02 February,2009 05:49 PM IST | | PTI
A South African freedom fighter of Indian-origin and member of parliament, Cassim Salojee, has died after a brief illness.
The 74-year-old Salojee, whose parents have migrated to the African nation in 1920s, yesterday breathed his last at his house in Johannesberg.
Salojee, who was arrested in 1980s and charged with treason along with 14 other activists, had played an important role in the liberation struggles in South Africa from 1970s to the early 1990s.
He was elected to the parliament by the ANC in 1994 and had remained a member of parliament since then.
Mewa Ramgobin, another Indian-origin freedom fighter and one of the ANC MP, said "We were all charged with treason but after three long years we were found not guilty and discharged."
"He (Salojee) became president of the Transvaal Indian Congress after it was revived in 1980, and later became an active member of the United Democratic Front which for all intents and purposes was the internal wing of the ANC in the 1980s," Ramgobin, who played an important role in the revival of Natal Indian Congress founded by Mahatma Gandhi, said.
As a member of parliament, Salojee visited India on numerous occasions over the past 15 years and also visited his ancestral home in Gujarat.
