Yusuf Dadoo

[3][4] Aged ten, the Krugersdorp Municipality attempted to evict his father from his shop on racial grounds, but he was successfully defended in court by Mohandas Gandhi.

At high school, Yusuf attended meetings by former stalwarts of Gandhi, and along with Ismail Cachalia and other schoolmates, raised funds and awareness for the All India National Congress.

[2][4] When he was fifteen, he presided over a protest organised and led by visiting Indian poet Sarojini Naidu against the proposed Class Areas Bill.

[5] The campaign was postponed, however, at the personal request of Gandhi,[5] leaving Yusuf to join the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), and focus on anti-war activism with the outbreak of World War II.

[4] In 1947, the two, along with Alfred Bitini Xuma signed the "three doctors pact" of cooperation between the ANC, TIC and NIC, calling for the right to vote, freedom of movement, education and equal opportunity for all non-European South Africans.

In 1949, they also introduced the Suppression of Communism Bill to ban the South African Communist Party, causing the CPSA to pre-emptively disband and go underground.

[4] In 1953, Dadoo and others secretly reconstituted the CPSA as the South African Communist Party (SACP), with Yusuf serving as chairman of the central committee.

[4] Under these bans, he was unable to openly participate on the Congress Alliance and the writing of the Freedom Charter, although he continued to be consulted in secret, his advice being greatly respected.

[4] In 1960, the Sharpeville Massacre prompted the government to declare a state of national emergency and issue warrants for the arrest of most known leaders of protest organisations.

Dadoo evaded arrest and operated underground for several months, until the SACP, in consultation with the SAIC, decided to smuggle him out of the country to act as an international spokesperson for the struggle.

[4] Prior to his death, he attempted to arrange with Joe Slovo to have his body smuggled to South Africa for burial as an act of defiance, but this plan failed.

[7] In Nelson Mandela's message to the celebrations, he called Dadoo "one of the giants of our country's struggle for freedom", and "[one of] the founders of a democratic South Africa".