Eddie Roux (24 April 1903 – 2 March 1966) was a Transvaal Colony-born botanist, academic, writer, member of the South African Communist Party and anti-apartheid activist.
[1]: 305 [2] At university, he joined in demonstrations against Jan Smuts' policies and met Sidney Bunting, later a leading member of the new South African Communist Party.
[1]: 307 Roux, in 1924, as a member of the Communist Youth League, would support Buttings' effort to move the SACP towards recruiting black workers.
[1]: 308 At Cambridge University his view were moulded by Frederick Frost Blackman a left-wing lecturer and the latter National Union of Scientific Workers and he also joined the communist Labour Club and debated at the Heretics group.
[1]: 308 [5]: 322 In 1929, he met Lancelot Hogben a biology professor at the University of Cape Town, a supporter of communism and who held meetings at his home with black activists.
[1]: 312 Through Izak Donen at the University of Cape Town, he obtained a research position in 1937 which led to, with another colleague, the discovery of higher levels of Vitamin A in certain South African fish livers.
[1]: 313 He would write several books, including a dictionary of socialist terms translated into African languages, a biography of Sidney Bunting and several articles and academic textbooks concerning biology.