28 Facts About Ronnie Kasrils

Ronald Kasrils was born on 15 November 1938 and is a South African politician, former guerrilla and military commander.

Ronnie Kasrils served in a number of ministerial posts, including the as Minister for Intelligence Services from 2004 to 2008.

Ronnie Kasrils was a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress from 1987 to 2007 as well as a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party from December 1986 to 2007.

Ronnie Kasrils' grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Latvia and Lithuania who fled from Czarist pogroms at the end of the 19th century.

Ronnie Kasrils's mother worked as a shop assistant prior to her marriage.

Ronnie Kasrils was raised in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Yeoville in Johannesburg and had his Bar Mitzvah at the Yeoville Synagogue.

Ronnie Kasrils matriculated at King Edward VII School in Johannesburg.

Ronnie Kasrils subsequently became a scriptwriter for films in Johannesburg from 1958 to 1960 before accepting a position as a television and film director for Lever Brothers' advertising division in Durban from 1960 to 1962.

Ronnie Kasrils was a founding member of Umkhonto we Sizwe as member of Natal Regional Command during the same year.

Ronnie Kasrils became the commander of Natal Regional Command in 1963.

Ronnie Kasrils trained various people including Raymond Suttner, Jeremy Cronin, Ahmed Timol, Alex Moumbaris, Tim Jenkin, and Dave and Sue Rabkin, with the aim of establishing underground propaganda units in South Africa.

Ronnie Kasrils served the ANC and was based in London, Luanda, Maputo, Swaziland, Botswana, Lusaka and Harare.

Ronnie Kasrils eventually became a member of MK's High Command and was appointed as Chief of MK Intelligence in 1983.

Ronnie Kasrils served on the ANC's Politico-Military Council from 1985 to 1989 and worked underground for the ANC in South Africa during Operation Vula from 1990 to 1991.

Ronnie Kasrils went on to head the ANC's campaign section from 1991 to 1994.

Ronnie Kasrils led an unarmed group in an attempt to break through the Ciskei Defence Force lines to enter Bisho.

Ronnie Kasrils was appointed as Deputy Minister of Defence on 24 June 1994, a post which he held until 16 June 1999.

Ronnie Kasrils was the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry from 1999 to 2004 and was appointed as Minister of Intelligence Services in 2004.

Ronnie Kasrils is known for his strong criticisms of the government of Israel and for his sympathies towards Palestinian political struggles.

Ronnie Kasrils gained international attention after penning a "Declaration of Conscience by South Africans of Jewish Descent" in 2001 against Israeli policies in the occupied territories.

Ronnie Kasrils has participated in events in the Palestinian territories with all elected Palestinian parties and endorses a two-state solution premised on the 1967 borders.

In May 2007, during a visit to the Palestinian territories, Ronnie Kasrils met with the Political Leader of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh and invited him to make his first visit outside the Muslim world to South Africa.

Ronnie Kasrils was strongly critical of the ANC under Jacob Zuma.

Ronnie Kasrils is a critic of what he has called the "descent into police state depravity".

In December 2014, Ronnie Kasrils was elected to the national working committee of the newly created United Front, a workers' party led by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, and spoke favourably of the Economic Freedom Fighters, a newly formed leftist opposition party.

In 2012, Ronnie Kasrils wrote a foreword to the new book called London Recruits - The Secret War against Apartheid in which stories of white non-South Africans who were recruited by Ronnie Kasrils to go on numerous missions to South Africa planting leaflet bombs and other propaganda materials.

Ronnie Kasrils published a book in 2017 on his experience of working with then-South African President Jacob Zuma called A Simple Man.

In 2021, Ronnie Kasrils edited the book International Brigade Against Apartheid: Secrets of the War that Liberated South Africa collecting the experiences of people around the world who collaborated with Umkhonto We Sizwe in the struggle against apartheid.