About this site

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

About the editor

Sathyandranath Ragunanan ('Mac') Maharaj was born on 22 April 1935 at Newcastle in Natal. He became active in the political struggle in 1953 while attending the University of Natal, Non-European Section, Durban. He became reporter for New Age, and took over as its manager for Natal when M P Naicker was among the accused in the Treason Trial. He went abroad in August 1957 and studied at the London School of Economics. In the United Kingdom he was a founding member of the South African Freedom Association and succeeded Solly Sachs as its secretary. He was also a founding member of the Anti-Apartheid Movement. He left the United Kingdom to undergo training in the German Democratic Republic in 1961 and returned to South Africa in May 1962 to serve underground. He was arrested in July 1964 and charged with Wilton Mkwayi and four others in what was known as the Little Rivonia trial. He was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

He was released in December 1976 and immediately served with a five-year house arrest order. He escaped into exile in July 1977 and was appointed secretary of the Internal Political and Reconstruction Department of the ANC in December 1977. This department was mandated to create and maintain the underground ANC within South Africa and to supervise the mass mobilisation of the people within the country. He served on the Revolutionary Council and its successor, the Politico-Military Council, of the ANC since 1979. He was first elected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC in 1985 and re-elected in 1991, 1994 and 1997. He was member of the South African Communist Party 1958-1990, and served on the Central Committee (1963-64, and 1978-1990) and the Politbureau. He retired from the SACP in 1990.

From 1988 to 1990 he was stationed in the underground within South Africa as the overall commander of 'Operation Vula'. He was arrested in July 1990 after he had received indemnity in May 1990. He and nine others were brought to trial in December 1990. The charges were dropped in March 1991. He became part of the ANC negotiating team in 1991, and was appointed joint secretary of the negotiating process (CODESA and its continuation as the Multi-Party Negoatiating Process). He was also joint secretary, with Fanie van der Merwe, of the Transitional Executive Council (TEC), which oversaw South Africa's transition to a democracy.

After South Africa's first democratic elections in April 1994 he was appointed Minister of Transport in the government led by President Nelson Mandela (1994-1999). He retired from parliament in the 1999 election.

He obtained a BA from the University of Natal (1956) and a B Admin. from the University of South Africa (1969).

Mac Maharaj is a member of the Board of Directors of FirstRand Holding Group, FirstRand Bank, Discovery Health and Softline Ltd, and is a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Mac Maharaj
by Kagiso Pat Mautloa

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