PIONEER
Jay Naidoo
Unionist | Community Activist | Business Leader
Born: 20 December 1954
“Reconciliation was not a weakness for [Mandela]. It was a strategy of engagement. We had not defeated the apartheid regime militarily. We had, through the mass struggles within the country and the noose of a global sanctions movement, forced a political stalemate. South Africa stood at the edge of the precipice of a racial civil war. The alternative was a ‘scorched Earth’. We needed to build the middle ground for a transition to democracy. And that was the extraordinary leadership of an extraordinary human being – who led us to do extraordinary things to give birth to our political miracle in 1994. And the outcome, as detailed in our Constitution, is radical.”
Who is
Jay Naidoo?
Founding General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and politician in Mandela’s 1994 Cabinet tasked with the implementation of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP).
Professions
and Roles
Trade unionist, politician, community activist, teacher, business leader, activist for worker rights, environmental rights, good governance and sustainable development.
Best Known For
Founding General Secretary of COSATU in 1985, the largest federation of labour unions in South African history.
Life highlights
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
“To me the constitution is not a piece of paper, it is on a piece of paper but it is not a piece of paper, it is actually a collection of institutions that make us robust, that make us capable of surviving injustice and the oppression and abuse. South Africa has gone through ups and downs in the last 20 years and the Constitution has been invaluable in helping to bring us to a point where we can still see an optimistic future ahead even though we’ve had our ups and downs as a country. The Constitution is about giving us the opportunity to settle issues, of giving us a whole plethora of institutions which slow down things sometimes a lot but also it forces us to do things properly as a nation so I think one of our greatest successes is this Constitution and hopefully we can still use the Constitution as we struggle to create prosperity in the country which is what we need for the future.”
– Jay Naidoo
IN THE WORDS OF OTHERS
“[Naidoo] inspires others to do things differently because he understands the importance of creating change from the bottom up, by empowering those at the bottom of the pyramid to be grassroots change agents.”
– Marina Monzeglio, who nominated Jay Naidoo for a Drivers for Change award, 2010
