Reggie September (June 13, 1923 - November 22, 2013) was a

South African __NOTOC__ South African may relate to: * The nation of South Africa * South African Airways * South African English * South African people * Languages of South Africa * Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...

politician, trade-unionist, Member of Parliament and executive committee 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 ...

(ANC).

Life

September was born in Cape Town in 1923 to a working-class family. He graduated from

Trafalgar High School , motto_translation = As much as I am able , established = , type = Government-funded co-educational secondary day school , pushpin_map = Australia Victoria , pushpin_image = , pushpin_mapsize = 240 ...

before gaining employment as apprentice in the shoe industry, and becoming a trade unionist. He joined the National Liberation League, founded by

Cissie Gool Zainunnisa "Cissie" Gool (6 November 1897 – 1 July 1963) was an anti-apartheid political and civil rights leader in South Africa. She was the daughter of prominent physician and politician Abdullah Abdurahman and mother Helen Potter James. G ...

, before becoming a founder member of the South African Coloured People's Organisation in 1953 (later known as the South African Coloured People's Congress). In 1960, the South African government detained him for five months without charge, and he was repeatedly harassed and detained after that as the

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 ...

government cracked down on internal resistance. He fled the country in 1963 and served as the African National Congress' Chief Representative for the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and Western Europe until 1978, and as member of the ANC's Revolutionary Council in

Lusaka Lusaka (; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was ab ...

. He returned to South Africa in 1991 after the unbanning of the ANC, and was elected as a member of parliament in 1994 in South Africa's first democratic elections. He retired in 2004, and died November 22, 2013 at the age of 90. He was survived by his second wife, Melissa Steyn.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:September, Reggie 1923 births 2013 deaths Anti-apartheid activists South African activists South African trade unionists Alumni of Trafalgar High School (Cape Town) Members of the Order of Luthuli