-
1948: National Party takes power
Description: An election flyer calls for the electorate to endorse apartheid by voting for L.A. Snyman, leader of the National Party’s Braamfontein constituency, 1953.
Credit: © Jürgen Schadeberg
Archive: Jurgen Schadeberg Collection
Type: Photograph -
1949: Correspondence students graduate
Description: While no photos exist of this first graduation, here, correspondence students attend Unisa’s Non-European Vacation School, Pretoria, 1949.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1950: China divides
Description: A 1968 Chinese propaganda poster depicts Africans revering a portrait of Communist China’s founding father Mao Tse-tung, bearing the word 'liberator'.
Credit: © chineseposters.net / International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam
Archive: International Institute of Social History,Amsterdam
Type: Poster -
1950: “Group Areas” enforced
Description: The Group Areas Act relied on the pass laws, which required that “non-whites” carry a pass. Here, a woman is arrested for a pass violation, Johannesburg, 1950s.
Credit: © UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives
Archive: Mayibuye Archives
Type: Photograph -
1951: Bantustans
Description: The first summit of Bantustan leaders, 1973. From left: Chief Buthelezi, Collins Ramusi, Lennox Sebe, Chief Matanzima, Prof Ntsanwisi and Chief Mangope.
Credit: © Drum Social Histories / Bailey’s African History Archive / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1951: Last colleges fall away
Description: The coat of arms of Unisa and those of its constituent colleges, with the respective dates of their independence from Unisa.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1953-59: Revolution in Cuba
Description: Fidel Castro addresses supporters after his guerrillas take Havana following a bitter struggle against the US-backed Batista regime, 8 January 1959.
Credit: © AP Photo / PictureNet
Archive: PictureNet
Type: Photograph -
1953: A home of our own
Description: Unisa’s new home at 263 Skinner Street (now Nana Sita Street), Pretoria. For the first time, Unisa is under one roof in Pretoria.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1953: Bantu Education institutionalised
Description: Beauty Moroane (right) and these girls are among those arrested in Benoni for defying Bantu Education by participating in an alternative ANC school, 1955.
Credit: © Drum Stories / Bailey’s African History Archive / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1953: Right-wing leanings
Description: Professor Herman Jean de Vleeschauwer inspects a book in his library, date unknown.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1954: Civil rights vs segregated education
Description: The 1955 judgement by Chief Justice Earl Warren stipulating how the desegregation of schools must be carried out – 'with all deliberate speed'.
Credit: © Supreme Court of the United States of America
Archive: National Archive of the United States of America
Type: Document -
1955: Freedom Charter adopted
Description: A pamphlet from the 1956 ‘Sign the Freedom Charter’ campaign seeks to popularise the Charter, which was adopted in Kliptown, Soweto, 26 June 1955.
Credit: © UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives
Archive: Mayibuye Archives
Type: Poster -
1956: A fund-raising chancellor
Description: Dr François Jean de Villiers, 1957. He will remain Chancellor of Unisa until 1977.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1957: Anthropological museum underway
Description: Cast of “Florisbad Man” at the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. The original was found near Bloemfontein and dates to about 253,000 years ago.
Credit: © Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology / University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1957: Ghana achieves independence
Description: Ghana’s nationalist leader Kwame Nkrumah waves to a celebrating crowd as he becomes the new nation’s first Prime Minister, 6 March 1957.
Credit: © Bettmann / Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1958: First MA for an Indian South African
Description: Bridglal Pachai, 1959.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1959: Deeper segregation of universities
Description: A sign erected by students opposing state intervention at the University College of Fort Hare in the wake of the Extension of University Education Act, 1959.
Credit: © Terrence Beard, courtesy of Daniel Massey
Archive: Daniel Massey Personal Collection
Type: Photograph -
1959: Federalism reborn under apartheid
Description: Coats of arms of Unisa, of the four new “non-white” colleges created by the 1959 Act, and of Fort Hare. Unisa now oversees all five institutions.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1960: Bureau of Market Research
Description: A 1964 reprint of the second research report issued by Unisa's Bureau of Market Research. The report was originally published in 1961.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1960: Massacre at Sharpeville
Description: A grief-stricken woman is led home after viewing the body of her husband, who was shot by police opposite the Sharpeville police station, 1960.
Credit: © Peter Magubane / Bailey’s African History Archive
Archive: Bailey's African History Archive
Type: Photograph -
1961: Fine art department debuts
Description: Photo of Karin Skawran, 1970.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1961: Verwoerd’s Republic
Description: President C.R. Swart at Republic Day celebrations, circa 1961. Republic Day was celebrated annually on 31 May, the day SA left the Commonwealth
Credit: © Drum Social Histories / Bailey’s African History Archive
Archive: Bailey's African History Archive
Type: Photograph -
1962: Cold War crisis
Description: A US intelligence photo of Nuclear Warhead Bunker Site 1 under construction during the Cuban Missile Crisis, San Cristóbal, Cuba, November 1962.
Credit: © Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1963-64: The Rivonia Trial
Description: Winnie Mandela (right) and Nelson Mandela’s mother, Noqaphi Nosekeni (left), outside the Palace of Justice during the Rivonia Trial, Pretoria, 1963.
Credit: © Drum Social Histories / Bailey’s African History Archive / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1963-69: Developing business leadership
Description: Two students at Unisa’s annual winter Vacation School, Pretoria. These are the kinds of students the School of Business Leadership would have wanted to attract.
Credit: © Pretoria News
Archive: Pretoria News Archive
Type: Newspaper -
1963: Compact cassettes launched
Description: A photo of a cassette like the prototype introduced by Philips at the Berlin Radio Show in August 1963.
Credit: © Philips Company Archives
Archive: Philips Company Archives
Type: Photograph -
1965: Bilingualism threatened
Description: Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Samuel Pauw, 1956.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1965: Enrolment from Robben Island
Description: Ahmed Kathrada poses for a portrait by photographer Eli Weinberg, 1950s.
Credit: © UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives
Archive: Mayibuye Archives
Type: Photograph -
1967: Early photocopying
Description: Mrs J. Hrazdilek tests the lithographic printing press that was used extensively by Unisa before the first photocopying machine was introduced.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1968: King assassinated
Description: Martin Luther King waves to Civil Rights Movement supporters in Washington D.C. on 28 August 1963, the day of his famous 'I have a Dream' speech.
Credit: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1968: SASO emerges
Description: Reproduction of a 1972 SASO newsletter cover with SASO's logo of a hand in a Black Power salute.
Credit: © SASO
Archive: Azapo Archive
Type: Poster -
1969: A ten-switchboard exchange
Description: A woman operates a telephone switchboard, England, 1954. Unisa’s 1969 switchboards would have been a significant technological improvement on this one.
Credit: © SSPL / Getty Images
Archive: Getty Images
Type: Photograph -
1970: Black South Africans lose citizenship
Description: A photo of the cover of an old Bophuthatswana passport. Black South Africans living in the homelands needed passports to enter South Africa.
Credit: © Pieter Du Plessis / University of South Africa, courtesy of Mahibitswane Magdeline Tshikare
Archive:
Type: Document -
1971: Email arrives
Description: Ray Tomlinson, inventor of the e-mail address '@' symbol, at his office in Massachusetts, USA, 1999.
Credit: © Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1972: New technologies and old
Description: An A5 study guide issued by Unisa's Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, 1972.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1973: Muckleneuk opens
Description: A view of Unisa's new Muckleneuk building, 1973. It sits atop 40 acres of land donated to the University by the City Council of Pretoria.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1973: Student leaders banned
Description: Student leaders Steve Biko (left) and David Hemson (right) meet socially in Durban in 1968, shortly before the launch of SASO.
Credit: © David Hemson
Archive: David Hemson Personal Collection
Type: Photograph -
1975: Nursing at Unisa
Description: Professor Charlotte Searle, date unknown.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1975: Portugal withdraws from Mozambique
Description: Revellers celebrate Mozambique's independence from Portugal, 25 June 1975.
Credit: © Centro de Documentação e Formação Fotográfica
Archive: CDFF
Type: Photograph -
1976: Uprising in Soweto
Description: A group of students protest against the use of Afrikaans as the only language of instruction in schools during the Soweto Uprising, 16 June 1976.
Credit: © Peter Magubane
Archive: Peter Magubane Private Collection
Type: Photograph -
1979: Separate amenities scrapped
Description: Parliament will only repeal the Separate Amenities Act in 1990. Here, apartheid signs which have come down at a train station are stacked on a trolley.
Credit: © Ambrose Peters / Sunday Times / PictureNet
Archive: PictureNet
Type: Photograph -
1980: Independence for Zimbabwe
Description: Robert Mugabe takes the oath of allegiance to Zimbabwe during the country's independence celebrations in Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 April 1980.
Credit: © Louise Gubb / AP Photo / PictureNet
Archive: PictureNet
Type: Photograph -
1981: AIDS observed
Description: "The AIDS Ribbon" sculpture in memory of those South Africans who have died of HIV/AIDS, Gugu Dlamini Park, Durban, 2000.
Credit: © David Larsen / Independent Contributors / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1983: First black professor
Description: Deuteronomy Bhekinkosi Zeblon Ntuli, 2015.
Credit: © Francois Nel / University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1983: Uniting against apartheid
Description: Johannesburg Democratic Action Committee poster in support of the UDF's 1984 Million Signature Campaign to oppose apartheid constitutional reforms.
Credit: © ANC Archives / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Poster -
1984: Women’s studies arrive
Description: Programme for a 1990 lecture series held by Unisa’s Centre for Women's Studies. The lectures brought academics together from across disciplines.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1985: Soviet reforms begin
Description: Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meets US President Ronald Reagan for the first time at the Geneva Summit, Switzerland, 19 November 1985.
Credit: © Robert Maass / Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1985: States of emergency
Description: Archbishop Desmond Tutu addresses mourners at the funeral of victims of a police shooting, KwaThema township in the then-Transvaal, 24 July 1985.
Credit: © Gille de Vlieg / South Photographs / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1988-89: Mandela completes law degree
Description: In addition to earning an LLB through Unisa, Mandela will also be awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law by the University on 16 September 1995.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1989: World Wide Web invented
Description: Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, stands at a chalkboard where he has written notes on Web development, circa 1999.
Credit: © Andrew Brusso / Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1990: Namibia gains independence
Description: UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar congratulates new Namibian President Sam Nujoma (left) during independence celebrations, Windhoek, 1990.
Credit: © Alexander Joe / AFP / Getty Images
Archive: Getty Images
Type: Photograph -
1990: Towards a new South Africa
Description: Mandela walks free from Victor Verster prison, arm-in-arm with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Cape Town, 11 February 1990.
Credit: © Graeme Williams / South Photographs / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1992: Horror at Boipatong
Description: Mourners at the funeral of those killed by Inkatha Freedom Party supporters in Boipatong, a township in the then-Transvaal, June 1992.
Credit: © Greg Marinovich / South Photographs / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1992: Unisa students in hall
Description: Unisa students prepare to write exams.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1993: Last Broederbond Vice-Chancellor
Description: Professor Cas van Vuuren joined Unisa in 1964 and occupied various posts in the 25 years before becoming Principal and Vice-Chancellor in 1989.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1948: National Party takes power
Description: An election flyer calls for the electorate to endorse apartheid by voting for L.A. Snyman, leader of the National Party’s Braamfontein constituency, 1953.
Credit: © Jürgen Schadeberg
Archive: Jurgen Schadeberg Collection
Type: Photograph -
1949: Correspondence students graduate
Description: While no photos exist of this first graduation, here, correspondence students attend Unisa’s Non-European Vacation School, Pretoria, 1949.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1950: China divides
Description: A 1968 Chinese propaganda poster depicts Africans revering a portrait of Communist China’s founding father Mao Tse-tung, bearing the word 'liberator'.
Credit: © chineseposters.net / International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam
Archive: International Institute of Social History,Amsterdam
Type: Poster -
1950: “Group Areas” enforced
Description: The Group Areas Act relied on the pass laws, which required that “non-whites” carry a pass. Here, a woman is arrested for a pass violation, Johannesburg, 1950s.
Credit: © UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives
Archive: Mayibuye Archives
Type: Photograph -
1951: Bantustans
Description: The first summit of Bantustan leaders, 1973. From left: Chief Buthelezi, Collins Ramusi, Lennox Sebe, Chief Matanzima, Prof Ntsanwisi and Chief Mangope.
Credit: © Drum Social Histories / Bailey’s African History Archive / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1951: Last colleges fall away
Description: The coat of arms of Unisa and those of its constituent colleges, with the respective dates of their independence from Unisa.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1953-59: Revolution in Cuba
Description: Fidel Castro addresses supporters after his guerrillas take Havana following a bitter struggle against the US-backed Batista regime, 8 January 1959.
Credit: © AP Photo / PictureNet
Archive: PictureNet
Type: Photograph -
1953: A home of our own
Description: Unisa’s new home at 263 Skinner Street (now Nana Sita Street), Pretoria. For the first time, Unisa is under one roof in Pretoria.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1953: Bantu Education institutionalised
Description: Beauty Moroane (right) and these girls are among those arrested in Benoni for defying Bantu Education by participating in an alternative ANC school, 1955.
Credit: © Drum Stories / Bailey’s African History Archive / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1953: Right-wing leanings
Description: Professor Herman Jean de Vleeschauwer inspects a book in his library, date unknown.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1954: Civil rights vs segregated education
Description: The 1955 judgement by Chief Justice Earl Warren stipulating how the desegregation of schools must be carried out – 'with all deliberate speed'.
Credit: © Supreme Court of the United States of America
Archive: National Archive of the United States of America
Type: Document -
1955: Freedom Charter adopted
Description: A pamphlet from the 1956 ‘Sign the Freedom Charter’ campaign seeks to popularise the Charter, which was adopted in Kliptown, Soweto, 26 June 1955.
Credit: © UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives
Archive: Mayibuye Archives
Type: Poster -
1956: A fund-raising chancellor
Description: Dr François Jean de Villiers, 1957. He will remain Chancellor of Unisa until 1977.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1957: Anthropological museum underway
Description: Cast of “Florisbad Man” at the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. The original was found near Bloemfontein and dates to about 253,000 years ago.
Credit: © Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology / University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1957: Ghana achieves independence
Description: Ghana’s nationalist leader Kwame Nkrumah waves to a celebrating crowd as he becomes the new nation’s first Prime Minister, 6 March 1957.
Credit: © Bettmann / Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1958: First MA for an Indian South African
Description: Bridglal Pachai, 1959.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1959: Deeper segregation of universities
Description: A sign erected by students opposing state intervention at the University College of Fort Hare in the wake of the Extension of University Education Act, 1959.
Credit: © Terrence Beard, courtesy of Daniel Massey
Archive: Daniel Massey Personal Collection
Type: Photograph -
1959: Federalism reborn under apartheid
Description: Coats of arms of Unisa, of the four new “non-white” colleges created by the 1959 Act, and of Fort Hare. Unisa now oversees all five institutions.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1960: Bureau of Market Research
Description: A 1964 reprint of the second research report issued by Unisa's Bureau of Market Research. The report was originally published in 1961.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1960: Massacre at Sharpeville
Description: A grief-stricken woman is led home after viewing the body of her husband, who was shot by police opposite the Sharpeville police station, 1960.
Credit: © Peter Magubane / Bailey’s African History Archive
Archive: Bailey's African History Archive
Type: Photograph -
1961: Fine art department debuts
Description: Photo of Karin Skawran, 1970.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1961: Verwoerd’s Republic
Description: President C.R. Swart at Republic Day celebrations, circa 1961. Republic Day was celebrated annually on 31 May, the day SA left the Commonwealth
Credit: © Drum Social Histories / Bailey’s African History Archive
Archive: Bailey's African History Archive
Type: Photograph -
1962: Cold War crisis
Description: A US intelligence photo of Nuclear Warhead Bunker Site 1 under construction during the Cuban Missile Crisis, San Cristóbal, Cuba, November 1962.
Credit: © Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1963-64: The Rivonia Trial
Description: Winnie Mandela (right) and Nelson Mandela’s mother, Noqaphi Nosekeni (left), outside the Palace of Justice during the Rivonia Trial, Pretoria, 1963.
Credit: © Drum Social Histories / Bailey’s African History Archive / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1963-69: Developing business leadership
Description: Two students at Unisa’s annual winter Vacation School, Pretoria. These are the kinds of students the School of Business Leadership would have wanted to attract.
Credit: © Pretoria News
Archive: Pretoria News Archive
Type: Newspaper -
1963: Compact cassettes launched
Description: A photo of a cassette like the prototype introduced by Philips at the Berlin Radio Show in August 1963.
Credit: © Philips Company Archives
Archive: Philips Company Archives
Type: Photograph -
1965: Bilingualism threatened
Description: Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Samuel Pauw, 1956.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1965: Enrolment from Robben Island
Description: Ahmed Kathrada poses for a portrait by photographer Eli Weinberg, 1950s.
Credit: © UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives
Archive: Mayibuye Archives
Type: Photograph -
1967: Early photocopying
Description: Mrs J. Hrazdilek tests the lithographic printing press that was used extensively by Unisa before the first photocopying machine was introduced.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1968: King assassinated
Description: Martin Luther King waves to Civil Rights Movement supporters in Washington D.C. on 28 August 1963, the day of his famous 'I have a Dream' speech.
Credit: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1968: SASO emerges
Description: Reproduction of a 1972 SASO newsletter cover with SASO's logo of a hand in a Black Power salute.
Credit: © SASO
Archive: Azapo Archive
Type: Poster -
1969: A ten-switchboard exchange
Description: A woman operates a telephone switchboard, England, 1954. Unisa’s 1969 switchboards would have been a significant technological improvement on this one.
Credit: © SSPL / Getty Images
Archive: Getty Images
Type: Photograph -
1970: Black South Africans lose citizenship
Description: A photo of the cover of an old Bophuthatswana passport. Black South Africans living in the homelands needed passports to enter South Africa.
Credit: © Pieter Du Plessis / University of South Africa, courtesy of Mahibitswane Magdeline Tshikare
Archive:
Type: Document -
1971: Email arrives
Description: Ray Tomlinson, inventor of the e-mail address '@' symbol, at his office in Massachusetts, USA, 1999.
Credit: © Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1972: New technologies and old
Description: An A5 study guide issued by Unisa's Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, 1972.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1973: Muckleneuk opens
Description: A view of Unisa's new Muckleneuk building, 1973. It sits atop 40 acres of land donated to the University by the City Council of Pretoria.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1973: Student leaders banned
Description: Student leaders Steve Biko (left) and David Hemson (right) meet socially in Durban in 1968, shortly before the launch of SASO.
Credit: © David Hemson
Archive: David Hemson Personal Collection
Type: Photograph -
1975: Nursing at Unisa
Description: Professor Charlotte Searle, date unknown.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1975: Portugal withdraws from Mozambique
Description: Revellers celebrate Mozambique's independence from Portugal, 25 June 1975.
Credit: © Centro de Documentação e Formação Fotográfica
Archive: CDFF
Type: Photograph -
1976: Uprising in Soweto
Description: A group of students protest against the use of Afrikaans as the only language of instruction in schools during the Soweto Uprising, 16 June 1976.
Credit: © Peter Magubane
Archive: Peter Magubane Private Collection
Type: Photograph -
1979: Separate amenities scrapped
Description: Parliament will only repeal the Separate Amenities Act in 1990. Here, apartheid signs which have come down at a train station are stacked on a trolley.
Credit: © Ambrose Peters / Sunday Times / PictureNet
Archive: PictureNet
Type: Photograph -
1980: Independence for Zimbabwe
Description: Robert Mugabe takes the oath of allegiance to Zimbabwe during the country's independence celebrations in Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 April 1980.
Credit: © Louise Gubb / AP Photo / PictureNet
Archive: PictureNet
Type: Photograph -
1981: AIDS observed
Description: "The AIDS Ribbon" sculpture in memory of those South Africans who have died of HIV/AIDS, Gugu Dlamini Park, Durban, 2000.
Credit: © David Larsen / Independent Contributors / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1983: First black professor
Description: Deuteronomy Bhekinkosi Zeblon Ntuli, 2015.
Credit: © Francois Nel / University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1983: Uniting against apartheid
Description: Johannesburg Democratic Action Committee poster in support of the UDF's 1984 Million Signature Campaign to oppose apartheid constitutional reforms.
Credit: © ANC Archives / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Poster -
1984: Women’s studies arrive
Description: Programme for a 1990 lecture series held by Unisa’s Centre for Women's Studies. The lectures brought academics together from across disciplines.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1985: Soviet reforms begin
Description: Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meets US President Ronald Reagan for the first time at the Geneva Summit, Switzerland, 19 November 1985.
Credit: © Robert Maass / Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1985: States of emergency
Description: Archbishop Desmond Tutu addresses mourners at the funeral of victims of a police shooting, KwaThema township in the then-Transvaal, 24 July 1985.
Credit: © Gille de Vlieg / South Photographs / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1988-89: Mandela completes law degree
Description: In addition to earning an LLB through Unisa, Mandela will also be awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law by the University on 16 September 1995.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1989: World Wide Web invented
Description: Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, stands at a chalkboard where he has written notes on Web development, circa 1999.
Credit: © Andrew Brusso / Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1990: Namibia gains independence
Description: UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar congratulates new Namibian President Sam Nujoma (left) during independence celebrations, Windhoek, 1990.
Credit: © Alexander Joe / AFP / Getty Images
Archive: Getty Images
Type: Photograph -
1990: Towards a new South Africa
Description: Mandela walks free from Victor Verster prison, arm-in-arm with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Cape Town, 11 February 1990.
Credit: © Graeme Williams / South Photographs / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1992: Horror at Boipatong
Description: Mourners at the funeral of those killed by Inkatha Freedom Party supporters in Boipatong, a township in the then-Transvaal, June 1992.
Credit: © Greg Marinovich / South Photographs / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1992: Unisa students in hall
Description: Unisa students prepare to write exams.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1993: Last Broederbond Vice-Chancellor
Description: Professor Cas van Vuuren joined Unisa in 1964 and occupied various posts in the 25 years before becoming Principal and Vice-Chancellor in 1989.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1948: National Party takes power
Description: An election flyer calls for the electorate to endorse apartheid by voting for L.A. Snyman, leader of the National Party’s Braamfontein constituency, 1953.
Credit: © Jürgen Schadeberg
Archive: Jurgen Schadeberg Collection
Type: Photograph -
1949: Correspondence students graduate
Description: While no photos exist of this first graduation, here, correspondence students attend Unisa’s Non-European Vacation School, Pretoria, 1949.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1950: China divides
Description: A 1968 Chinese propaganda poster depicts Africans revering a portrait of Communist China’s founding father Mao Tse-tung, bearing the word 'liberator'.
Credit: © chineseposters.net / International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam
Archive: International Institute of Social History,Amsterdam
Type: Poster -
1950: “Group Areas” enforced
Description: The Group Areas Act relied on the pass laws, which required that “non-whites” carry a pass. Here, a woman is arrested for a pass violation, Johannesburg, 1950s.
Credit: © UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives
Archive: Mayibuye Archives
Type: Photograph -
1951: Bantustans
Description: The first summit of Bantustan leaders, 1973. From left: Chief Buthelezi, Collins Ramusi, Lennox Sebe, Chief Matanzima, Prof Ntsanwisi and Chief Mangope.
Credit: © Drum Social Histories / Bailey’s African History Archive / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1951: Last colleges fall away
Description: The coat of arms of Unisa and those of its constituent colleges, with the respective dates of their independence from Unisa.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1953-59: Revolution in Cuba
Description: Fidel Castro addresses supporters after his guerrillas take Havana following a bitter struggle against the US-backed Batista regime, 8 January 1959.
Credit: © AP Photo / PictureNet
Archive: PictureNet
Type: Photograph -
1953: A home of our own
Description: Unisa’s new home at 263 Skinner Street (now Nana Sita Street), Pretoria. For the first time, Unisa is under one roof in Pretoria.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1953: Bantu Education institutionalised
Description: Beauty Moroane (right) and these girls are among those arrested in Benoni for defying Bantu Education by participating in an alternative ANC school, 1955.
Credit: © Drum Stories / Bailey’s African History Archive / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1953: Right-wing leanings
Description: Professor Herman Jean de Vleeschauwer inspects a book in his library, date unknown.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1954: Civil rights vs segregated education
Description: The 1955 judgement by Chief Justice Earl Warren stipulating how the desegregation of schools must be carried out – 'with all deliberate speed'.
Credit: © Supreme Court of the United States of America
Archive: National Archive of the United States of America
Type: Document -
1955: Freedom Charter adopted
Description: A pamphlet from the 1956 ‘Sign the Freedom Charter’ campaign seeks to popularise the Charter, which was adopted in Kliptown, Soweto, 26 June 1955.
Credit: © UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives
Archive: Mayibuye Archives
Type: Poster -
1956: A fund-raising chancellor
Description: Dr François Jean de Villiers, 1957. He will remain Chancellor of Unisa until 1977.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1957: Anthropological museum underway
Description: Cast of “Florisbad Man” at the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. The original was found near Bloemfontein and dates to about 253,000 years ago.
Credit: © Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology / University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1957: Ghana achieves independence
Description: Ghana’s nationalist leader Kwame Nkrumah waves to a celebrating crowd as he becomes the new nation’s first Prime Minister, 6 March 1957.
Credit: © Bettmann / Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1958: First MA for an Indian South African
Description: Bridglal Pachai, 1959.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1959: Deeper segregation of universities
Description: A sign erected by students opposing state intervention at the University College of Fort Hare in the wake of the Extension of University Education Act, 1959.
Credit: © Terrence Beard, courtesy of Daniel Massey
Archive: Daniel Massey Personal Collection
Type: Photograph -
1959: Federalism reborn under apartheid
Description: Coats of arms of Unisa, of the four new “non-white” colleges created by the 1959 Act, and of Fort Hare. Unisa now oversees all five institutions.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1960: Bureau of Market Research
Description: A 1964 reprint of the second research report issued by Unisa's Bureau of Market Research. The report was originally published in 1961.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1960: Massacre at Sharpeville
Description: A grief-stricken woman is led home after viewing the body of her husband, who was shot by police opposite the Sharpeville police station, 1960.
Credit: © Peter Magubane / Bailey’s African History Archive
Archive: Bailey's African History Archive
Type: Photograph -
1961: Fine art department debuts
Description: Photo of Karin Skawran, 1970.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1961: Verwoerd’s Republic
Description: President C.R. Swart at Republic Day celebrations, circa 1961. Republic Day was celebrated annually on 31 May, the day SA left the Commonwealth
Credit: © Drum Social Histories / Bailey’s African History Archive
Archive: Bailey's African History Archive
Type: Photograph -
1962: Cold War crisis
Description: A US intelligence photo of Nuclear Warhead Bunker Site 1 under construction during the Cuban Missile Crisis, San Cristóbal, Cuba, November 1962.
Credit: © Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1963-64: The Rivonia Trial
Description: Winnie Mandela (right) and Nelson Mandela’s mother, Noqaphi Nosekeni (left), outside the Palace of Justice during the Rivonia Trial, Pretoria, 1963.
Credit: © Drum Social Histories / Bailey’s African History Archive / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1963-69: Developing business leadership
Description: Two students at Unisa’s annual winter Vacation School, Pretoria. These are the kinds of students the School of Business Leadership would have wanted to attract.
Credit: © Pretoria News
Archive: Pretoria News Archive
Type: Newspaper -
1963: Compact cassettes launched
Description: A photo of a cassette like the prototype introduced by Philips at the Berlin Radio Show in August 1963.
Credit: © Philips Company Archives
Archive: Philips Company Archives
Type: Photograph -
1965: Bilingualism threatened
Description: Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Samuel Pauw, 1956.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1965: Enrolment from Robben Island
Description: Ahmed Kathrada poses for a portrait by photographer Eli Weinberg, 1950s.
Credit: © UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives
Archive: Mayibuye Archives
Type: Photograph -
1967: Early photocopying
Description: Mrs J. Hrazdilek tests the lithographic printing press that was used extensively by Unisa before the first photocopying machine was introduced.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1968: King assassinated
Description: Martin Luther King waves to Civil Rights Movement supporters in Washington D.C. on 28 August 1963, the day of his famous 'I have a Dream' speech.
Credit: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1968: SASO emerges
Description: Reproduction of a 1972 SASO newsletter cover with SASO's logo of a hand in a Black Power salute.
Credit: © SASO
Archive: Azapo Archive
Type: Poster -
1969: A ten-switchboard exchange
Description: A woman operates a telephone switchboard, England, 1954. Unisa’s 1969 switchboards would have been a significant technological improvement on this one.
Credit: © SSPL / Getty Images
Archive: Getty Images
Type: Photograph -
1970: Black South Africans lose citizenship
Description: A photo of the cover of an old Bophuthatswana passport. Black South Africans living in the homelands needed passports to enter South Africa.
Credit: © Pieter Du Plessis / University of South Africa, courtesy of Mahibitswane Magdeline Tshikare
Archive:
Type: Document -
1971: Email arrives
Description: Ray Tomlinson, inventor of the e-mail address '@' symbol, at his office in Massachusetts, USA, 1999.
Credit: © Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1972: New technologies and old
Description: An A5 study guide issued by Unisa's Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, 1972.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1973: Muckleneuk opens
Description: A view of Unisa's new Muckleneuk building, 1973. It sits atop 40 acres of land donated to the University by the City Council of Pretoria.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1973: Student leaders banned
Description: Student leaders Steve Biko (left) and David Hemson (right) meet socially in Durban in 1968, shortly before the launch of SASO.
Credit: © David Hemson
Archive: David Hemson Personal Collection
Type: Photograph -
1975: Nursing at Unisa
Description: Professor Charlotte Searle, date unknown.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1975: Portugal withdraws from Mozambique
Description: Revellers celebrate Mozambique's independence from Portugal, 25 June 1975.
Credit: © Centro de Documentação e Formação Fotográfica
Archive: CDFF
Type: Photograph -
1976: Uprising in Soweto
Description: A group of students protest against the use of Afrikaans as the only language of instruction in schools during the Soweto Uprising, 16 June 1976.
Credit: © Peter Magubane
Archive: Peter Magubane Private Collection
Type: Photograph -
1979: Separate amenities scrapped
Description: Parliament will only repeal the Separate Amenities Act in 1990. Here, apartheid signs which have come down at a train station are stacked on a trolley.
Credit: © Ambrose Peters / Sunday Times / PictureNet
Archive: PictureNet
Type: Photograph -
1980: Independence for Zimbabwe
Description: Robert Mugabe takes the oath of allegiance to Zimbabwe during the country's independence celebrations in Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 April 1980.
Credit: © Louise Gubb / AP Photo / PictureNet
Archive: PictureNet
Type: Photograph -
1981: AIDS observed
Description: "The AIDS Ribbon" sculpture in memory of those South Africans who have died of HIV/AIDS, Gugu Dlamini Park, Durban, 2000.
Credit: © David Larsen / Independent Contributors / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1983: First black professor
Description: Deuteronomy Bhekinkosi Zeblon Ntuli, 2015.
Credit: © Francois Nel / University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1983: Uniting against apartheid
Description: Johannesburg Democratic Action Committee poster in support of the UDF's 1984 Million Signature Campaign to oppose apartheid constitutional reforms.
Credit: © ANC Archives / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Poster -
1984: Women’s studies arrive
Description: Programme for a 1990 lecture series held by Unisa’s Centre for Women's Studies. The lectures brought academics together from across disciplines.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Document -
1985: Soviet reforms begin
Description: Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meets US President Ronald Reagan for the first time at the Geneva Summit, Switzerland, 19 November 1985.
Credit: © Robert Maass / Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1985: States of emergency
Description: Archbishop Desmond Tutu addresses mourners at the funeral of victims of a police shooting, KwaThema township in the then-Transvaal, 24 July 1985.
Credit: © Gille de Vlieg / South Photographs / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1988-89: Mandela completes law degree
Description: In addition to earning an LLB through Unisa, Mandela will also be awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law by the University on 16 September 1995.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1989: World Wide Web invented
Description: Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, stands at a chalkboard where he has written notes on Web development, circa 1999.
Credit: © Andrew Brusso / Corbis
Archive: Corbis via Greatstock
Type: Photograph -
1990: Namibia gains independence
Description: UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar congratulates new Namibian President Sam Nujoma (left) during independence celebrations, Windhoek, 1990.
Credit: © Alexander Joe / AFP / Getty Images
Archive: Getty Images
Type: Photograph -
1990: Towards a new South Africa
Description: Mandela walks free from Victor Verster prison, arm-in-arm with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Cape Town, 11 February 1990.
Credit: © Graeme Williams / South Photographs / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1992: Horror at Boipatong
Description: Mourners at the funeral of those killed by Inkatha Freedom Party supporters in Boipatong, a township in the then-Transvaal, June 1992.
Credit: © Greg Marinovich / South Photographs / Africa Media Online
Archive: Africa Media Online
Type: Photograph -
1992: Unisa students in hall
Description: Unisa students prepare to write exams.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph -
1993: Last Broederbond Vice-Chancellor
Description: Professor Cas van Vuuren joined Unisa in 1964 and occupied various posts in the 25 years before becoming Principal and Vice-Chancellor in 1989.
Credit: © University of South Africa
Archive: UNISA Archive
Type: Photograph