Despite pressure from government officials, surveillance by the security police, including threats of loss of passport and illegal house searches, Donker adamantly continued publishing social critical works.
He was founder and director of the Centre of Creative Arts in Durban,[4] initiating the international Poetry Festival and The Time of the Writer.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Natal in 2000 for his contribution to South African literature.
[3] The first publications of black literature in South Africa were under AD Donker Publisher in 1974, with Mongane Wally Serote and Sipho Sepamla.
With his love for literature, he republished forgotten works by Bessie Head (Tales of Tenderness and Power), Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm, Sol T. Plaatje's Mhudi and the then banned work by Bloke Modisane Blame Me On History.