Benny Gool | Martyrs, saints & sell-outs

Benny Gool is an anti-apartheid activist whose archive contains thousands of photographs documenting the liberation struggle, freedom and democracy. His early photographs were published in the banned underground newspaper, Grassroots, and various international publications. He has documented Nelson Mandela for over three decades. Gool has received a number of national photography awards, including South African Press Photographer of the Year, and a Ruth First Award for Courageous Journalism.

Nelson Mandela is flanked by Alfred Nzo and Joe Slovo at DF Malan Airport to welcome newly returned ANC and SACP exiles

Leah Tutu and others protest outside St George’s Cathedral after the last ‘white’ elections on 6 September 1989 where police killed 29 people

‘Grassroots’ journalist Veliswa Mhauli greets comrades outside Cape Town Magistrates Court after release from Section 29

Dora Scott, mother of Leon Scott, is arrested on Greenmarket Square during a protest for the release of the Forbes Trialists

Police tear-gas Defiance Campaign meeting at the Bonteheuwel Civic Centre in 1989

Police tear-gas Defiance Campaign meeting at the Bontehuewel Civic Centre in 1989

Student protest at Rocklands Civic Centre, Mitchells Plain. This was where the United Democratic Front was launched in 1983

Police use the sneeze machine in Ashton during the 1990 Defiance Campaign

The Naked Women’s Protest at KTC squatter camp on the Cape Flats.

Rev. Michael Weeder being dragged after a teargas attack, June 1990

Funeral of student killed by police in Oudtshoorn

Young men protest against national service, Cape Town city centre in 1989. Kobus Pienaar is on the far right

Tokyo Sexwale, Steve Tshwete and others who were released from Robben Island join ANC comrades in saluting the Yengeni trialists

A protest as part of the 1989 Defiance Campaign on the road to Victor Verster Prison in Paarl. 80 % of the buses were stopped before they left their areas

Funeral in Oudtshoorn of a student killed by police

Funeral of a murdered student in Kleinvlei in the Western Cape

Archbishop Tutu speaking in Khayelitsha where the ANC Women’s League pays tribute at a funeral of murdered civic leader, Michael Mapongwana in 1991

Colleen Lombard, Alpheus Ndude and Chris Giffard take a break during the Yengeni Trial

Rashied Lombard greets his wife, Colleen after her release from Section 29

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