Raymond Suttner
Raymond Suttner, born in 1945, has had a long academic career, stretching back to 1968. Based in Johannesburg he is currently an emeritus professor at the University of South Africa, Pretoria and part-time visiting professor at Rhodes University, Grahamstown.
He initially taught law but later obtained a cross-disciplinary PhD in political studies, sociology and history. He is the author of over 85 scholarly publications in politics, history, gender, philosophy, ethics, identities, law and criminology. He has authored or co-authored the following books: 30 Years of the Freedom Charter, 1986, Inside Apartheid’s Prison, 2001, 50 Years of the Freedom Charter, 2006, The ANC underground, 2008 and Recovering Democracy in South Africa, 2015. He also transformed the autobiography of Ray Alexander, All My Life and All My Strength into manuscript and book form in 2004.
Suttner currently plays an active role as a public speaker and in the media, notably on the website polity.org.za and the Daily Maverick. He can also be viewed in video interviews on the Polity website and other sites.
He was active in the struggle against apartheid working as an underground operative for the African National Congress, for which he was detained, tortured and imprisoned on two occasions and held under house arrest for a total of 11 years between 1975 and 1990.
On the onset of democratic rule, Suttner was elected to the first democratic parliament and also spent a short period as an ambassador. On returning to South Africa in 2001 he withdrew from active politics. From 2006 he found himself in disagreement with the ANC and has since then argued for a broad democratic perspective to recover the democratic promise, which he argues is now being squandered.
(Photo by Nomboniso Gasa.)
website: raymondsuttner.com