Men's Own Brotherhood, a body which propagated racial harmony. He returned to Europe in 1919 heading the African National Congress delegation, which attempted to get the Native Land Act discussed at the Peace Conference at Versailles. Subsequently he visited the United States and Canada in 1921.

Plaatje wrote extensively, contributing articles to English and Black newspapers, as well as producing literary works such as Mhudi: an epic of South African native life a hundred years ago (Lovedale,1930), as well as translating some of Shakespeare's works, The Comedy of Errors and Julius Caesar, into Tswana.

In 1898 he married Elizabeth Mbelle, the sister of I Bud Mbelle, an important court interpreter and one time general secretary of the African National Congress. They had four sons, St Leger, Richard, Halley and Johann Gutenberg, and two daughters, Olive and Violet. Plaatje died on June 19 1932, while on a visit to Johannesburg and was buried at Kimberley.

Donald Bell Sole spent most of his professional career working for the South African diplomatic service from 1938-1982. He held various diplomatic positions in Europe and the USA. They included: South African ambassador in Austria, Germany, Washington and New York in USA. He also worked as a counsellor and deputy director general for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Pretoria as well as being on Board of Directors of big South African companies, like SASOL and Atomic Energy Board in Pretoria. He became the Citizen of Johannesburg, 1982-1988. Donald Sole was also a chairman of the South African Institute of International Affairs in Cape Town, 1986-1987 & 1996.

Member of Parliament for Johannesburg North - Progressive and Democratic parties.