Anti-apartheid activist Denis Goldberg dies at 87

Denis Goldberg
Veteran social campaigner Denis Goldberg
Veteran social campaigner Denis Goldberg

Denis Goldberg, a veteran of South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement has died at the age of 87.

The social campaigner was a close ally to South Africa’s first black president, Late Nelson Mandela.

Goldberg, a Jewish member of the Communist Party spent more than two decades in prison for resisting racist rule. He was the only white person to be sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 at the famous Rivonia trials.

Pioneers of the anti-Apartheid struggle; Denis Goldberg and Nelson Mandela
Pioneers of the anti-Apartheid struggle; Denis Goldberg and Nelson Mandela

Like Mandela, Goldberg was found guilty of being involved in the armed struggle by the African National Congress (ANC) against the apartheid regime.

Goldberg died late Wednesday after living with lung cancer for two and a half years, Debbie Budlender, manager of the Denis Goldberg Legacy Foundation Trust, said on Thursday.

The fact that he lived on for so long was “a sign of his determination and courage,” she said.

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