page_title: 2015 in South Africa
section_title: January
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 in South Africa / Deaths / January
caption_attribution_description: English: A photograph of Johannes de Villiers Graaff.
context_page_description: 2015 in South Africa saw a number of social and political protests and movements form. At President Jacob Zuma's 2015 State of the Nation Address, the president was interrupted by an opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, who demanded that he pay back the money used on his Nkandla homestead. South Africa also saw new xenophobic uprisings taking place, mainly targeted towards Africans from other countries. Foreigners were beaten, robbed and murdered during the attacks. The social protest Rhodes Must Fall started in 2015 at the University of Cape Town to protest for the removal of statues erected in South Africa during the colonial era depicting some of the well known colonists who settled in South Africa. In education, South Africa recorded a drop in its matric pass rate from 2013 to 2014. The protest #FeesMustFall was started towards the end of the year and achieved its primary goal of stopping an increase in university fees for 2016. South Africa also saw the discovery of Homo naledi in 2015. The South African national rugby union team came third in the 2015 Rugby World Cup and Trevor Noah started hosting The Daily Show on Comedy Central.
context_section_description: 6 – Johannes de Villiers Graaff (86), neoclassical welfare economist 
  7 – Archie Radebe (55), soccer player and coach
  12 – Gabriel Ramushwana (73), general and Head of State of the Republic of Venda.
  15 – Walter Westbrook (93), artist
  23 – Jackie Selebi (64), former National Police Commissioner convicted in August 2010 of corruption, racketeering and fraud.
  24 – Sir David Graaff, 3rd Baronet (74), businessman and winemaker
  29 – Cedric Kushner (66), South African-born American boxing promoter
caption: Johannes de Villiers Graaff
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