Jeremy Cronin

Jeremy Cronin (born 1949) is a South African politician, academic and noted poet.

Early life

Cronin was brought up in a middle-class white Roman Catholic family in Rondebosch in Cape Town, South Africa. During adolescence he considered the idea of entering the priesthood. After a year's military service, which he spent conscripted in the South African Navy, in 1968 Cronin won a bursary to study at the University of Cape Town, where he became a member of the Radical Student Society and was subsequently recruited into the (banned) South African Communist Party (SACP).

In the early 1970s, Cronin visited France before returning to South Africa, where he began lecturing in the Philosophy department of 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. The charges included conspiring with members of the African National Congress (also a banned organisation) and the SACP, and preparing and distributing pamphlets on these organisations' behalf. Cronin pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, which he served in Pretoria. His wife Anne Marie died of a brain tumour during his imprisonment.

Following Cronin's release from prison he began working with the United Democratic Front (UDF), 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, and subsequently to Lusaka in Zambia, where he worked closely with Joe Slovo for the ANC/SACP alliance.

Poetry

Cronin's first book of poetry, "Inside", was published in 1984 following his release from prison. He has recently published a new collection of his poetry, titled "More Than A Casual Contact" (2006). He wrote a poem called Motho Ke Motho Ka Batho Babang.

Political life

Cronin has been a member of the ANC's Central Committee since 1991 and a member of the SACP Politburo since 1989; he is Deputy General Secretary of the SACP. Since 1999 Cronin has been a Member of Parliament, where he is the Chair of the Standing Committee on Transport.

Arms Deal

References

* [http://www.comms.dcu.ie/sheehanh/za/cronin-aah01.htm Interview with Jeremy Cronin by Dr Helena Sheehan, 2002.]

Further reading

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