Jeremy Cronin
| Jeremy Cronin | |
|---|---|
| Deputy Minister of Public Works | |
|
Assumed office 12 June 2012 |
|
| Deputy Minister of Transport | |
|
In office 11 May 2009 – 12 June 2012 |
|
| Succeeded by | Lydia Sindiswe Chikunga |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 September 1949 |
| Nationality | South African |
| Political party | South African Communist Party |
| Other political affiliations |
African National Congress |
| Residence | Cape Town, South Africa |
| Alma mater | University of Cape Town (B.A.), Sorbonne University (M.A.) |
Jeremy Cronin (born 12 September 1949) is a South African writer, author, and noted poet. A longtime activist in politics, Cronin is a member of the South African Communist Party and a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress. He presently serves as the South African Deputy Minister of Public Works.
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 studied his masters in Philosophy in France and returned to South Africa, where he began lecturing in the Philosophy department of the University of Cape Town.
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 (1976–1983), which he served in Pretoria. His wife Anne Marie died of a brain tumour during his imprisonment.
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