Sathyandranath Ragunanan "Mac" Maharaj, Democracy Project
Maharaj was a member of Nelson Mandela's inner circle during the days of resistance and the transition government's first minister of transport. In 1964, while working underground for the African National Congress, Maharaj was arrested and sentenced to 12 years in prison on Robben Island. Escaping into exile in 1977, he was appointed secretary of the Internal Political and Reconstruction Department of the ANC. He served on the Revolutionary Council and National Executive Committee of the ANC and, after clandestinely reentering the country, was commander of Operation Vula from 1988 to 1990, running an underground program of armed resistance against the apartheid government. After Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, Maharaj was a lead negotiator for the ANC in talks with the National Party government and joint secretary of the Transitional Executive Council, overseeing South Africa's transition to democracy. Mandela appointed Maharaj minister of transport upon becoming president in 1994; Maharaj served in parliament until 1999. He earned his Bachelor of Arts at the University of Natal, Durban, in 1955, studied law at the London School of Economics, and later, while imprisoned, completed a Bachelor of Administration degree, a Master of Business Administration degree, and two years of a Bachelor in Science degree. Maharaj participated in the Living Democracy: Perspectives from South Africa conference held at Bennington in March 2005. He joined the Bennington faculty in the fall of 2005.
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