Professor Ben Turok

Member of Parliament, ANC

Professor Ben Turok is a member of parliament in South Africa. He is a member of the Select Committess on Finance and on Trade and Industry.

He was formerly Head of the Commission on the Reconstruction and Development Programme in the Gauteng Province.

Ben Turok has three degrees in Engineering, Philosophy and Political Science, is the author and editor of 17 books on development in Africa and has taught at the Open University in the UK and at the University of Zambia. He has worked in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the UK and has lectured or participated in conferences at a wide range of international institutions including the United Nations.

He was the founding director of the Africa policy research network the Institute for African Alternatives (IFAA). He is currently visiting Professor at the University of Durban-Westville.

He has been a member of the African National Congress alliance for four decades and was formely the National Secretary of the SA Congress of Democrats and a member of the Secretariat of the Congress Alliance. He was a accused in the 1956 Treason Trial and served three years in prison 1962-5.