Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation

Personal

• Date of Birth: 1 July 1937

Current Positions

• Deputy Minister of International Relations and Coorperation since 11 May 2009.
• Member of the African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC).

Academic Qualifications

• He completed his primary education at the Hindu Tamil Institute.
• He matriculated from Sastri College.
• BA and BCom Degree from the University of Sout Africa.

Positions last held/Career/Memberships/Other Activities

• Joined the liberation movement as a youth activist in 1952 and participated in the Congress of the People Campaign, which adopted the Freedom Charter in 1955.
• He joined the armed wing of the ANC, Umkhonto Wesizwe in 1961 after the banning of the ANC in 1960.
• Arrested and charged under the Sabotaga Act with 18 others in the Pietermaritzburg sabotage trail in 1961.
• Sentenced to 15 years imprisonment at Robben Island and was released in 1979.
• Banned and his movements restricted to his home town Durban. Went to exile in 1980 on instruction of the ANC.
• Operated from the frontline states bordering South Africa and was responsible for the political underground.
• Kidnapped from Swaziland by the South African Security Forces, charged with high treason and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment at Robbin Island in December 1986.
• In 1991 he was released from prison when an appeal court ruled that his abduction from a foreign country was illegal.
• Member of the Joint Select Committee on Intelligence.
• He was the Senior Political and Economic Advisor to the Deputy President of South Africa.
• Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio on Foreign Affairs Committee in 1994.
• Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2002.
• Involved in conflict resolution efforts between Israel and Palestine, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as in Burundi , Kosovo, Bolivia and Nepal since 2002.
• Became a Political Advisor in 2002.
• Appointed as Head of International Affairs at the ANC Head Office in 2006.