Since the news of his passing broke, tributes have poured in for Professor Ben Turok who died at his home in Cape Town in the early hours of the morning on December 9th, 2019. These have lauded his many public contributions: a dedicated anti-apartheid activist, he wrote the nationalization clause of the 1955 Freedom Charter, served time in solitary confinement and as an exile in the UK before returning to South Africa in 1990. Under a democratic dispensation, he served as an MP and chaired the Ethics Committee where he (in)famously investigated Minister Dina Pule and abstained from voting on the Secrecy Bill (as discussed in an interview on this site earlier this year).

In articles, radio and television interviews, and tweets, we have seen a common thread: an outspoken activist with strong convictions that was fiercely independent. Ben’s commitment to a set of principles even when these were unpopular is what set him apart from most. That was true of him as a white person under apartheid who chose to reject the benefits, which may come with that identity in a racist system; and it was also true of him as a member of the ANC who didn’t always agree with what his party was doing. These characteristics and contributions are critical and must be remembered. But for us who worked with him at the Institute for African Alternatives (IFAA), it is the projects that he chose to pursue in the last five years of his life that indicate where his passions lay and which we hope will not be lost in his commemoration.