Ben Turok

Ben Turok (26 June 1927 – 9 December 2019) was an anti-apartheid activist, Economics Professor and a South African member of parliament as a member of the African National Congress.

Ben Turok
Born(1927-06-26)26 June 1927
Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia
Died9 December 2019(2019-12-09) (aged 92)
South Africa
NationalitySouth African
OccupationAnti-apartheid activist, Economics Professor, Member of parliament
Known forMember of the African National Congress

Biography

Turok was born in to poor working-class Jewish parents in Byelorussia in 1927, who were radicalized by the secular Jewish socialist Bundist movement.[1] and his parents migrated to Libau, Latvia when his father became involved in the Jewish labor movement. Later, seeking safety, Turok's father moved the family to the then Union of South Africa in 1934.[2] He graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1950. Returning to South Africa in 1953, he joined the South African Congress of Democrats and in 1955 became its secretary for the Cape western region, acting as a full-time organizer for the Congress of the People. He was the African representative on the Cape Provincial Council.[3]

Turok was the father of Fred Turok, Ivan Turok and Neil Turok, a cosmologist, and founder of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Muizenberg, South Africa. Turok was instrumental in helping draw up the Freedom Charter and also served time in jail under apartheid.[4] Ben died on the morning of 9 December 2019. He was 92 years old.[5][6]

References
  1. Shimoni, Gideon (1980). Jews and Zionism: the South African experience (1910-1967). Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
  2. Thamm, Marianne (10 Dec 2019). "Ben Turok, rebel, revolutionary, thinker, truth-teller — one of the last of The Struggle greats". Daily Maverick. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 26 Jun 2020.
  3. Kiloh, Margaret; Sibeko, Archie (2000). A Fighting Union. Randburg: Ravan Press. p. 43. ISBN 0869755277.
  4. "Non-vote: MP faces ANC wrath | IOL News". Retrieved 2018-01-08.
  5. ANC veteran Ben Turok has died
  6. Ben Turok’s commitment to liberation, non-racialism and equality
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