Jerome Joseph Maake is a South African politician and former

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

under

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

who served as the Chairperson of the

Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw- ...

from 2019 until 2024. A member of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

, Maake was a

Member of the National Assembly of South Africa Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

from 2009 until 2024.

Background

Maake graduated from the

University of Western Cape The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is a public research university in Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the South African government as a university for Coloured people only. Other uni ...

with a

Bachelor of Commerce A Bachelor of Commerce (abbreviated BComm or BCom; also, ''baccalaureates commercii'') is an undergraduate degree in business, usually awarded in Canada, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ireland, New Zealand, Ghana, South Africa, Myanmar, ...

degree and holds a degree in Business Management from

Napier University , mottoeng = Without knowledge, everything is in vain , established = 1992 – granted University status 1964 – Napier Technical College , type = Public , academic_staff = 802 , administrative_staff = 562 , chancellor = Will Whitehorn , ...

. He has a Master's degree in Economic Policy from

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

. Maake joined the ANC in 1980 while in

Swaziland Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

. He was a UMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) soldier and trained in Angola. He returned to South Africa in 1981 and conducted MK operations in the then Northern Transvaal. In 1982 Maake was arrested and sentenced to thirteen years imprisonment at

Robben Island Robben Island ( af, Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afrik ...

. He appealed the sentence in 1985 and won the appeal. There was a re-trail in

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...

and he was given a suspended sentence. After the 1985 State of Emergency, he left South Africa and travelled to Angola again and attended a MK refresher course. In 1986, he returned to South Africa again and operated in the Mawudse area.

Parliamentary career

In 2009, Maake was elected to the

National Assembly of South Africa The National Assembly is the directly elected house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape. It consists of four hundred members who are elected every five years using a party-list proportional representation syste ...

as an

representative and has been re-elected since in 2014 and 2019. He has served on the police, intelligence, defence, education, arts and culture, and public enterprises committees. On 14 November 2019, he was appointed as chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence. Maake was ranked too low on the ANC national list to be returned to parliament following the 2024 general election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maake, Jerome Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) People from Limpopo Anti-apartheid activists Members of the National Assembly of South Africa African National Congress politicians