12 Things you don’t know about Mac Maharaj
1. Full name Sathyandranath Ragunanan “Mac” Maharaj
2. Mac Maharaj was born on the 22nd of April 1935 in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal
3. Maharaj was a political activist and member of the South African Communist Party,[1] who worked closely on anti-apartheid activities with Nelson Mandela
4. In prison Mac Maharaj secretly transcribed Mandela’s memoir Long Walk to Freedom and smuggled it out of the prison in 1976
5. During his time in prison, Mac Maharaj also completed a BAdmin degree, an MBA, and part of a BSc degree
6. After being released from the Robben Island prison in 1976, Mac Maharaj was deployed by the ANC to Zambia in 1977. He was elected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC in 198
7. From 1988 to 1990 Mac Maharaj worked underground in South Africa as part of the ANC’s Operation Vula, which was a project to infiltrate the ANC’s top leaders back into South Africa
8. During this time Mac Maharaj worked with Schabir Shaik’s two brothers, Yunis Shaik and Moe Shaik, also members of the ANC. Mac Maharaj reported to the then ANC intelligence chief Jacob Zuma.
9. Mac Maharaj was post-1994 South Africa’s first Minister of Transport, a post he took on 11 May 1994 and kept until 1999
10. After the national elections of 1999, Mac Maharaj stepped down from politics and joined FirstRand Bank and was its highest paid non-executive director
11. On 6 July 2011 Mac Maharaj was appointed by President Jacob Zuma as his Spokesperson with immediate effect.
12. In 2005, Mac Maharaj joined the faculty of Bennington College in Vermont, USA.
