Daniel Canodoce "Can" Themba (1924-1968) was a South African short-story writer.

He was born in Marabastad, near Pretoria, but wrote most of his work in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, South Africa before it was destroyed under the provisions of the apartheid Group Areas Act. He was a student at Fort Hare University College where he received an English degree (first-class) and a teacher’s diploma.

After moving to Sophiatown, he tried his hand at short story writing and entered Drum magazine's (Drum was a magazine for urban black people concentrating mainly on investigative journalism) first short story contest, which he won.

He subsequently worked for Drum, where he became one of the Drum Boys, together with Henry Nxumalo, Bloke Modisane, Todd Matshikiza and Casey Motsisi. They were later joined by Lewis Nkosi and Nat Nakasa. This group lived by the dictum live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse.

Part of Drum's ethos was investigative journalism. One of the aims was to show the realities and inequities of apartheid. Themba decided to see how white churches would react to his presence among them.