User talk:Leuce/They shaped our century

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The They shaped our century survey was a top 100 list published in 1999 about which people had the greatest influence on South Africa during the twentieth century. The survey was run by South African media giant Media24 among users of its web portal. This survey preceded the SABC Great South Africans survey by three years, and evoked less public outcry. After voting closed, brief biographies were written for the top 100 names and published in English and Afrikaans in a book called "They shaped our century".

Intertingly, one of the list items, Andre P Brink, is also an author of some of the biographies in the list. There were two father-son pairs and two husband-wife pairs in the final list, namely Ernest and Harry Oppenheimer, Govan and Thabo Mbeki, Nelson and Winnie Mandela, and Walter and Albertina Sisulu.

Procedure of the survey

An initial list of 120 names was compiled by historian Trwella Cameron and publisher JJ Human. The names of BJ Vorster and Chris Hani were initially deliberately left out. The internet viewing public was asked to vote on the initial list and to submit suggestions for additions to the list. From the submissions it was determined by the publisher that both BJ Vorster and Chris Hani should be included in the list after all. People who were not South Africans but who influenced South Africa, were also eligible for the list. During the survey and in the book no labels such as "politician", "sportsperson", "activist" etc are provided for the names.

Originally voting would have ended in July 1999 but was later extended to 31 August and into October 1999.

The survey's web site was http://news.24.com/best100. The voting portal contained a discussion forum so people could argue merits or demerits of candidates. Members of the public could vote in favour of a candidate but could also vote against a candidate. All candidates' names on the web site linked to short profiles about them.

Comparison with SABC Great South Africans survey

One of the ways in which the list differs from the SABC Great South Africans list is that it contains very few sportsmen, and certainly none of the post-1994 heroes that featured prominently in the SABC list. The biographies printed in They shaped our century as a book is often cited as a source of information.. The SABC survey was not limited to internet users and enjoyed coverage in many media. In the SABC survey, one could vote for a candidate but not against a candidate.

Criticism

Criticism against the survey included questions about why Gustav Preller did not make the list, or why statesmen Hertzog and Steyn were ranked below sportsman Gary Player, sportsman Danie Craven and stage artist Pieter-Dirk Uys.

Another critic acclaimed the biographic article about Mandela (by Vincent Maphati) but derided the articles about Verword as less than satisfactory. It was also said that the survey compared apples with oranges, and questions were raised about whether Chris Barnard could truly have been said to have had more influence than Harry Oppenheimer, Jan Smuts and Gary Player.

The survey's own web site fielded questions about the omission of Barney Barnato, Ysuf Veriava, Johan de Villiers, and Sammy Marks.

The list

Here is the list of names published in the book, in order. The labels are arbitrary and is not an indication of the field in which they contributed most to South Africa.

1. Nelson Mandela - statesman
2. Frederik Willem de Klerk - statesman
3. Hendrik Verwoerd - statesman
4. Chris Barnard - surgeon
5. Harry Oppenheimer - businessman
6. Jan Smuts - statesman
7. Gary Player - sportsman
8. Cornelis Jakob Langenhoven - author
9. Anton Rupert - businessman
10. Cecil John Rhodes - businessman
11. Danie Craven - sportsman
12. Desmond Tutu - cleric
13. Daniël Francois Malan - statesman
14. Helen Suzman - politician
15. Louis Botha - statesman
16. NP Van Wyk Louw - author
17. John Vorster - statesman
18. JBM Hertzog - statesman
19. Ernest Oppenheimer - businessman
20. Steve Biko - activist
21. Pieter Willem Botha - statesman
22. Raymond Ackerman - businessman
23. Chris Hani - politician
24. Breyten Breytenbach - author
25. Christiaan de Wet - statesman
26. Oliver Tambo - activist
27. Mohandas Gandhi - activist
28. Thabo Mbeki - statesman
29. Frederik van Zyl Slabbert - politician
30. Mangosutho Buthelezi - politician
31. Pieter-Dirk Uys - stage artist
32. Walter Sisulu - politician
33. Alan Paton - author
34. Cyril Ramaphosa - politician
35. Jacob Hendrik Pierneef - painter
36. Eugène Marais - author
37. Herbert Baker - engineer
38. André P Brink - author
39. Koos de la Rey - military leader
40. Beyers Naudé - cleric
41. Joe Slovo - politician
42. Bruce Fordyce - sportsman
43. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela - activist
44. Albert Luthuli - politician
45. Mimi Coertse - singer
46. Louis Leipoldt - author
47. Dimitri Tsafendas - assassin
48. Ali Bacher - sportsman
49. Athol Fugard - stage artist
50. Marthinus Theunis Steyn - statesman
51. Andries Treurnicht - politician
52. Herman Charles Bosman - author
53. Nadine Gordimer - author
54. Bram Fischer - attorney
55. Sol Kerzner - businessman
56. Olive Schreiner - author
57. Govan Mbeki - politician
58. Hans Merensky - geologist
59. Alfred Milner - businessman
60. Robert Sobukwe - activist
61. Trevor Huddleston - cleric
62. Helen Joseph - activist
63. Allan Boesak - cleric
64. Walter Battiss - artist
65. Albertina Sisulu - wife of politician
66. Albert Hertzog - statesman (son of J. B. M. Hertzog)
67. Hendrik van der Bijl - industrialist
68. Sol Plaatjie - journalist
69. James Stevenson-Hamilton - environmentalist
70. Abdullah Ibrahim - musician
71. Frene Ginwala - journalist
72. Philip Tobias - scientist
73. Irma Stern - painter
74. Nthato Motlana - businessman
75. Moses Kotane - fund raiser
76. Hendrik Johannes van Eck - industrialist
77. Richard van der Ross - historian
78. Oubaas Markötter - sports coach
79. Mamphela Ramphele - academic
80. John X Merriman - politician
81. Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom - politician
82. Charles Kohler - farmer
83. Arnold Theiler - biologist
84. Raymond Dart - paleontologist
85. Percy Qoboza - journalist
86. Ellen Kuzwayo - activist
87. Amina Cachalia - activist
88. Taubie Kushlick - actress
89. Jean Sinclair - activist
90. Abdullah Abdurahman - politician
91. August Aimé Balkema - author
92. Hassan Howa - sports administrator
93. Sydney Kumalo - stage artist
94. Bessie Head - author
95. Vivian Fitzsimons - herpetologist
96. James Gear - scientist
97. Dulcie Howes - stage artist
98. Isie Maisels - attorney
99. Clements Kadalie - activist
100. Jim Bailey - journalist

See also

• The 100, a 1978 book by Michael H. Hart.
• SABC3's_Great_South_Africans, a similar survey in 2002 by a South African broadcaster
• Greatest Britons spin-offs
• List of South Africans, Wikipedia's own list of well-known South Africans