Famous people on South-africa's street names

Nelson Mandela

20 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid activist, politician, and statesman who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as the president of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.

Jan van Riebeeck

19 Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck was a Dutch navigator and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company.

Queen Victoria

16 Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days—which was longer than those of any of her predecessors—constituted the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India.

Paul Kruger

12 Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, better known as Paul Kruger, was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and State President of the South African Republic from 1883 to 1900. Nicknamed Oom Paul, he came to international prominence as the face of the Boer cause—that of the Transvaal and its neighbour the Orange Free State—against Britain during the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. He has been called a personification of Afrikanerdom, and remains a controversial figure; admirers venerate him as a tragic folk hero.

Andries Pretorius

11 Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius was a leader of the Boers who was instrumental in the creation of the South African Republic, as well as the earlier but short-lived Natalia Republic, in present-day South Africa. The large city of Pretoria, executive capital of South Africa, is named after him.

Louis Botha

10 Louis Botha was a South African politician who was the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa – the forerunner of the modern South African state. A Boer war veteran during the Second Boer War, he eventually fought to have South Africa become a British Dominion.

Beyers Naudé

9 Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naudé was a South African Afrikaner Calvinist Dominee, theologian and the leading Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist. He was known simply as Beyers Naudé, or more colloquially, Oom Bey.

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

9 Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband of Queen Victoria. As such, he was consort of the British monarch from their marriage on 10 February 1840, until his death in 1861. He received the unique title of Prince Consort in 1857 from his wife.

Jan Smuts

7 Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and 1939 to 1948.

Brett Murray

7 Brett Murray is a South African artist mostly known for his steel and mixed media wall sculptures. He was born in Pretoria, South Africa. Murray has a master's degree in fine art from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, 1989. Referred to by critic Brenda Atkinson as "the dark prince of South African pop (art)", Murray is one of the country's most popular artists, often using easily recognisable media images with the addition of a subversive and bitterly funny twist. Murray's work addresses the wars of the cultures, the clash between Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism, the old and the new South Africas. "With my work I hope to critically entertain. Through satirical and tragic reflections on South Africa, I hope to shift people's perspectives and change people's minds, indulgent, arrogant and pretentious as this might sound," he says. More recently, his work has explored his own personal experiences and identity. Murray was also the founder of the sculpture department at Stellenbosch University.

Stanley Mathabatha

7 Chupu Stanley Mathabatha is a South African politician who is currently the Premier of Limpopo. He was elected to the position in July 2013 after the resignation of Cassel Mathale. He was previously a public servant in Limpopo province and from 2012 to 2013 completed a brief stint as a diplomat, serving as South African Ambassador to Ukraine under President Jacob Zuma.

Gideon Brand van Zyl

6 Gideon Brand van Zyl, PC was Governor-General of the Union of South Africa from 1945 to 1950.       

Piet Retief

6 Pieter Mauritz Retief was a Voortrekker leader. Settling in 1814 in the frontier region of the Cape Colony, he later assumed command of punitive expeditions during the sixth Xhosa War. He became a spokesperson for the frontier farmers who voiced their discontent, and wrote the Voortrekkers' declaration at their departure from the colony.

Daniel Theron

6 Daniël Johannes Stephanus "Danie" Theron was a Boer Army military leader and master scout. Born in Tulbagh, Cape Colony, he was raised in Bethlehem, Orange Free State. He is best known as the driving force behind the formation of a military bicycle corps used by the Boer Army for scouting and relaying messages. Originally trained as a school teacher, he became a lawyer and notary with his own law firm in Krugersdorp, Transvaal Republic, and was made a commandant in the Boer forces during the Second Anglo-Boer War. During the course of the war, he was put in charge of a significant scouting unit, Theron se Verkenningskorps (TVK). He fought at the Battle of Spion Kop and one of his most famous feats occurred at the Battle of Paardeberg. The British Commander in Chief, Lord Roberts, called Theron: "the hardest thorn in the flesh of the British advance", put a reward of £1,000 on his head – dead or alive – and dispatched 4,000 soldiers to find and eliminate the TVK.

Chris Hani

6 Chris Hani, born Martin Thembisile Hani, was the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a fierce opponent of the apartheid government, and was assassinated by Janusz Waluś, a Polish immigrant and sympathiser of the Conservative opposition on 10 April 1993, during the unrest preceding the transition to democracy.

Edward VIII

6 Edward VIII, later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year.

Thabo Mbeki

5 Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served as the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC). Before that, he was deputy president under Nelson Mandela from 1994 to 1999.

George Grey

5 Sir George Grey, KCB was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony, and the 11th premier of New Zealand. He played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand, and both the purchase and annexation of Māori land.

Erasmus

5 Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic theologian, educationalist, satirist, and philosopher. Through his vast number of translations, books, essays, prayers and letters, he is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Northern Renaissance and one of the major figures of Dutch and Western culture.

Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven

5 Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven, who published under his initials C.J. Langenhoven, was a South African poet who played a major role in the development of Afrikaans literature and cultural history. His poetry was one of the then young language's foremost promoters. He is best known for writing the words for the national anthem of South Africa, "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika", which was used during the apartheid era. He was affectionately known as Sagmoedige Neelsie or Kerneels. His childhood friend who helped him get into poetry was called Hans Conrodius van Zyl.

William Nicol (Transvaal)

5 Rev Dr. William Nicol was a Dutch Reformed minister, theologian, educator and Administrator of the Transvaal Province of South Africa.

Sarel Cilliers

5 Charl (Sarel) Arnoldus Cilliers was a Voortrekker leader and a preacher. With Andries Pretorius, he led the Boers to a huge victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838. In particular, Cilliers led the Voortrekkers in a vow which promised that if God would protect them and deliver the enemy into their hands, they would build a church and commemorate the day of their victory as if it were an annual Sabbath day, which their descendants would also be instructed to honour.

Ben Schoeman

5 Barend Jacobus "Ben" Schoeman was a South African politician of the National Party prominent during the apartheid era. He served as the Minister of Labour from 1948 to 1954, and the Minister of Transport from 1954 until 1974.

Martinus Theunis Steyn

5 Martinus Theunis Steyn was a South African lawyer, politician, and statesman. He was the sixth and last president of the independent Orange Free State from 1896 to 1902.

Solomon Mahlangu

4 Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu was a South African freedom fighter, struggle activist and operative of the African National Congress (ANC) militant wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). He was convicted of murder and hanged in 1979.

Frances Baard

4 Frances Goitsemang Baard OMSS OLG was a South African trade unionist, organiser for the African National Congress Women's League and a Patron of the United Democratic Front, who was commemorated in the renaming of the Diamantveld District Municipality (Kimberley) as the Frances Baard District Municipality. Schoeman Street in Pretoria was also renamed in her honour. This heroine is the reason we celebrate National Women's Day today in South Africa.

Elias Motsoaledi

4 Elias Mathope Motsoaledi OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. He was Accused No.9 in the Rivonia Trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 1963 with a group of anti-Apartheid revolutionaries which included Nelson Mandela who was Accused No.1.

Christiaan Frederik Beyers

4 Christiaan Frederik Beyers was a Boer general during the Second Boer War.                           

Robert Sobukwe

3 Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), serving as the first president of the organization.

Steve Biko

3 Bantu Stephen Biko OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. His ideas were articulated in a series of articles published under the pseudonym Frank Talk.

Stanza Bopape

3 Johannes Maisha Stanza Bopape was 'n ANC-aktivis en burgerlike leier. Hy is in 1987 verkies as die eerste hoofsekretaris van die South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) in Mamelodi. Die polisie het hom daarvan beskuldig dat hy 'n kommunis was en 'n gevaarlike invloed. Ondanks die feit dat hy moes vlug, het hy daarin geslaag om te mobiliseer en mense teen apartheid te organiseer.

Ismail Mahomed

3 Ismail Mahomed SCOB SC was a South African lawyer and jurist who served as the first black Chief Justice of South Africa from January 1997 until his death in June 2000. He was also the Chief Justice of Namibia from 1992 to 1999 and the inaugural Deputy President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1995 to 1996.

Lord Kelvin

3 William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. He was the professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, where he undertook significant research and mathematical analysis of electricity, the formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and contributed significantly to unifying physics, which was then in its infancy of development as an emerging academic discipline. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883 and served as its president from 1890 to 1895. In 1892, he became the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords.

Dirkie Uys

3 Dirk Cornelis "Dirkie" Uys was a Voortrekker hero during the Great Trek.                           

Walter Sisulu

3 Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu was a South African anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress (ANC). Between terms as ANC Secretary-General (1949–1954) and ANC Deputy President (1991–1994), he was Accused No.2 in the Rivonia Trial and was incarcerated on Robben Island where he served more than 25 years' imprisonment for his anti-Apartheid revolutionary activism. He had a close partnership with Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela, with whom he played a key role in organising the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the establishment of the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was also on the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party.

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

3 Wilhelmina was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, making her the longest-reigning monarch in Dutch history, as well as the longest-reigning female monarch outside the United Kingdom. Her reign saw World War I, the Dutch economic crisis of 1933 and World War II.

Albertina Sisulu

3 Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist, and the wife of fellow activist Walter Sisulu (1912–2003). She was affectionately known as "Ma Sisulu" throughout her lifetime by the South African public. In 2004 she was voted 57th in the SABC3's Great South Africans. She died on 2 June 2011 in her home in Linden, Johannesburg, South Africa, aged 92.

Lillian Ngoyi

3 Lilian Masediba Matabane Ngoyi, "Mma Ngoyi", OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. She was the first woman elected to the executive committee of the African National Congress, and helped launch the Federation of South African Women.

Rahima Moosa

3 Rahima Moosa OLS was a member of the Transvaal Indian Congress and later the African National Congress. She is well known for the role she played in the national uprising of women on 9 August 1956. Moosa was also a shop steward for the Cape Town Food and Canning Workers Union.

Ben Viljoen

3 Benjamin Johannes "Ben" Viljoen was an Afrikaner-American Consul, soldier, farmer, Maderista, and Boer general. Viljoen was born in a cave in the Wodehouse district of the Cape Colony to Susanna Magdalena Storm and Wynand Johannes Viljoen. This cave was the temporary residence of the Viljoen family while their farm house was being constructed. He spent his early years on the Varkiesdraai farm near Umtata. He attained the position of Assistant Commandant-General of the Transvaal Burgher Forces and was member for Krugersdorp in the Transvaal Volksraad. He was a South African Freemason.

James the Great

3 James the Great was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was the second of the apostles to die, and the first to be martyred. Saint James is the patron saint of Spain and, according to tradition, his remains are held in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.

Andrew the Apostle

3 Andrew the Apostle, also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called stems from the Gospel of John, where Andrew, initially a disciple of John the Baptist, follows Jesus and, recognizing him as the Messiah, introduces his brother Simon Peter to him.

Nico Smith

2 Nico Smith was a South African Afrikaner minister and prominent opponent of apartheid. Smith was a professor of theology at the University of Stellenbosch, a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond organization, and a minister of the apartheid-supporting Dutch Reformed Church (DRC). However, he abandoned his upper-class lifestyle to live with the impoverished and segregated blacks of Mamelodi, a township in the east of Pretoria. From Mamelodi, he worked to support the black community and oppose apartheid. Smith joined the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (DRCA), the separate branch of the Dutch Reformed Church for non-whites, due to the DRC's refusal to oppose apartheid.

Helen Joseph

2 Helen Beatrice Joseph OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Born in Sussex, England, Helen graduated with a degree in English from the University of London in 1927 and then departed for India, where she taught for three years at Mahbubia School for girls in Hyderabad. In about 1930 she left India for England via South Africa. However, she settled in Durban, where she met and married a dentist, Billie Joseph, whom she later divorced.

Simon van der Stel

2 Simon van der Stel was the first Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony (1691), the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. He was interested in botany, establishing vineyards Groot and Klein Constantia, and producing a famous dessert wine. He is considered one of the founders of South African viticulture.

Siener van Rensburg

2 Nicolaas Pieter Johannes Janse van Rensburg was a Boer from the South African Republic – also known as the Transvaal Republic – and later a citizen of South Africa who was considered by some to be a prophet of the Boers. Consequently, his nickname became "Siener". Van Rensburg's visions were typically wrapped in a patriotic, religious format, and have been interpreted by believers as predictions of future events. During the Boer War he became a trusted companion, if not advisor to General de la Rey and President Steyn. The extent of his influence with these figures is disputed, though the devoutly religious de la Rey seemed to have considered him a prophet of God.

C. R. Swart

2 Charles Robberts Swart, nicknamed "Blackie", was a South African politician who served as the last governor-general of the Union of South Africa from 1959 to 1961 and the first state president of the Republic of South Africa from 1961 to 1967.

Josias Hendrik Otto du Plessis

2 Josias Hendrik Otto du Plessis was Administrator of the Cape Province in South Africa from 1953 to 1958.

Abdullah Haron

2 Abdullah Haron, also known as Imam Haron, was a South African Muslim cleric and anti-apartheid activist. He is best known for his anti-apartheid activism and subsequent death by the Security Branch of the apartheid-era South African Police Force in 1969. Haron was posthumously awarded the Order of Luthuli in Gold in 2014 for his "exceptional contribution to raising awareness of political injustices".

Gustav Preller

2 Gustav Schoeman Preller was a journalist, historian, writer and literary critic. He fought for the recognition of Afrikaans. Preller helped the Afrikaner to realize the importance of the history of South Africa. He made great contributions to the writing of South African history, through his research and literature. He also contributed greatly to making South Africans aware of the legacy of the Voortrekkers and also played an early part in planning the Voortrekker Monument.

Deon van der Walt

2 Deon van der Walt, was a South African tenor.                                                     

Albert Luthuli

2 Albert John Luthuli was a South African anti-apartheid activist, traditional leader, and politician who served as the President-General of the African National Congress from 1952 until his death in 1967.

Govan Mbeki

2 Govan Archibald Mvunyelwa Mbeki was a South African politician, military commander, Communist leader who served as the Secretary of Umkhonto we Sizwe, at its inception in 1961. He was also the son of Chief Sikelewu Mbeki and Johanna Mahala and also the father of the former South African president Thabo Mbeki and political economist Moeletsi Mbeki. He was a leader of the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress. After the Rivonia Trial, he was imprisoned (1963–1987) on charges of terrorism and treason, together with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada and other eminent ANC leaders, for their role in the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). He was sometimes mentioned by his nickname "Oom Gov".

D. F. Malan

2 Daniël François Malan was a South African politician who served as the fourth prime minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954. The National Party implemented the system of apartheid, which enforced racial segregation laws, during his tenure as prime minister.

J. G. Strijdom

2 Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom, also known as Hans Strijdom and nicknamed the Lion of the North or the Lion of Waterberg, was the fifth prime minister of South Africa from 30 November 1954 to his death on 24 August 1958. He was an uncompromising Afrikaner nationalist and a member of the largest, baasskap faction of the National Party (NP), who further accentuated the NP's apartheid policies and break with the Union of South Africa in favour of a republic during his rule.

Emily Hobhouse

2 Emily Hobhouse was a British welfare campaigner, anti-war activist, and pacifist. She is primarily remembered for bringing to the attention of the British public, and working to change, the deprived conditions inside the British concentration camps in South Africa built to incarcerate Boer and African civilians during the Second Boer War.

Joe Slovo

2 Joe Slovo was a South African politician, and an opponent of the apartheid system. A Marxist-Leninist, he was a long-time leader and theorist in the South African Communist Party (SACP), a leading member of the African National Congress (ANC), and a commander of the ANC's military wing uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK).

Alois Hugo Nellmapius

2 Alois Hugo Nellmapius, was a South African businessman, industrialist and pioneer conservationist. 

Totius (poet)

2 Jacob Daniël du Toit, better known by his pen name Totius, was an Afrikaner poet.                   

Hendrik Potgieter

2 Andries Hendrik Potgieter, known as Hendrik Potgieter was a Voortrekker leader. He served as the first head of state of Potchefstroom from 1840 and 1845 and also as the first head of state of Zoutpansberg from 1845 to 1852.

Jan Shoba

2 Jan Shoba was a leader in the Azanian People's Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). He was a member of their High Command. In the late 1980s the military wing (APLA) of the PAC was disbanded and their focus became political and social issues.

Hendrik Verwoerd

2 Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, also known as H. F. Verwoerd, was a South African politician, scholar, and newspaper editor who was Prime Minister of South Africa and is commonly regarded as the architect of apartheid and nicknamed the "father of apartheid". Verwoerd played a significant role in socially engineering apartheid, the country's system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy, and implementing its policies, as Minister of Native Affairs (1950–1958) and then as prime minister (1958–1966). Furthermore, Verwoerd played a vital role in helping the far-right National Party come to power in 1948, serving as their political strategist and propagandist, becoming party leader upon his premiership. He was the Union of South Africa's last prime minister, from 1958 to 1961, when he proclaimed the founding of the Republic of South Africa, remaining its prime minister until his assassination in 1966.

Christiaan de Wet

2 Christiaan Rudolf de Wet was a Boer general, rebel leader and politician.                           

Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (1894–1948)

2 Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr was a South African politician and intellectual in the years preceding apartheid. In his lifetime he was regarded as one of the cleverest men in the country, and it was widely expected that he would eventually become Prime Minister of South Africa. He came from a well-known Afrikaner family; his uncle, also Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr but known affectionately as "Onze Jan" among fellow Afrikaners, was a famous figure in the Afrikaans language movement.

Saint George

2 Saint George, also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition, he was a soldier in the Roman army. Of Cappadocian Greek origin, he became a member of the Praetorian Guard for Roman emperor Diocletian, but was sentenced to death for refusing to recant his Christian faith. He became one of the most venerated saints, heroes and megalomartyrs in Christianity, and he has been especially venerated as a military saint since the Crusades. He is respected by Christians, Druze, as well as some Muslims as a martyr of monotheistic faith.

Sytze Wierda

2 Sytze Wopkes Wierda was a Dutch architect and engineer who played an important role in the architecture of the South African Republic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Dan Pienaar

2 Major General Daniel Hermanus Pienaar was a South African World War II military commander.         

George Washington

2 George Washington was an American Founding Father, military officer, and politician who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Second Continental Congress as commander of the Continental Army in 1775, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War and then served as president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which drafted and ratified the Constitution of the United States and established the U.S. federal government. Washington has thus become commonly known as the "Father of his Country".

Louis Pasteur

2 Louis Pasteur was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the last of which was named after him. His research in chemistry led to remarkable breakthroughs in the understanding of the causes and preventions of diseases, which laid down the foundations of hygiene, public health and much of modern medicine. Pasteur's works are credited with saving millions of lives through the developments of vaccines for rabies and anthrax. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern bacteriology and has been honored as the "father of bacteriology" and the "father of microbiology".

Galbraith Lowry Cole

2 General Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole was an Anglo-Irish British Army officer and politician.           

Thomas Edison

2 Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory.

71 unique persons spotted on 313 streets