Vetern Africa correspondent and author Colin Legum died in Cape Town on Sunday morning at the age of 84.
Legum had been recently operated on for pancreatic cancer, his brother-in-law Paul Andrew said on Monday.
Born in Kestell in the Orange Free State, he rose from the rank of office boy to parliamentary correspondent for the Sunday Express, and became a member of a radical reform group in the Labour Party.
He left South Africa for England after the first apartheid government came to power in 1948, believing there was no room for his brand of democratic socialism, and worked for The Observer in London for 30 years.
Legum earned himself an international reputation as a reporter and analyst of African affairs, and had close relations with many African leaders, including the then-exiled African National Congress president Oliver Tambo.
In 1962 he and his second wife Margaret were both banned from South Africa following the publication of their book ”South Africa: Crisis for the West”, said to be the first book to present a serious advocacy for international sanctions against South Africa.
They returned to South Africa in 1994.
The funeral service is expected to be held on Friday afternoon at Kalk Bay’s Olympia Bakery, a community venue. – Sapa