Maharaj Named Special Envoy to South African President
Recent faculty member Mac Maharaj, the South African anti-apartheid hero who famously smuggled Nelson Mandela's biography out of prison in 1976, has been named special envoy to South African President Jacob Zuma.
Maharaj, democratic South Africa's first cabinet minister of transport—and subject of the internationally acclaimed biography Shades of Difference: Mac Maharaj and the Struggle for South Africa—will assume his new role starting this month.
For media coverage of the story, see News24.
Maharaj participated in the Living Democracy: Perspectives from South Africa conference held at Bennington in March 2005. He was a Bennington faculty member from the fall of 2005 through the fall of 2008. In 2008, he received the prestigious Global Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Rights from Priyadashni Academy in Mumbai, India.