Professor Ben Turok, now 92 years old, was an African National Congress (ANC) Member of Parliament in South Africa for 20 years. Turok is the sole surviving member of the original underground leadership of the South African Communist Party, which he joined in the late 1950s and from which he was expelled in 1976, while in exile, after a dispute over dispersing funds to a trade unionist in South Africa. He was an accused in the 1956 Treason Trial (156 opposition figures were arrested, tried and eventually acquitted four years later), served 3 years in prison (he was convicted under the Explosives Act in 1962) and was in exile for 25 years.

In exile, Turok taught political economy at universities across Africa and at the Open University in the UK. During this time, he also established the Institute for African Alternatives (IFAA) as a vehicle to oppose the structural adjustment programs of the IMF and the World Bank, choosing to rather promote African self-reliance. Turok returned to South Africa in 1990 during the transition to democracy.

In the post-1994 democratic government, he was first head of the Commission on the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) in the Gauteng Provincial Cabinet and then moved to the National Assembly in 1995. He was the Co-Chair of the Committee on Ethics and Member’s Interests of both Houses in Parliament. Since leaving parliament, he has been a vocal critic of corruption and governance problems in the ANC since Jacob Zuma’s presidency. He is the editor of the journal New Agenda published by IFAA, of which he is now the Director.