Mac Maharaj

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Sathyandranath Ragunanan "Mac" Maharaj (born April 22, 1935 in Newcastle , South Africa ) is a South African politician ( South African Communist Party , African National Congress ), businessman and university professor. He was in opposition to the apartheid regime and served as a minister from 1994 to 1999. From 2011 to 2015 he was the spokesman for President Jacob Zuma .

Life

Youth and resistance to apartheid

Maharaj was born the fourth of eight children to an Indian family. He passed his matric at St Oswald's School in 1952 . He studied as a part-time student at the University of Natal in Durban , where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1955 and from 1955 to 1956 published the newspaper Student Call . In 1956 he began to study law, which he had to give up after a year because the “non-European” part of the university was closed. During his time in Durban, he lost an eye in a brawl.

As a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the African National Congress (ANC), he was active in the resistance against the apartheid government. In 1957 he moved to London because he could not study in South Africa. Shortly afterwards, he married for the first time. In 1959 he began there part-time studies at the London School of Economics . In 1961/1962 he lived in the GDR for about a year , where he was trained first as a printer and then as a saboteur . On May 2, 1962, he returned to South Africa with his wife Ompragash, where he joined the Umkhonto we Sizwe . In July 1964 he was arrested in Johannesburg and sentenced with four other opposition activists in the Little Rivonia Trial (named after the Rivonia Trial ) to twelve years' imprisonment, which he had to serve on Robben Island . Nelson Mandela was also imprisoned there. Maharaj graduated from several degrees on the island. At night he secretly copied a large part of Mandela's autobiography in small type, which he secretly wrote there and which formed part of the memoirs Long Walk to Freedom , published in the 1990s . Upon his release, Maharaj was able to smuggle out the papers, as well as other documents in which the detainees explained their positions. In 1977 he met his future wife Zarina in London after the failure of his first marriage, who was also politically active and whom he married in 1981. In July 1977 he was ordered by the ANC to Zambia , where he was elected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC at the 1985 Kabwe Conference . From 1987 to 1990 he lived in South Africa and directed Operation Vula underground , the aim of which was to revitalize and strengthen the ANC structures, including the secret importation of weapons and funds. As a result of an agreement between the then De Klerk government and the ANC, he left the country and shortly thereafter returned legally, thus formally exempting him from prosecution . Then Maharaj took part in the establishment of the SACP.

Career as a politician, businessman and academic

On July 29, 1990, on the occasion of the first legal SACP conference, it became known that Maharaj was a member of the central committee of this party. He had been arrested by the security police three days earlier; In October 1990 the security authorities accused him and eight other members of Operation Vula of "terrorism" and of illegal possession of weapons. They were released on bail in November 1990, and in March 1991 all charges were dropped and partial immunity from Operation Vula was restored. After his release, Maharaj resigned from all positions in the ANC and SACP. Nevertheless, he was re-elected to the National Executive Committee of Durban at an ANC conference in July 1991 , for which he received further confirmation in December 1994.

In July 1991 Maharaj became a member of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), which was supposed to draft the future constitution of South Africa. After the ANC won the 1994 election , Maharaj took over the post of Minister of Transport, which he held until 1999. He then became a member of the supervisory board of FirstRand Bank, which was created in 1998 through the merger of two banks .

In 2001 Maharaj was first accused in the magazine Noseweek of having illegally favored the company of the Durban-born businessman Shabir Sheik in the expansion of National Route 3 during his time as minister . In 2003 the Sunday Times also accused him of corruption . In 1998 he should have accepted more than 500,000 rand from Sheik through the account of his second wife Zarina . Maharaj then resigned from his board position. In March 2007 he was accused of corruption again, this time by the City Press . Zarina Maharaj is said to have opened an account in Switzerland in 1996 , into which Sheik deposited at least 100,000 US dollars twice each time. His second marriage ended in divorce after 2007. On July 6, 2011, Maharaj became the spokesman for Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa since 2009. He was also Zuma's Spin Doctor . In November 2011, the Mail & Guardian announced further revelations, but this was partially prohibited by a court at Maharaj's request. In 2015 Maharaj resigned as Zuma's spokesman.

From 2005 to 2008 Maharaj taught as a visiting professor at Bennington College in Vermont , USA. In 2007 he gave the main speech at the graduation ceremony there.

Mac Maharaj has two children from their second marriage.

Works

  • as editor: Reflections in prison: voices from the South African liberation struggle. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst 2002, ISBN 1558493425 .
  • as editor, together with Ahmed Kathrada : Mandela: The authorized portrait. Andrews McMeel, Kansas City 2006, ISBN 978-0740755729 .

Honors

2016: Order of Luthuli in silver

literature

  • Padraig O'Malley: Shades of Difference: Mac Maharaj and the struggle for South Africa. Viking Adult, New York 2006, ISBN 978-0670852338 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d portrait at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on March 13, 2017
  2. ↑ a b c Mac Maharaj says good-bye to the 'bastards'. The Sunday Times, April 19, 2015, accessed March 14, 2017
  3. ↑ Shelag Gastrow: Who's Who in South African Politics. Number 5 . Johannesburg 1995, p. 130
  4. ↑ Quinn Slobodian (Ed.): Comrades of color: East Germany in the Cold War world. Berghahn Books, New York City 2015, ISBN 978-1782387060 . Excerpts from books.google.de
  5. ↑ Role revealed of Madiba's comrades in 'Long Walk to Freedom'. nelsonmandela.org, accessed March 13, 2017
  6. ↑ Interview: Mac Maharaj. Financial Times, July 24, 2015, accessed March 13, 2017
  7. ↑ a b Biography of Zarina Maharaj at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on March 15
  8. ↑ a b Shelagh Gastrow: Who's Who in South African Politics, Number 5 . Ravan Press, Johannesburg 1995, pp. 130-132
  9. ↑ news24.com: Secret world of Operation Vula . at www.news24.com (English)
  10. ↑ a b c Mac Maharaj and controversy - a timeline. Mail & Guardian of November 22, 2011 (English), accessed March 13, 2017
  11. ↑ So long, Mac, we will miss you. m.ewn.co.za, April 30, 2015, accessed March 13, 2017
  12. ↑ Democracy icon to send off graduates. benningtonbanner.com, May 1, 2007, accessed March 14, 2017
  13. ↑ South African medal holders 2016 at brandsouthafrica.com (English), accessed on March 15, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Maharaj, Mac
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maharaj, Sathyandranath Ragunanan (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician, businessman and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Newcastle