Ronnie Kasrils
Ronald Kasrils (commonly known as Ronnie Kasrils) (born 15 November 1938 to a family of Jewish background) is a South African politician. He has been the South African Minister for Intelligence Services since 27 April 2004. He has been a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) since 1987 as well as a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) since December 1986.
Early life
His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Latvia and Lithuania who fled from the Czarist pogroms at the end of the 19th century. His father was a factory salesman. His mother worked as a shop assistant prior to her marriage. Kasrils matriculated at King Edward VII School in Johannesburg. He subsequently became a script writer for films in Johannesburg from 1958 to 1960 before accepting a position as a television and film director for Lever Brothers' advertising division in Durban from 1960 to 1962.
ANC career
Kasrils joined the ANC in 1960 and became the secretary of the ANC-aligned Congress of Democrats in Natal in 1961. He was also a founder member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) as member of Natal Regional Command during the same year. He became the commander of Natal Regional Command in 1963.
He completed a general military course and specialist course in military engineering in Odessa in the Soviet Union in 1963. He went on to serve the ANC for the next 27 years and was based in London, Luanda, Maputo, Swaziland, Botswana and Lusaka. Kasrils eventually became a member of MK's High Command and was appointed as Chief of MK Intelligence after completing a specialist course to the rank of Brigadier in USSR in 1983.
Kasrils also served on the ANC's Politico-Military Council from 1985 to 1989 and worked underground for the ANC in South Africa during Operation Vula from 1990 to 1991. He went on to head the ANC's campaign section from 1991 to 1994.
Political career
After the first fully democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, Kasrils became a member of the Transitional Executive Council's (TEC) Sub-Council on Defence. He was appointed as Deputy Minister of Defence on 24 June 1994, a post which he held until 16 June 1999. He was also the South African Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry from 1999 to 2004.
Palestine Solidarity work
Kasrils is known for his anti-zionist, pro-Palestinian sympathies. He rose to international prominence since penning a "Declaration of Conscience by South Africans of Jewish Descent" in 2001 against Israeli policies in the occupied territories.[1] He has participated in events in the Palestinian Territories with all elected Palestinian parties and endorses a two-state solution premised on the 1967 borders [2].
In May 2007, during a visit to the Palestinian Territories, Kasrils met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and invited him to make his first visit outside the Muslim world to South Africa. South Africa's Jewish Board of Deputies criticised the invitation, saying the "racist ideology" of Haniyeh's Hamas organisation, which leads the Palestinian unity government, stood in contrast to South Africa's own post-apartheid ideals. In response to criticism of the invitation Kasrils was quoted (Haaretz, 7 May 2007) as stating: "Those who myopically object to such invitations merely show that they have learnt nothing from South Africa's transition".[3]
Publications
Kasrils has written several books on Bertrand Russell and poetry as well as articles on politics, defence and water & forestry issues. His autobiography, Armed and Dangerous, was first published in 1993 and updated and re-published in 1998 and 2004.
External links
Biography at Ministry of Intelligence Services, Government of the Republic of South Africa