Brian Bunting, journalist and SACP member
June 19, 2008 – We at the Nelson Mandela Foundation mourn Brian Bunting, a journalist, author and long-time member of the South African Communist Party and Congress of Democrats, who passed away at the age of 88 on Wednesday June 18.
“We remember and honour his contribution to our country’s struggle for freedom,” said Achmat Dangor, the chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
“He was among the top stalwarts in the struggle in South Africa, in exile and on returning to South Africa. His contribution was invaluable,” said Ahmed Kathrada, former political prisoner and trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. “He was active to the last and will be greatly missed.”
Born in Johannesburg in 1920, Brian Percy Bunting was the son of Communist Party stalwart Sidney Bunting. He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1939, and after serving in North Africa and Italy during World War II he joined the Springbok Legion, an anti-apartheid organisation of left-wing former soldiers.
Bunting became assistant editor of the left-wing Guardian newspaper. He rose to become its editor and that of the string of newspapers that sprang up as each was banned by the apartheid regime.
In 1946 Bunting was elected to the Johannesburg district committee of the Communist Party and later served on the party’s central committee.
He was one of the three so-called native representatives to Parliament but was forced out because he belonged to the Communist Party.
He was detained in 1960 and left South Africa for London in 1963 when he was prohibited from publishing. He and his wife Sonia returned to South Africa in the early 1990s. He served as an African National Congress member of Parliament under President Nelson Mandela. Sonia Bunting died in 2001. He leaves three children.