Tokyo Sexwale

Mosima Gabriel Sexwale, more commonly known as Tokyo Sexwale, was born 5 March 1953 in Orland West, Johannesburg, is a South African businessman and former politician, ant-Apartheid activist and political prisoner.
His nickname is derived from his involvement with the sport of karate as a youth.
A charismatic leader, Sexwale was imprisoned on Robben Island for his anti-apartheid activities, alongside figures such as Nelson Mandela. After the 1994 general election—the first universal franchise election in South Africa—Sexwale became the premier of Gauteng Province.
He retired from politics in 1998 and subsequently became a major business leader. Sexwale is married to a white paralegal he met while in Robbens Island, Judy van Vuuren; they have two children, Gabrielle and Chris.

In 1976, Sexwale was captured after a skirmish with the South African security forces and, along with 11 others, was charged and later convicted of terrorism and conspiracy to overthrow the government after an almost two-year long trial in the Pretoria Supreme Court.
In 1977, Sexwale was sent to the Robben Island serve an 18-year sentence. While imprisoned at Robben Island, he studied for a B. Comm degree at the University of South Africa.
Sexwale was released in June 1990 under the terms of the Groote Schuur Agreement. He had spent 13 years in prison.
During this time he was represented in part by a young white paralegal named Judy van Vuuren. They began a personal relationship while he remained in prison, and soon after his release, in 1990, they became married.

After the South African elections in April 1994, Sexwale was elected as the first premier of the Gauteng Province. In this role, he was credited with bringing peace to several politically volatile townships. Sexwale left politics for the corporate sector in 1998. The reasons for this was never made completely clear, but was reportedly due to feeling stifled by central government restrictions as well as becoming exhausted by internal African National Congress intrigues.

Upon leaving the public sector, Sexwale founded Mvelaphanda Holdings (Venda for "progress"), a company of which he is still executive chairman. Mvelaphanda is primarily focused on the mining, energy and related sectors. Some of Sexwale's main interests are oil and diamond mining, for which he has been granted concessions across Africa and Russia; these interests are controlled by a subsidiary of Mvelaphanda Holdings called Mvelaphanda Resources, of which he is chairman.

He is also known as a philanthropist and is a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Global Philanthropists Circle of the Synergos Institute, the Business Trust and the Robben Island Ex-Prisoners Trust. Furthermore, he is a patron of societies such as Johannesburg Child and Family Welfare Society, Streetwise South Africa (an organisation dedicated to assisting street children), Save the Family Fund (catering for families and communities ravaged by apartheid violence) and The Sky is No Limit (which aims to expose disadvantaged youths to hi-tech education in computers and aviation).

Sexwale has received many honours and awards, including the Legion d'honneur from France, an honorary doctorate in technology from Nottingham Trent University, an honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from De Monfort University, the Order of the Freedom of Havana (Cuba), and the Cross of Valour (Ruby Class) from South Africa.

Albert Lutuli

Chief Albert John Lutuli was born circa 1898 near Bulawayo and(c. 1898 – 21 July 1967) was a South African teacher and politician. Lutuli was elected president of the African National Congress (ANC), at the time an organisation that led opposition to the white minority government in South Africa. He was awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize for Peace for his role in the non-violent struggle against apartheid. He died 21 July 1967, allegedly after by run over by a train.

On completing a teaching course at Edendale, near Pietermaritzburg, Lutuli took up the running of a small primary school in the Natal uplands. He was confirmed in the Methodist church and became a lay preacher. In 1920 he received a government bursary to attend a higher teachers' training course at Adams College.
His Christian beliefs acted as a foundation for his approach to political life in South Africa at a time when many of his contemporaries were calling for a more militant response to Apartheid.

In 1935 Luthuli accepted the chieftaincy of the Groutville reserve (this was not an hereditary position, but awarded as the result of an election) and was suddenly immersed in the realities of South Africa's racial politics.
Chief Albert Luthuli joined the ANC in 1945 and was elected to the Committee of the KwaZulu Province Provincial Division of ANC and in 1951 to the presidency of the Division. The next year he joined with other ANC leaders in organizing non-violent campaigns to defy discriminatory laws.

The government, charging Lutuli with a conflict of interest, demanded that he withdraw his membership in ANC or forfeit his office as tribal chief. Refusing to do either voluntarily, he was dismissed from his chieftainship.
A month later Lutuli was elected president-general of ANC. Responding immediately, the government imposed a succession of bans on his movement, the first for two years, the second also for two years. When this second ban expired, he attended an ANC conference in 1956, only to be arrested and charged with treason a few months later, along with 155 others. After being held in custody for about a year during the preliminary hearings, he was released in December, 1957, and the charges against him were dropped.

In 1960, following the Sharpville Massacre, Luthuli led the call for protest. Once again summoned to a governmental hearing (this time in Johannesburg) Luthuli was horrified when a supporting demonstration turned violent and 72 Black Africans were shot (and another 200 injured). Luthuli responded by publicly burning his pass book. He was detained on 30 March under the 'State of Emergency' declared by the South African government - one of 18,000 arrested in a series of police raids. On release he was confined to his home in Stanger, Natal.

In 1961 Chief Albert Luthuli was awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize for Peace (it had been held over that year) for his part in the anti-Apartheid struggle. In 1962 he was elected Rector of Glasgow University (an honorary position), and the following year published his autobiography, 'Let My People Go'. Although suffering from ill health and failing eyesight, and still restricted to his home in Stranger, Albert Luthuli remained president-general of the ANC. On 21 July 1967, whilst out walking near his home, Luthuli was hit by a train and died. He was supposedly crossing the line at the time - an explanation dismissed by many of his followers who believed more sinister forces were at work.

Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron ,an actress and former fashion model, was born in Benoni, South Africa on 7 August 1975. She is best-known for her portrayal as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster, for which she won her Acedemy Award for Best Actress.

Trained as a ballet dancer, she was sent to Milan at 16 to become a model following the death of her father. After tiring of modeling, Theron returned to her first love, dancing, which resulted in a move to New York to dance with the Joffrey Ballet. Unfortunately, her career was halted by a knee injury, which led Theron -- at her mother's behest -- to travel to Los Angeles to try her luck with acting. After a long, unprofitable struggle, fate smiled upon Theron in the form of a bank encounter.

As legend has it, Charlize Theron was discovered by an agent while fighting with a bank manager on Hollywood Boulevard. Eighteen and starving, Theron purportedly got into the argument after the manager refused to cash her check. The outburst caught the agent's attention, and eight months later Theron got her first acting job.



Charlize won her first dose of recognition with 2 Days in the Valley (1996). The film, although not particularly successful, gave her both much-needed exposure and critical praise. The film also served as the stepping stone to her first leading role, that of Keanu Reeves' embattled wife in The Devil's Advocate (1997). The film drew poor reviews, but Theron managed to win widespread praise for her performance.

After appearing in a few notable films, Charlize starred as the lesbian serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster in 2003.
Film critic Roger Ebert called it "one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema".
For this role, Theron won her Best Actress Oscar in February 2004, as well as the SAG Award and Golden Globe Award. She is the first South African to win an Oscar for Best Actress.
The Oscar win pushed her to The Hollywood Reporter's 2006 list of highest-paid actresses in Hollywood; earning $10,000,000 for both her subsequent films, North Country and Aeon Flux, where she ranked seventh.

2005 would be a decidedly mixed year for Theron. She first appeared in the live-action adaptation of the cult animated series Aeon Flux, a film that was nearly unanimously maligned by critics and largely avoided by audiences. Luckily, she also starred in the well-received docudrama North Country. Playing a woman who successfully battled sexual harrassment, Theron was honored with her second Oscar nomination for the performance. She also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.



Charlize currently resides in Los Angeles, with her long-time boyfriend actor Stuart Townsend, with whom she starred in Head in the Clouds and Trapped.

Charlize is also involved in women's rights organizations. In 2006, Charlize won GLAAD's Vanguard Award for increasing "visibility and understanding". Charlize is a supporter of animal rights and is an active member of PETA.

Charlize became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 2007.