Helen Zille (legal name Otta Helene Maree née Zille; born 9 March 1951) is the Premier of the Western Cape, a member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, leader of South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance political party, and a former Mayor of Cape Town.

Zille is a former journalist and anti-apartheid activist, and famously exposed the truth behind the death of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko while working for the Rand Daily Mail in the late 1970s. She also worked with the Black Sash and other pro-democracy groups during the 1980s. In the political arena, Zille has worked in all three tiers of government—as the Western Cape province's education MEC (1999–2004), as a Member of Parliament (2004–2006), as Mayor of Cape Town (2006–2009), and as Premier of the Western Cape (2009–present).

Zille's work as mayor, and in particular her successes in tackling crime, drug abuse and unemployment in Cape Town, led to her selection as World Mayor of the Year in 2008 - from a field of 820 candidates. She was also chosen as Newsmaker of the year 2006 by the National Press Club in July 2007, and is a former finalist in the South African Woman of the Year Award. Zille speaks English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa as well as German, the language of her parents.

Leon Ernest "Schuks" Schuster (born May 21, 1951) is a South African filmmaker, comedian, actor, presenter and singer.

Schuster was drawn to the filmmaking process at an early age. As children he and his brother would play practical jokes on his family and film these with an old home movie camera.

Schuster studied for a BA degree at the University of the Orange Free State and spent two years teaching at a high school in Bloemfontein.

Schuster began working for the South African Broadcasting Corporation in 1975. During his time at the SABC, Leon created the Afrikaans radio series Vrypostige Mikrofoon with Fanus Rautenbach– where he would disguise his voice and take the mickey out of unsuspecting victims.

In 1982, Leon was approached by Decibel Records to compile a series of sports songs and his first record, Leon Schuster sold 100,000 units. His second album Broekskeur sold in excess of 40,000 units and this was followed by Briekdans and Leon Schuster – 20 Treffers which sold in excess of 270,000 copies.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (Xhosa pronunciation: [xoˈliːɬaɬa manˈdeːla]; born 18 July 1918) is a South African politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, the first ever to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before being elected President, Mandela was a militant anti-apartheid activist, and the leader and co-founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1962 he was arrested and convicted of sabotage and other charges, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela went on to serve 27 years in prison, spending many of these years on Robben Island. Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela led his party in the negotiations that led to the establishment of democracy in 1994. As President, he frequently gave priority to reconciliation, while introducing policies aimed at combating poverty and inequality in South Africa.

In South Africa, Mandela is often known as Madiba, his Xhosa clan name; or as tata (Xhosa: father). Mandela has received more than 250 awards over four decades.

Ramphele was born in Kranspoort, near Pietersburg (now Polokwane), in what is now Limpopo province. She completed her schooling at Setotolwane High School in 1966 and subsequently enrolled for pre-medical courses at the University of the North.

In 1968 Ramphele was accepted into the University of Natal’s Medical School (then the only medical university that allowed black students to enroll without prior permission from the government), where she qualified as a medical doctor in 1972.

While at university she had became increasingly involved in student politics and anti-apartheid activism and was one of the founders of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), along with Steve Biko. As a member of the BCM, she was especially involved in organizing and working with community development programmes. She and Biko had a long, passionate relationship. Though Biko was married at the time, he and Ramphele had two children, the first, a girl, Lerato Biko (1974), died of pneumonia at two months. Their son, Hlumelo Biko, was born in 1978, after Biko's death.

Lindiwe Mazibuko (born 9 April 1980) is a South African politician, and the Parliamentary Leader for the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA). She is the country's fourth youngest parliamentarian, after the African National Congress's Mduduzi Manana, Congress of the People's Luzelle Adams, and her DA colleague Masizole Mnqasela, and has varyingly been labelled a "rising star in Parliament" and a possible future DA leader. She was elected the new DA parliamentary leader on 27 October 2011, beating incumbent Athol Trollip in a tight race.

A graduate of the University of Cape Town, Mazibuko wrote her thesis on the Democratic Alliance after then party leader Tony Leon stepped down in 2006. Upon graduating Mazibuko took up a post in the DA as the party's media liaison officer in Parliament.

Labelled a "star performer" by party leader Helen Zille, Mazibuko became a parliamentary candidate for the party in the 2009 general elections. She appeared third on the DA's KwaZulu-Natal list, thus qualifying for a seat in Parliament as the DA retained its status as official opposition. She was subsequently appointed as the DA's Shadow Deputy Minister of Communications, and also succeeded Donald Lee as the party's National Spokesperson.