Anti-apartheid activist and trade unionist. Detained during the 1952 Defiance Campaign, charged with treason in the 1956 Treason Trial and banned in 1963. He left the country in 1976 and worked in the liberation movement in exile. He was general secretary the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) in which position he contributed to the formation of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). He was appointed Ambassador to Cuba in 1995.