List of Famous people born in Gauteng, South Africa
Corrie Sanders
Cornelius Johannes "Corrie" Sanders was a South African professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2008. He won the WBO heavyweight title in 2003 after knocking out Wladimir Klitschko in two rounds, which was considered one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight boxing history; The Ring magazine named it the Upset of the Year. In 2004, having vacated the WBO title, Sanders faced Wladimir's brother Vitali Klitschko in an unsuccessful but valiant challenge for the vacant WBC and Ring heavyweight titles. He also held the WBU heavyweight title from 1997 until 2000. Sanders' other notable achievements include holding the South Africa national heavyweight title in 1991, defeating former cruiserweight champions Carlos de León and Bobby Czyz by first round and second-round knockout respectively, and losing in a close slugfest fight with future unified and two-time world heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman.
Kevin Richardson
Kevin Rene Richardson, known as "The Lion Whisperer", is a South African YouTube personality, wildlife conservationist and self-taught sanctuary owner who works with African lions, black leopards, spotted hyenas and striped hyenas.
Seymour Papert
Seymour Aubrey Papert was a South African-born American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator, who spent most of his career teaching and researching at MIT. He was one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, and of the constructionist movement in education. He was co-inventor, with Wally Feurzeig and Cynthia Solomon, of the Logo programming language.
Maks van Dyk
Nicolaas Johannes John 'Maks' van Dyk is a South African rugby union player for Exeter Chiefs. His regular position is prop.
Patrice Motsepe
Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe is a South African mining billionaire businessman of Tswana descent. He is the founder and executive chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, which has interests in gold, ferrous metals, base metals, and platinum. He sits on several company boards, including being the non-executive chairman of Harmony Gold, the world's 12th largest gold mining company, and the deputy chairman of Sanlam. In 2012, Motsepe was named South Africa's richest man, topping the Sunday Times' annual Rich List with an estimated fortune of R20.07 billion.
Panagiotis Retsos
Panagiotis Retsos is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a defender for Ligue 1 club Saint-Étienne, on loan from Bayer Leverkusen, and the Greece national team.
Frances Ames
Frances Rix Ames was a South African neurologist, psychiatrist, and human rights activist, best known for leading the medical ethics inquiry into the death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who died from medical neglect after being tortured in police custody. When the South African Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC) declined to discipline the chief district surgeon and his assistant who treated Biko, Ames and a group of five academics and physicians raised funds and fought an eight-year legal battle against the medical establishment. Ames risked her personal safety and academic career in her pursuit of justice, taking the dispute to the South African Supreme Court, where she eventually won the case in 1985.
Michael Levitt
Michael Levitt, is a South African-born Jewish biophysicist and a professor of structural biology at Stanford University, a position he has held since 1987. Levitt received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel, for "the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems".
Abel Gabuza
Abel Gabuza was a South African prelate of the Catholic Church who was Archbishop Coadjutor of the Archdiocese of Durban from 9 December 2018 and until his death in 2021. He was Bishop of Kimberley from 2010 to 2018.
Kallie Knoetze
Kallie Knoetze is a retired South African heavyweight boxer and actor.