- Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (born June 18 1942) is the current President of the Republic of South Africa.
- Jacob Zuma
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (born Inkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, April 12, 1942) is a former Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa and current deputy president of the governing political party, the African National Congress (ANC). A popular figure even across political divides, he gained notoriety after his financial advisor, Schabir Shaik, was convicted of corruption and fraud, leading to Zuma's dismissal as deputy president in June 2005.
- Zapiro
Zapiro is the nom de plume of South African political cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, whose work appears in numerous South African publications and has been exhibited internationally on many occasions.
- Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu : This is an unbelievable achievement. As you might know, we have won the Rugby World Cup in 1995. It did wonders back then. Success in sports connected the people in a way that only a few politicians have been able to achieve in the past. We are looking forward to similar results in the context of the Football World Cup 2010. The Football World Cup makes South Africans feel more self-confident.
- Ernie Els
Theodore Ernest "Ernie" Els (born October 17, 1969) is a South African golfer who has been one of the top professional players in the world since the mid-1990s. A former World No. 1, he is known as "The Big Easy", for his imposing physical stature (he stands 1.90 metres) along with his fluid, seemingly effortless golf swing.
- Arthur Goldstuck
Arthur Goldstuck (born 1959) is a South African journalist, media analyst and commentator on Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Internet and mobile communications and technologies. He grew up in Trompsburg, Free State, South Africa and resides in Johannesburg, South Africa. Goldstuck led early research into the size of the Internet user population and the extent of Web commerce in South Africa, which established trend lines for Internet growth in the country.
- Graeme Smith
Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981 in Johannesburg) is a cricketer who became the youngest ever player to captain the South African cricket team at the age of 22 years when he was selected to take over from Shaun Pollock after the 2003 Cricket World Cup after Pollock had miscalculated the Duckworth-Lewis calculations to win the game..
- Oscar Pistorius
Oscar Pistorius (born November 22, 1986) is a South African Paralympic runner. Known as the "Blade Runner" and "the fastest man on no legs", Pistorius is the double amputee world record holder in the 100, 200 and 400 metres events and runs with the aid of carbon fibre transtibial artificial limbs. His artificial lower legs, while enabling him to compete, have also generated claims that he has an unfair advantage over other runners.
- Jake White
Jake White (born 3 November 1963 in Johannesburg) is a South African rugby union coach. He is the current coach of the South African national team, the Springboks.
- Jacques Kallis
Jacques Henry Kallis (born 16 October 1975 in Cape Town) is a South African cricketer. He is a talented right-handed batsman and effective fast-medium bowler who can swing the ball both ways off a good line and length. As of September 2006 he became the only cricketer in the history of the game to hold more than 8,000 runs and 200 wickets in both Test and One Day International cricket. Sanath Jayasuriya has achieved that feat in ODIs but not Tests, …
- Trevor Manuel
Trevor Andrew Manuel (born 31 January 1956) is currently South Africa's Minister of Finance. He has been Finance Minister since 1996, making him one of the country's longest-serving finance ministers. He was born in Kensington, Cape Town to a civil servant, and grew up and was educated in the city. He matriculated in 1973 and studied Civil and Structural Engineering, and later - during his detention - also law.
- Retief Goosen
Retief Goosen (born February 3, 1969) is a South African professional golfer who has been in the top ten in the Official World Golf Rankings for several years.
- Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron (born August 7, 1975) is an Academy Award winning South African actress and former fashion model. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in "Monster" (2004). She was first featured in "2 Days in the Valley" (1996), starring alongside such actors and actresses as Danny Aiello and Teri Hatcher.
- Shaun Pollock
Shaun Maclean Pollock (born July 16, 1973 in Port Elizabeth) is a South African cricketer who is considered a bowling all-rounder. From 2000 to 2003 he was the captain of the South African cricket team. He was also chosen as the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2003.
- Trevor Immelman
Trevor John Immelman (born 16 December 1979) is a South African golfer. Immelman was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He took up golf at the age of five. He won the U.S. Amateur Public Links in 1998. Immelman turned professional in 1999. In 2000 he played mainly on the second tier professional tour in Europe, the Challenge Tour, and finished tenth on the Order of Merit.
- Makhaya Ntini
Makhaya Ntini (born 6 July 1977 in Eastern Cape Province) is a South African cricketer, the first ethnic black player to play for the South African team. A fast bowler, he tends to bowl from wide of the crease with brisk, although not express, pace. He has survived legal controversy early on in his career to become only the third South African to take 300 Test wickets after Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald, and to reach second place in the ICC test match bowling ratings.
- John Smit
John William Smit (born 3 April 1978 in Pietersburg, South Africa) is the 51st and current captain of the South African national rugby union team, the Springboks. He plays the position of hooker. Smit went to Pretoria Boys High School where he was head prefect in 1996 and played in the first rugby team from 1994 to 1996. Smit played his first Springbok game in 2000 at the age of 22, when South Africa beat Canada 51-18 at Basil Kenyon Stadium in East London.
- Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. In India, he is recognized as the "Father of the Nation" and October 2nd, his birthday, is commemorated each year as "Gandhi Jayanti", a national holiday. On 15 June 2007, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution declaring October 2 to be the "International Day of Non-Violence." As a British-educated lawyer, …
- Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (9 October 1940 -) is the controversial Health Minister of South Africa under the government of Thabo Mbeki (as of 2005). She was a deputy minister of Justice from 1996 to 1999, and then has served as Health Minister since 1999. Her emphasis on treating AIDS with vegetables such as garlic and beetroot, rather than with antiretroviral medicines, has been the subject of international criticism.
- Helen Zille
Helen Zille (9 March, 1951 -) is the Mayor of Cape Town in South Africa's Western Cape province and leader of the Democratic Alliance political party, South Africa's official opposition. She was voted "Newsmaker of the year 2006" by the National Press Club in Pretoria on 11 July 2007.
- Herschelle Gibbs
Herschelle Herman Gibbs (born 23 February 1974 in Cape Town) is a South African cricketer, more specifically a batsman. He was schooled at Diocesan College in Rondebosch. Considered by many to be the most naturally gifted batsman South Africa has produced since their re-admission to International Cricket in 1991, Gibbs has nevertheless been accused of under achievement during his still impressive career.
- Dale Steyn
Dale Willem Steyn (born June 27, 1983, Phalaborwa) is a cricketer who has played in Test and One-day International cricket for South Africa. He made his ODI debut for the African XI during the 2005 Afro-Asian Cup. Recalled to the Test side in April 2006, he responded with his first five-wicket haul, as New Zealand were routed in the first Test at Centurion. He spent some time playing for Essex County Cricket Club in the summer of 2005.
- Gary Player
Gary Player is a legend in his own time. The most successful international golfer of all time, Player has achieved the kind of worldwide acclaim reserved for only a handful of sporting greats. He is, quite simply, world class. Gary Player is renowned as much for his dedication to the principles of excellence as he is for his golfing accomplishments. He is recognized worldwide as an uncompromising perfectionist who settles for nothing but the best.
- Mark Boucher
Mark Verdon Boucher (born December 3, 1976 in East London, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa) is a South African cricketer. He was educated at Selborne College. He has represented Border, Africa XI, ICC World XI and South Africa. He has been a regular feature of the South African side since the 1997/1998 tour to Australia.
- Ashwell Prince
Ashwell Gavin Prince (born May 28, 1977, Port Elizabeth, Cape Province) is a cricketer who plays Test and One-day International cricket for South Africa. A left handed middle order batsman, he has a high batted stance and is strong through the offside he is one of the fastest runners in cricket. He is noted for his gritty style of batting and also for being an athletic fielder in the covers.
- Bryan Habana
Bryan Gary Habana (born 12 June 1983 in Benoni, Gauteng) is a South African rugby player who is a wing for the Blue Bulls in the Currie Cup, the Bulls in Super 14, and the Springboks internationally. He played outside centre and scrumhalf in provincial and age group rugby, but once he was moved to the wing a vast improvement was seen. Prior to his first year of Super Rugby he was selected into the South African Springbok side, …
- Mark Shuttleworth
Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African entrepreneur who was the second self-funded space tourist and first African national in space. He is now best known for his leadership of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. He currently lives in London and holds dual citizenship of South Africa and the United Kingdom
- Hashim Amla
Hashim Mahomed Amla (born 31 March, 1983 in Durban) is a South African cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. In November 2004, Amla became the first South African team player of Indian descent. He is also a devout Muslim, which has led to campaigns to remove all alcohol-promoting logos from merchandise and playing gear.
- Hugh Masekela
Hugh Ramopolo Masekela (born Witbank South Africa, April 4, 1939) is a South African trumpet, flugelhorn and cornet player. He began singing and playing piano as a child. At age 14, after seeing the film, "Young Man With a Horn" (where Kirk Douglas portrays American Jazz trumpeter, Bix Beiderbecke), he took up playing the trumpet. His first trumpet was given to him by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, the anti-apartheid chaplain at St. Peters Secondary School.
- Zwelinzima Vavi
Zwelinzima Vavi is General Secretary of Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and Vice-Chairperson of the Millennium Labour Council. Vavi was born on a farm in Hanover, Northern Cape, with a mineworker father, four brothers and seven sisters. He does not know his birth-date. He was a child labourer, looking for work among neighbouring farms. In 1987 Vavi worked in a gold-mining territory of Klerksdorp and Orkney. He was a uranium plant clerk at Vaal Reefs mine, …
- Ian Smith
Vivian Ian Smith (born February 23, 1925, Durban, Natal) is a former South African cricketer who played in 9 Tests from 1947 to 1957.
- Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
Doctor Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma (born 27 January 1949) is a South African politician and was an anti-apartheid activist. Since 17 June 1999 she has been the South African Minister of Foreign Affairs. Dlamini-Zuma, a Zulu, was born in Natal, the oldest of eight children. She completed high school at the Amanzimtoti Training College in 1967. In 1971, she started her studies in Zoology and Botany at the University of Zululand, …
- Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
Mrs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (born 3 November 1955) is the current Deputy President of South Africa. She is married to the former head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Bulelani Ngcuka.
- Steve Biko
Stephen Bantu Biko (18 December 1946 - 12 September 1977) was a noted nonviolent anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and early 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the anti-apartheid movement. While living, his writings and activism attempted to empower blacks, …
- Navanethem Pillay
Navanethem Pillay is a South African judge who has served on the International Criminal Court since 2003. She was born in 1941 to South Africa's Tamil minority. She was the first woman to start a law practice in Natal Province in 1967. She acted as defence attorney for many anti-apartheid activists and trade unionists, including her own husband.
- Aziz Pahad
Aziz Pahad (born December 25, 1940) is deputy minister of foreign affairs in South Africa.
- Schalk Burger
Schalk "Schalla" Burger Jr. (born April 13 1983, Port Elizabeth) is a promising young South African rugby union player. He plays the position of flanker in the Springbok rugby union team. He is relatively big for a flanker, weighing in at 110kg and standing 193cm tall (6'4", 235 lb).
- Victor Matfield
Victor Matfield (born 11 May 1977 in Pietersburg (now Polokwane), South Africa) is a South African rugby union player for the Springbok rugby team as well as the Blue Bulls provincial side and Bulls Super 14 franchise. He stands 2 meters tall and weighs 110 kilograms (6'7", 242 lb). He plays the position of lock and is considered one of the best locks in the world.
- Andre Nel
Andre Nel (born 15 July 1977, Germiston, Transvaal) is a South African cricketer who plays Test cricket and ODIs as a fast bowler.
- Ebrahim Rasool
Ebrahim Rasool is the Premier of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. He is a member of the African National Congress.