Innholdsfortegnelse for YOU Guide: SA Heroes i You South Africa

WHO are your heroes? Are they superheroes with superpowers, like Black Panther or Spider-Man? Are they unsung heroes like firefighters who rush into burning buildings to save lives, or health heroes like nurses who work in hospitals to keep us safe and healthy? Maybe your hero wears an invisible cape it could be your father or your grandmother. We all have our heroes and they come in different shapes and sizes, but the one thing they have in common is that they inspire us to be great. They show us what can be achieved if we really put our minds to it. They help form and shape our lives. They could be as famous as Nelson Mandela or as everyday as your mom or a teacher. South Africa has a…

THE LOWDOWN He wrote and sang the opening line Naaaantsi Ingonyama bakithi baba -in The Lion King. Lebo also wrote music for the film’s soundtrack, theatre shows and the 2019 liveaction remake starring Beyonce. He moved to the US in 1981 when a tourist bought him an air ticket to New York. Once there, he slept on the streets for two years. Lebo got his big break when German film music producer Hans Zimmer asked him to work on the soundtrack of the original Lion King film. Today, it’s one of the biggest movies of all time, and it was the film’s music as much as the story and animation that made the 1994 classic a smash hit. Lebo’s work also created a window for the world to see South…

THE LOWDOWN Even though it was taboo during apartheid, Johnny was fascinated with Zulu culture. He befriended musician Sipho Mchunu, who taught him the language, the culture and the dances. The pair laterformed a band called Juluka. It was the first South African band to have black and white members. Their music also had a new sound - a crossover of pop music and Zulu rhythms. Juluka quickly became internationally renowned and toured all over the world But in SA, radio stations were afraid to play their music because of apartheid laws. Despite this, the band did so well that Johnny quit his job as an anthropology lecturer at Wits University in 1984 to become a full-time musician. However, Juluka disbanded in 1985 when Sipho decided to return to KwaZulu-Natal…

CELEBS & ART THE LOWDOWN When she entered the Miss South Africa pageant everyone told her to wear a wig or a weave. Up until then most beauty pageant winners had long, sleek hair but Zozi didn’t care. She chose to be herself - and in so doing she redefined beauty standards when she was crowned the most beautiful woman in the land. “I hope I’ve inspired people to be themselves at all times and to never compromise their identities, and to insert themselves in spaces where they feel that people like them don’t belong,” she said after winning. Later that year she took her message to the international stage when she was crowned Miss Universe 2019. Before becoming a pageant winner, Zozi graduated with a degree in public-relations management…

THE LOWDOWN Johaar was born during apartheid when people of colour had few opportunities. His religious community also rejected ballet, and he was told he was too short to be a dancer. Despite this, he became the first principal dancer of colour to join The Royal Ballet company in England. A principal dancer is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company. As a teenager, Johaar was noticed by Dulcie Howes, a leader in ballet in South Africa at the time. She offered him a scholarship to train at the University of Cape Town’s Ballet School. When two international ballet stars later came to SA in search of new talent, Johaar impressed them so much they arranged for a scholarship for him to study at Sadler’s Wells…

THE LOWDOWN Zackie was diagnosed with HIV at a time when it was difficult to get treatment or medication in South Africa. This was because the country’s leaders didn’t believe that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes Aids. This disease attacks the immune system and can cause serious infections and health problems. Zackie helped found the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a group that changed how government dealt with the disease. He could afford the very expensive antiretroviral medication, but he refused to take it until it was available to all South Africans who needed it. The TAC’s protests finally led to the country’s leaders providing life-saving drugs to the poor. When big drug companies hiked the prices of the medication, TAC also forced them to lower costs so that everyone…

THE LOWDOWN Former president Nelson Mandela once said that Reverend Beyers Naudé was a great example of rising above race. Beyers was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church and a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond, an exclusive organisation for Afrikaner men whose main objective was the promotion of the Afrikaner people. They did this chiefly through the oppressive system of apartheid. At first, he also believed in apartheid, but he had a change of heart following the Sharpeville Massacre on 21 March 1960 in which police killed 69 unarmed black protestors. After being a member for 22 years, Beyers rejected the brutal system of racial oppression and left the Broederbond, causing large parts of SA’s white population to label him a traitor. He was also stripped of his status…

THE LOWDOWN Allan was a nuclear physicist who graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1944. After a short spell in the US, he returned home in 1949 and took a job in the radiology department at Groote Schuur Hospital. Radiology is a medical speciality that uses imaging technology to diagnose and treat disease. He often worked with X-rays, a type of radiation that creates pictures of the inside of the body. He began to wonder how X-rays could be used to make clearer images of organs and other soft tissues. Using mathematics, he figured out a way to achieve this. Allan published his research in 1964. Three years later British electrical engineer Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield started bulling a machine to put his theory into practice. The result was…

THE LOWDOWN Lucky was born to two deaf parents, so communicating was challenging. He tried to learn sign language, but his progress was slow because his parents were the only people he knew who used sign language. He found a solution when he developed a smart glove that translates sign language into speech. The smart glove works with sensors. These sensors read gestures made by the hand and translate them to voice and text. The technology also allows for a hearing person to communicate with a deaf person using a mobile app. The app detects your voice and translates what you are saying into South African sign language, which is displayed on your phone. Lucky has managed to break down the communication barrier with his parents through this invention -…

THE LOWDOWN ON THE morning of 25 April 2002, he woke long before dawn and put on the space suit he’d tried on many times during training. But this time it wasn’t a practice run - he really was about to blast off into outer space. The then 28-year-old had paid about $20 million (then R220m) for a seat on the Soyuz TM-34 spacecraft. To board the Russian rocket, he rode a tiny elevator to the top where the passenger capsule was located. He was joined by flight commander Yuri Gidzenko of Russia and Italian flight engineer Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency. As the dock counted down to zero, Mark was strapped down in his seat, intensely watching the instruments as all the rocket engines ignited. Then he…

COOL CREATORS 1. POOL PIONEER + Name Ferdinand Chauvier + Hometown Springs, Ekurhuleni, Gauteng + Claim to fame Created the Kreepy Krauly, the world’s first commercially successful automatic pool cleaner Ferdinand was a hydraulics engineer (an engineer that deals with the use and control of flowing water) who emigrated from the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) to South Africa in 1951. Fie came up with the idea for an automatic pool cleaner after noticing that people hated cleaning their swimming pools by hand In 1974 he developed the Kreepy Krauly, which is still used in millions of homes around the world today. 2. PUTTY ENGINEER + Name George Montague “Monty” Pratley + Hometown Johannesburg + Claim to fame Made the only SA product to go to…

THE LOWDOWN Helen was an economics lecturer at Wits University in Johannesburg before she entered politics as an opposition member of parliament (MP). She later helped to form the liberal Progressive Party - and was the party’s sole MP for more than a decade. For over a decade she was the only politician to publicly condemn the apartheid government. She also played a huge role in improving conditions for political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela. She’d often visit him in prison on Robben Island and used her parliamentary privilege to avoid censorship, sharing information about the true brutality of apartheid with the media. Even after leaving parliament, she kept working as an anti-apartheid activist. From 1991 to 1993 she was the president of the South African Insti tute for Race Relations,…

SPORT THE LOWDOWN Benni was born during a time when playing soccer was one of the few ways to escape poverty and gang violence in his community. By age 15, he was the most outstanding player in the South African second division. He scored so many goals that it attracted the attention of some of Europe’s biggest clubs. In 1997 he joined Ajax Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Two years later, he moved to Spanish club Celta de Vigo. He also played for FC Porto in Portugal before moving to England where he played for Blackburn Rovers and West Ham United. He was a star striker for Bafana Bafana from 1997 to 2013. When he retired as a player at age 35, he held the record for the most finishes for…

THE LOWDOWN Baby Jake was a South African boxing icon whose career spanned more than 30 years. He was nicknamed Baby Jake because of his height: he was just 1,47m tall - the average height of an 11 year old. Baby Jake wasn’t just small, he also had short arms, which are both disadvantages for a boxer. Still, he packed a powerful punch and was known for his courage and determination in the ring. He was introduced to boxing by his dad when he was 10 and at 17, he turned professional. In 1997, he won the International Boxing Association (IBA) flyweight title. In doing so he became the shortest boxing world champion in history. He was also the only South African boxer to win four world championships: the World…

THE LOWDOWN Penny never had any doubt in her mind that she wanted to swim for her country. But because of apartheid, South Africa was banned from the Olympic Games for years. SA was only allowed to take part in the games again in 1992 - and although Penny was there, she didn’t do well. Four years later, at the next Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, it was an entirely different story. She won gold in the 100m and 200m breaststroke, becoming the first woman to win both breaststroke events at the same games. To this day, no one has managed the same feat. Penny was also the first breaststroke swimmer in history to set simultaneous world records in the 50m, 100m and 200m. It’s little wonder then that she…

SPORT THE LOWDOWN When he told his mom, Nomazibuko, he wanted to pursue water sports she worried he’d drown, but his dad, Zamuxolo, encouraged him to try. And it’s a good thing he did: Siseko took to canoeing like a duck to water. He slowly started climbing the ranks in a sport that embraced and encouraged diversity, but he wanted to be the best. He desperately wanted to take on Africa’s toughest canoe race - the Dusi Canoe Marathon - so he approached veteran paddler Piers Cruick shanks to train him. The gruelling three-day river race runs along the Msunduzi and Mgeni rivers across a distance of 120km from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. The paddling pair trained for months, and their hard work paid off when they won a…

CELEBS & ART THE LOWDOWN WHEN he was announced as the new host of one of the top shows on American TV, many viewers were confused. Who was this unknown comedian from South Africa taking over as the face of The Daily Show? That was in 2015 and seven years later Trevor Noah, who was born in Soweto, is one of the world’s most-loved TV personalities. In fact, he won an award for best host at the 2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards, beating the more experienced Ellen DeGeneres. Trevor has hosted the Grammy Awards twice in a row and has established himself as a successful stand-up comedian around the world. He also wrote a bestselling book, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, in which he shared…

THE LOWDOWN Cassper was so passionate about music, he dropped out of high school when he was 16 to become a rapper. In 2014 he created his own record label, Family Tree Records, and released his first album Tsholofelo, which topped South African music charts. This gave him the confidence to take on a challenge no other local artist had ever achieved: to sell out the 20 000-seater Ticket-Pro Dome in Johannesburg. Cassper went on to fill up major arenas across the country, including Soweto’s Orlando Stadium and FNB Stadium, the largest in South Africa. The rapper embraced the Fill Up concept because he wanted to prove that local musicians are as popular at home as international acts. Today, he’s one of the bestselling artists on the continent. HIP-HOP HEAVY-WEIGHT…

SPIRITUAL ICONS & ACTIVISTS THE LOWDOWN Nkosi was born with HIV at a time when life-saving antiretroviral drugs were not yet available in South Africa. His mother, Daphne, also had the virus and gave him up for adoption when she became too ill to look after him. He was adopted by Gail Johnson, a volunteer at the Aids centre where he and his mom lived. Gail raised him after Daphne’s death and encouraged him to fight for his rights when a school refused to enroll him in 1997 because he had HIV. South Africans were furious when his story made headlines. The Constitution prohibits schools from denying access to children because of their health and the school had to change their decision. Nkosi went on to speak at many important…

THE LOWDOWN ON THE night of 3 December 1967, Denise Darvall died at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town after being hit by a car. Somewhere else in that hospital was a sick 54-year-old man hanging onto life by a thread. His name was Louis Washkansky, and he needed a new heart to survive. When 25-year-old Denise died, the hospital’s top cardiac surgeon, Dr Chris Barnard, realised they could use her heart. Such an operation had never been done anywhere in the world, but Louis agreed because it was his only hope. Denise and Louis were both taken to the operating theatre, where his diseased heart was removed and replaced with her healthy heart. It was the first time in medical history that a human heart was successfully transplanted between…

MEDICAL, TECH & SCIENCE THE LOWDOWN We know the world’s first heart transplant was performed in SA (see page 34), but did you know that the world’s first penis transplant was also performed here? Dr André van der Merwe became famous when he conducted the first penis transplant in 2014 at Cape Town’s Tyger berg Hospital. Damage to the penis is more common in SA than in other countries because of complications following traditional circumcisions. Thanks to his pioneering work, a second successful penis transplant could be performed in America about a year later. Even before the ground-breaking transplant, Dr Van der Merwe was a well-known urologist (a doctor specialising in the urinary system). He’s won awards for academic performance in the field of urology, and for excellence and service…

THE LOWDOWN When he was a boy, Percy's family lived across the street from the Benoni town hall - and he saw this as an opportunity to kickstart his theatre dream. He was just 10 when he rented the lounge suite in his parents’ home to a touring theatre company in exchange for tickets to their show. After graduating with a B Com degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, Percy got a job backstage at the East Rand Theatre Club. He worked his way ud to become the stage manager. In 1952 he opened Show Service, SA’s first professional theatre office, in Johannesburg,. Percy realised there must be a more efficient way of buying tickets than standing in a queue for hours. He wanted to computerise his ticket-booking business…

POLITICS, FINANCES & LEGAL THE LOWDOWN HE WAS our country’s first democratically elected president, respected and admired around the world because he forgave the cruel people who kept him locked up for nearly 30 years. His friend and fellow activist, the late Desmond Tutu (see page 24), captured it best when he said, “How God must love South Africa to give us a gift like Nelson Mandela” And what a gift he was. Hs was released from prison after 27 years with a message of hope and reconciliation. He reached out to apartheid leaders to help build a new South Africa instead of attacking and punishing them for the bad things they’d done to him and other black South Africans. Madiba, which is the name of his dan (his extended…

THE LOWDOWN She worked at a clothing factory during the school holidays to earn pocket money Although she was young, factory workers asked her to help solve their problems with the bosses. She was so good at her job she was promoted to speak on behalf of the workers in their dealings with management. Sophia went on to create the South African Congress of Trade Unions, which represented workers in various industries across the country. She also became the organiser of the Coloured People’s Congress, formed to protect the rights of coloured people under apartheid. She has lived a life of service, but she’s best known for bravely leading the Women’s March in Pretoria on 9 August 1956, when 20 000 women protested the introduction of a law that would…

POLITICS, FINANCES LEGAL THE LOWDOWN Before becoming a politician, Albert was a teacher at a Christian mission school in Durban He strongly believed that education should be equal and available to all children, no matter the colour of their skin. In 1928 he became secretary of the African Teacher’s Association and in 1933 its president. Albert was deeply religious. In 1936 he gave up his teaching job to become the chief of a Christian branch of the Zulu tribe. This was a huge sacrifice because he earned a lot less money - but he was driven to help people. A latecomer to politics, Albert was 54 when he became leader of the African National Congress (ANC). As president he adopted the Freedom Charter - considered to be the founding document…

SPORT THE LOWDOWN It’s little wonder he’s a role model for kids with a passion for sport. Siya was so poor that when he went for his provincial rugby trials, he played in his boxer shorts because that’s all he had. Despite his humble beginnings, he worked hard to make a good life for himself and his family. After winning a rugby scholarship at Grey High School in Gqeberha, he kicked off his professional career at Western Province. In 2013 he got his first international cap when he was picked for the Springboks. Siya is a talented player, but he also shows great leadership skills both on and off the field. This is why he was selected as Bok captain in 2018. Two years later, he led South Africa to…

THE LOWDOWN Lucas was playing goalkeeper for an amateur team when he was spotted by a Kaizer Chiefs scout. The defender joined Chiefs in 1989 and was part of the club’s most successful period in the early ’90s. In 1992 Lucas joined the national team and two years later, he signed a contract to play for Leeds United in England. A natural-born leader, it wasn’t long before Lucas was chosen as captain of Bafana Bafana and Leeds United. He went on to become a firm favourite with Leeds fans, who nicknamed him Rhoo and The Chief in honour of his former club. He was a legend back home too: in 1996 he led Bafana Bafana to victory at the Africa Cup of Nations. Lucas retired from soccer in 2005 but…

THE LOWDOWN Charlize didn’t always want to become an actress. She trained as a dancer, but her ballerina dreams were dashed when she hurt her knee. She worked as a model in Italy for a while before relocating to America where she stumbled into acting. She was discovered by a talent agent while having an argument with a bank cashier in Los Angeles. Soon after, she got her first small role in a film. Ten years after arriving in LA with only a battered old suitcase, she won an Oscar for best actress for her role in Monster. Later, she started her own production company to make films and used her voice to support women’s rights. Despite her success, she hasn’t forgotten her roots. In 2007, she started the Charlize…

CELEBS & ART THE LOWDOWN She started writing at the age of nine - and by 15, Nadine had her first story published in a magazine. Because she read so much, she increasingly realised how different her life as a young white woman was to that of black South Africans. This is why she became an antiapartheid activist. Almost all her books and short stories are about the horrible effects of apartheid. But the government at the time didn’t like it one bit and banned some of her novels. As a result, she was more popular overseas than in her own country. That all changed in 1991 when she became the first South African to win the world’s greatest literary award, the Nobel Prize for literature. It wasn’t her first…

CELEBS & ART THE LOWDOWN Hugh inherited his love of music from his jazz-loving father and got his first trumpet when he was15. He found fame in the Jazz Epistles, but the band only released one album because Hugh went overseas after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in which police killed 60 unarmed protesters. He would not return for 30 years. During that time Hugh lived in America, Europe and Africa, bringing South Africa’s unique rhythms and harmonies to world stages. Because he was so deeply affected by apartheid, he made music about the struggle. Most of his songs speak against slavery and discrimination but he also made music for South African plays King Kong and Sarafinal. And he wrote and recorded songs for his ex-wife, Miriam Makeba (turn to page…

THE LOWDOWN A TV advert changed everything for Pretty, who is now regarded as one of the finest sopranos the world has ever seen. Until that moment she had her heart set on becoming an accountant, but all her dreams of a desk job were abandoned in a heartbeat. The next day she marched up to her high school teacher at Ndlela Secondary School in eMkhondo and told him to teach her how to sing opera. And so began a career that now sees the University of Cape Town graduate being celebrated in the world’s most iconic opera houses. Pretty can speak Italian and now lives in Milan. In 2019 she received an Italian Knighthood, Ordine Stella d’Italia, for her work in building relations between Italy and other countries-making her…

THE LOWDOWN HIS parents, Zachariah and Aletta, named him Mpilo because he was a frail child and nearly died after contracting polio in infancy. Mpilo means ’life“ in isiXhosa - and he certainly lived up to his name. The Arch, as he later became known, lived an inspirational life of service: he was a hero of South Africa’s liberation struggle, a leader and a man of God who loved to laugh. As a teen, he contracted tuberculosis, which inspired him to want to become a doctor. But money was so tight that his family lived in a tiny three-room house and had no electricity. He was so determined to fulfil his dream he stayed up late most nights using candlelight to study for his exams. Desmond was accepted to study…

THE LOWDOWN Ever since he can remember he’s wanted to help people. That’s why Imtiaz enrolled at medical school. In 1984 he qualified as a doctor but gave up his career because he wanted to reach more people in need. In 1992, he founded the Gift of the Givers Foundation. Since then, the organisation has conducted community outreach programmes and provided humanitarian assistance to people in need in more than 44 countries. The foundation doesn’t discriminate against anyone and its help comes in many forms: from drilling boreholes and providing clean drinking water to hospitals and drought-stricken communities, to delivering food parcels in war-torn countries and supplying thousands of South Africans with food and medical supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Under Imtiaz’s leadership, Gift of the Givers has become the…

THE LOWDOWN In July 2021, thousands of people in KwaZulu-Natal protested the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma. Emelda was walking down the street when she saw an angry mob burning buildings, vandalising trucks and stealing from stores. She knew she had to do something. That night she posted a message on social media offering to help people clean up their stores - and so Rebuild SA was born. In just a few days the organisation grew to 70 000 volunteers across KZN and Gauteng. Emelda and her co-founders, Natalie Church and Mbali Ndhlovu, worked around the dock assigning volunteers to malls, shopping centres and streets to clean and rebuild the damaged buildings. She inherited her love for helping people from her grandmother, Esther, who helped raise her. CLEAN QUEEN…

Dr Chris Barnard wasn’t just a trailbiazer in the medical field. He ignored many apartheid laws and allowed black medical staff in the operating room to treat white patients. At the University of Cape Town (UCT) he befriended Hamilton Naki (BELOW). Having left school at the age of 14 after completing only Grade 8, Hamilton hitchhiked from Centani in the Eastern Cape to Cape Town, where he found work as a gardener at UCT and worked his way up to become a laboratory technician. Although he learnt in the lab how to perform transplants on animals, he was never involved in surgery on humans because apartheid laws had denied him any opportunity to become a doctor. Instead, he operated on baboons, rabbits, dogs and pigs to advance the work on…

THE LOWDOWN Professor Tshifularo is the head of the Department of Ear, Nose and Throat studies (ENT) at the University of Pretoria and is widely recognised as one of the best ENT specialists in the country. In 2019 he made history by performing the world’s first middle-ear replacement surgery using BD-printed bones. The middle ear allows you to hear and is also important for balance. It’s made up of three small bones, called ossicles, that are connected and transmit sound waves to the inner ear. The ear transplant involved surgically replacing the ossicles (called the hammer, anvil and stirrup because of their shapes), with similarly shaped titanium pieces produced on a 3D printer. These 3D-printed bones were developed by the professor and his team to make such surgeries less risky…

MEDICAL, TECH & SCIENCE THE LOWDOWN Mandisa was five years old when she discovered her love of flying. She loved going to airshows with her grandmother and mom. “I used to be so mesmerised,” she recalls. Though she dreamt of becoming a pilot, she didn’t think it was possible because there weren’t many opportunities for women at the time. Then she saw an advertisement from the South African Air Force (SAAF) looking for trainees, which would change her life. After finishing high school, she joined the military where she trained hard to realise her dream. Now Mandisa is a high-ranking combat pilot in the SAAF and helps to protect our country’s borders. FACT Mandisa took to the skies with other women pilots for a display during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2018…

MEDICAL, TECH & SCIENCE THE LOWDOWN Born in London and raised in South Africa, Caspar became famous as a teenager for his hilarious You tube videos often featuring his family and friends. After finishing high school, he became a full-time content creator and moved to London. There, his popularity soared thanks to collaboretions with stars including singer Ed Sheeran and actors Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart: Later, he and a friend started a company called Influencer which provides a place where social media influencers and brands can meet each other online. The young businessman then set up a talent manage ment company called Margravine Management with another pal. He also founded the Creative Investment Club, which helps start-up, businesses get on their feet. His work in media and advertising earned…

THE LOWDOWN Some schools in South Africa have a code of conduct that forbids girls from wearing their natural hair. Girls are required to force it into tight braids or cornrows or use damaging chemicals to straighten it. Zulaikha refused to have her hair policed and in 2016 led a hair-policy protest at her school, Pretoria High School for Girls. Her defiance sparked a national conversation on racial prejudice in classrooms and her school later overturned their policy to allow natural hair. It was an incredible achievement not only for the students at Pretoria High School for Girls, but for black students across the country who’d faced racism and abuse at schools for their hair. After completing matric, Zulaikha continued to fight racism as well as for women’s rights and…

THE LOWDOWN Patrice learnt his business skills while helping his father at their spaza (tuck) shop. His dad, Augustine, sold goods to mine workers in Hammanskraal, a township north of Pretoria. Patrice became a lawyer and later started his own contract mining company. When gold prices were low, he formed another bigger mining company and bought gold mines. The self-made businessman is a big sports fan. He owns Mamelodi Sundowns soccer club and a share of the Blue Bulls rugby team. He’s also the head of the Confederation of African Football, which oversees all national football unions on the continent. He also believes in giving back Patrice has promised to give at least half his R45 billion fortune to charity. MINING MAGNATE + Full name Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe + Born…

THE LOWDOWN Gary was just eight when his mom, Muriel, died of cancer. His dad, Harry, worked away from home in the gold mines most of time and took out a loan to buy his son’s first set of golf dubs when he was 14. Gary played for three years before he turned professional. At age 29 he made history when he achieved a career Grand Slam, winning all four major golf tournaments, the Masters Tournament, the US Open, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship. He was only the third golfer in the world to achieve this and at the time the youngest player to do so. Today there are still only five players who’ve achieved this and Gary remains the only non-American. In 1974 he was inducted into…

THE LOWDOWN Towering at 8849m, Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world - and summiting it is no easy task. It took Saray four attempts to reach the top. She was forced to turn back three times due to an avalanche, an earthquake and an injury she sustained in the icy conditions. But these experiences did little to deter her from trying again, and in 2019 she summited Everest, becoming the first black woman born in Africa to do so. Saray has always been adventurous. Hiking, bungee jumping and zip lining are just some of the activities she enjoys. Her next goal is to complete an Explorer’s Grand Slam the challenge is to reach the North Pole, the South Pole and climb the seven summits the highest mountain…

THE LOWDOWN IT WAS a perfect day to run. The wind off the roof of Kings Park Stadium in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, was strong but blowing in the right direction. With the crack of the starter’s gun, the race was on. Track star Caster was among the runners. She took the lead with long, steady strides and made one speedy lap around the 400m track to become the first to break the tape. At the end of the race she did her signature move - the cobra - hands facing inwards and then outwards. With that race in 2016 Caster became the first person to win gold in the 400m, 800m and 1500m titles at the South African National Championships in 2016, setting world-leading times of 50.74 and 1:58.45 in the…