Swedish Ambassador
Chair of Foreign Affairs Study Group
Member, National Executive Committee, ANC
Member, Central Committee, SACP
Head, Department of Political Education, ANC
Raymond Sorrel Suttner was born in 1945, just after the Nazis were defeated, and just before the National Party came to power in South Africa. He grew up in an atmosphere of racism and racial oppression. His parents were firmly opposed to racism, being members of the Black Sash,the Torch Commando, and Progressive Party. "They were very ethical and placed great stress on personal honesty and unselfishness. I became committed to doing something about apartheid, and contributing to its demise."
During his undergraduate studies at the University of Cape Town, Suttner became politically involved, serving on the SRC and National Union of SA Students (NUSAS) between 1963 and 1967.
While studying in London in 1971, Suttner joined the South African Communist Party (SACP). He was recruited to work for the ANC and SACP on his return to South Africa, becoming involved in underground activities from June 1971.
Suttner was arrested in June 1975 and sentenced to seven years and six months' imprisonment, after five months' pre-trial detention. In his statement from the dock, Suttner said, "I am not the first, nor the last, to break the law for moral reasons. I have acted against laws that do not serve the majority of South Africans. For this I will go to prison."
His prison companions, among others, were Denis Goldberg, Jeremy Cronin,John Matthews and the late David Rabkin.
On his release in May 1983, he was appointed research officer at the African Studies Institute, and in December 1983, senior lecturer in law at the University of the Witwatersrand. He held this position until October 1990, when he took up full-time employment in the ANC. The political situation in South Africa had changed, and Suttner became involved in legal resistance politics, and the mass struggle against apartheid.
Having played a leading role in clarifying the meaning of the Freedom Charter, he wrote the book "Thirty Years of the Freedom Charter", together with former fellow prisoner, Jeremy Cronin. The book, which describes the making and the history of the Freedom Charter, was initially banned in South Africa.
In March 1985, Suttner was elected to the Transvaal regional executive of the United Democratic Front (UDF), as education officer.
He went underground when the apartheid government declared a State of Emergency in July 1985, but continued to play a leading role within the UDF.
He was arrested and detained on June 12 1986, under the State of Emergency declared that day.Detention lasted for 27 months, 18 in solitary confinement. Suttner was released in 1988, whereupon he was placed under house arrest, which he defied in August 1989 and left the country for five months.
Suttner has many publications to his credit, including "Political Trials and the Legal Process", and "African Customary Law - its social and ideological function in South Africa".
At the ANC national conference in 1991, Suttner was elected to the NEC of the ANC. He currently heads the political education section of the ANC, and has made a tremendous contribution towards people's understanding of the policies, strategies and tactics of the ANC through his work.
Suttner enjoys music and jogging.