Shaun Smillie

Stories by: Shaun Smillie

• Features
Rachel Thoka, mystery slave and forgotten heroine
She was brought to the Cape in chains, then became a Boer hero before turning into an activist for the early ANC. But where did she come from? Her grandson spent a lifetime trying to find out.
By: Shaun Smillie
25 Oct 2021

• Features
German deal an ‘insult’ to Ovaherero and Nama
The descendants of the victims of Namibia’s genocide have vowed to continue their quest for direct reparation, after disowning the settlement struck between their government and Germany.
By: Shaun Smillie
15 Jun 2021

• Features
Dirk Coetzee’s chilling service to his country
As former security police blame fading memories to dodge questions about apartheid atrocities, an unpublished memoir breaks their code of silence.
By: Shaun Smillie
6 May 2021

• Features
Trading on the wrong side of white for 100 years
A shop in Dullstroom on the Highveld in Mpumalanga survived a depression and a government set on pushing it off its land. Then a tornado hit and the town showed its true colour.
By: Shaun Smillie
19 Nov 2020

• Features
Ray Mutemeri, the guy behind the fly
Fly tying is a lesser-known Zimbabwean export, with tiers producing quality fishing flies in South Africa that are used by international anglers to target trophy fish.
By: Shaun Smillie
21 Sep 2020

COVID-19
• Features
Zimbabweans struggle as remittance lifeline shrinks
The Covid-19 lockdown has compounded the hardships faced by many Zimbabweans in their own country as well as those in South Africa who keep trying to help their families from afar.
By: Shaun Smillie
2 Jun 2020

• Features
Bringing home the spirits of those long dead
A century after the SS Mendi sank in the English Channel, the descendants of two of the soldiers hope that funds raised in the Netherlands will allow them to bring the spirits of their ancestors home.
By: Shaun Smillie
21 Feb 2020

• Features
New tech helps find last of the Mamelodi 10
In 1986, apartheid security forces attempted to obliterate the identities of 10 teenagers they had murdered. But for dogged detective work and advancing technology, they could have succeeded.
By: Shaun Smillie
6 Feb 2020

• Features
The lost history of the Griqua
The Griqua, who trekked from the Cape and settled before the boers pushed them off the land, suffered a defeat at the hands of the Ndebele and faded from the history books – until now.
By: Shaun Smillie
29 Oct 2019

• News
New study hopes to break chain of femicides
After another sombre week of femicide and funerals, a new study hopes to help guide the government in protecting vulnerable teenagers by understanding adolescent homicides in South Africa.
By: Shaun Smillie
17 Sep 2019

• Features
How a tomato-chucking academic made apartheid history
Unisa’s Sally Hutchings protested against apartheid in 1987 using the contents of her fridge, which ultimately gave her the last laugh and made her a bumper sticker icon.
By: Shaun Smillie
3 Jul 2019

• Features
The unknown South African soldier in Canada’s WWI army
Charlie Some enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force ahead of World War I, after presumably fleeing South Africa in search of a better life. He ended up murdered in France instead.
By: Shaun Smillie
5 Jun 2019

• News
Bashir toppled – but what and who will follow?
As Sudanese in the country and in exile celebrate the toppling of Omar al-Bashir, the question foremost in their minds is whether this is a change in regime or merely in personnel.
By: Shaun Smillie
12 Apr 2019

• Features
Searching for Griffiths Mxenge’s ‘disappeared’ car
Shaun Smillie and James Oatway search for the remains of human rights lawyer Griffiths Mxenge’s Audi, set alight by apartheid police trying to cover up his murder in 1981.
By: Shaun Smillie
26 Mar 2019