Jeremy Patrick Cronin (born 12 September 1949) is a South African writer, author, and noted poet. A longtime activist in politics, Cronin is a member of the

South African Communist Party The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded on 12 February 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), and tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by t ...

and a former member of the National Executive Committee of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

.Jeremy Cronin
Who's Who He served as the South African Deputy

Minister of Public Works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

from 2012 until his retirement in 2019.

Early life

Cronin was brought up in a White middle-class

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

family in

Rondebosch Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town. History Four years after the first Dutch ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, South Africa. During adolescence, he considered the idea of entering the priesthood. After a year's military service, when he was conscripted in the

South African Navy The South African Navy (SA Navy) is the naval warfare branch of the South African National Defence Force. The Navy is primarily engaged in maintaining a conventional military deterrent, participating in counter-piracy operations, fishery prote ...

, Cronin won a bursary to study at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

in 1968; there he became a member of the Radical Student Society and was subsequently recruited into then-banned

(SACP). In the early 1970s, Cronin studied for his Master's degree in Philosophy in France and returned to South Africa, where he began lecturing in the Philosophy department at the University of Cape Town.

Activism and imprisonment

Cronin's work in the propaganda unit of the SACP brought him to the attention of the South African Bureau of State Security; he was arrested on charges under the Terrorism and Internal Security Acts and tried in the Cape Town Supreme Court in September 1976, along with David Rabkin and his wife Sue. The charges included conspiring with members of the

(also a banned organisation) and the SACP, and preparing and distributing pamphlets on these organisations' behalf (activities commemorated in Cronin's poem "A Step Away from Them," modelled on a poem of the same title by American poet

Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...

). Cronin pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment (1976–1983). He served his time in Pretoria Local, or Pretoria Prison, which was part of the Pretoria Central Prison complex, along with Denis Goldberg, Raymond Suttner and others. He participated in the planning of a daring escape in 1979 by Tim Jenkin, Stephen Lee and Alex Moumbaris. His wife Anne Marie died of a brain tumour during his imprisonment.

Poetry

Cronin's first book of poetry, ''Inside'', was published in 1984 following his release from prison. Subsequent volumes include ''Even the Dead'' (1997) and ''Inside and Out'' (1999). His most recent collection, ''More Than A Casual Contact'', was published in 2006. Among his best known poems is "Motho Ke Motho Ka Batho Babang", whose title is taken from the Sotho aphorism "A person is a person because of other people".

Collected poems

* ''More than a Casual Contact'' (2006) * ''Inside and Out'' (1999) * ''Even the Dead: Poems, Parables and a Jeremiad '' (1997)

Politics

Following Cronin's release from prison he began working with the United Democratic Front (UDF), founded in 1983, where he worked as the editor of its theoretical journal '' Isizwe (The Nation)''. He was also involved in various kinds of popular education, but in the late 1980s, increased harassment from the security forces forced him and his wife to leave South Africa and move first to London, then to

Lusaka Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...

in Zambia, where he worked closely with

Joe Slovo Yossel Mashel "Joe" Slovo (23 May 1926 – 6 January 1995) was a South African politician and Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist. A Marxist-Leninist, he was a long-time leader and theorist in the South African Com ...

for the ANC/SACP alliance. In the 1990s, he worked in the SACP head office in Johannesburg, where he was deputy general secretary of the party. He became a member of parliament in 1999. His interviews with Helena Sheehan in 2001 and 2002 met with a storm of controversy, because of his left critique of the ANC during the presidency of

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Cong ...

. He was forced to apologise to the ANC in 2002. He delivered the Chris Hani memorial lecture, titled ''Why South Africa will never be like Zimbabwe'', in Durban on 4 May 2008. On 10 May 2009, President

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan names Nxamalala and Msholozi. Zuma was a for ...

appointed him Deputy Minister of Transport, and in 2012 he moved to become Deputy

. In May 2019, he retired from parliament and government office.

Political writings

"The national democratic struggle and the question of transformation", 1986

"Inside which circle, a reply to Colin Bundy, 1989

* ttps://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03005/06lv03006/07lv03030/08lv03039.htm "The boat, the tap and the Leipzig way", 1992
"Dreaming of final showdown – a reply to Jordan and Nzimande", 1992

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120229144115/http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?include=pubs%2Facommunist%2F1997%2Fissue146.html "We Need Transformation, Not A Balancing Act", 1997
"The New Imperialism", May 1997

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120229144331/http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?include=pubs%2Fumsebenzi2%2F1996%2Fumseb9605.html "Communist Manifesto, 150 years", February 1998
"Chris Hani", 1999

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120229144224/http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?include=pubs%2Facommunist%2F2000%2Fac153b.html "Morality is relevant in economic policy", 2000
"Review of ''The UDF- History of the United Democratic Front 1983–1991''", 2000

* ttp://www.monthlyreview.org/1202cronin.htm "Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Reply to John S. Saul", December 2002
"Here Comes The Sun – drawing lessons from Slovo's ''No Middle Road'', January 2003

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120229144239/http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?include=docs%2Fsp%2F2003%2Fsp0908.html "Contemporary challenge for left progressive forces in Africa and Europe", September 2003]
"Living in Joe Slovo", 11 July 2005

"Neo-liberalism, reformism, populism and ultra-leftism", 28 August 2005

"The people shall govern – class struggles and post-1994 state in South Africa", 2005

"Chris Hani", 1 April 2005

"Blank pages in history should be allowed – the role of revolutionary intellectuals"m, February 25, 2006

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070714175409/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pubs/umrabulo/umrabulo25/pages.html "the role of revolutionary intellectuals", 2006
"Joe SlovoDemocracy and Socialism",18 January 2007

"In defence of the new ANC", 18 February 2008

"Netshitenzhe misses the point", 12 June 2009

* ttp://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=116244&sn=Detail:"The present economic crisis in the world capitalist system – and prospects for the left", 28 January 2009
"Debunking Dalai Lama", 1 April 2009

"Some thoughts on the global economic crisis", 7 September 2009

"The future of the state", 23 October 2009

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120229144700/http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?include=pubs%2Fumsebenzi%2F2010%2Fvol9-05.html "Let us close ranks against factionalism. Let us close ranks against corruption", 17 March 2010]
"Response to Mondli Makhanya, 6 April 2011

"The E-toll saga – ideological confusions and strange bedfellows", 15 March 2012

"Let's not get pushed into opposing corners by those who don't have interests of our Alliance and our country at heart", 13 December 2012
*
Why Chris Hani's killer Clive Derby-Lewis should not get a parole", 3 July 2014

"What lies behind the current turmoil within COSATU?, 27 November 2014

"What is going on in South Africa's Parliament?" 20 February 2015

* ttp://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?ID=3242 "Do we need an independent media tribunal?" 20 August 2015
"Former President Mbeki doesn't get it", 20 January 2016

"Corporate Capture, Money and Politics – Part Two", 3 November 2016

"No slightest glimmer of reciprocal self-reflection on Ratshitinga's side", 19 June 2017
* *

References

External links

Interview with Jeremy Cronin
by Dr Helena Sheehan, 2002. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cronin, Jeremy 1949 births Living people Marxist writers Writers from Cape Town Academic staff of the University of Cape Town South African democracy activists 20th-century South African poets South African revolutionaries South African people of Irish descent University of Cape Town alumni African National Congress politicians South African Communist Party politicians South African communists White South African anti-apartheid activists South African anti-apartheid activists Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 1999–2004 Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 2004–2009 Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 2009–2014 Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 2014–2019