Ronnie Kasrils is a South African politician, anti-apartheid activist, and author. Born in 1938 in Johannesburg to a Jewish family whose grandparents fled pogroms in Lithuania and Latvia, he was drawn to political activism following the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre, subsequently joining the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). He served as Chief of Military Intelligence for uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC, earning the nickname “Red Ronnie”, during the struggle against the apartheid regime.
Following South Africa’s transition to democratic rule in 1994, Kasrils held several senior government posts under Presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. He served as Deputy Minister of Defence (1994–1999), Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry (1999–2004), and Minister for Intelligence Services (2004–2008). He is the author of several books, including his autobiography, Armed and Dangerous: My Underground Struggle Against Apartheid.
Kasrils has long drawn parallels between South African apartheid and Israeli policy toward Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. In November 2001, he co-initiated the “Declaration of Conscience by South Africans of Jewish Descent” (commonly known as the “Not in My Name” campaign), which mobilized hundreds of Jewish South Africans to publicly oppose Israeli military occupation and express solidarity with Palestinian self-determination.
Following the October 7, 2023 attack and the subsequent war in Gaza, Kasrils sparked intense debate with his analysis of the conflict’s roots, stating: “What happened to the civilians was tragic but as we South Africans know, you can’t oppress people for decades and not expect the pot to boil over. When that happens there’s no guarantee it will do so gently to the satisfaction of the oppressors.“ He subsequently supported South Africa’s legal submission against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), arguing that lessons derived from Holocaust history mandate universal opposition to racial supremacy and systemic oppression.