Ian Mkhize was born on 3 October 1941 in Nhlazantshe Township in Pietermaritzburg. He spent his formative years in Ixopo and matriculated at Sobantu High in Pietermaritzburg, where his political education began with readings from Karl Marx. He attended Adams College in Amanzimtoti where he obtained a teaching diploma. He taught at Mthethomusha High before joining the Department of Education in Pietermaritzburg.
Mkhize was a member of the African National Congress (ANC) but when the ANC was banned in 1960, he joined the Liberal Party in 1963 because, he said, the ANC was "nowhere to be found. At least the Liberal Party (LP) offered a political platform." Mkhize’s involvement with the LP was possibly on the ANC’s instructions as the organisation’s responsibilities were later issued to him.
In 1975 he joined Tongaat Hulett (a sugar company) as a personnel officer and went to live in Hambanathi, more or less a dormitory town for company employees and an Inkatha stronghold. Acting on ANC instruction to members to fight the system from within, he stood for council and, in part because of his popularity with the Inkatha-aligned employees at Tongaat Hulett, was elected mayor in 1979.
He invited the then Minister of Community Development, Piet Koornhof, to come and see appalling conditions in the township. While serving as mayor, Mkhize oversaw the improvement of roads and moved a dumping site to the outskirts of town and a school built in its place. In spite of these successes he resigned in 1982, citing lack of political independence.
In 1983 he led the Hambanathi residents' action group into the Joint Rent Action Committee (JORAC) started that year in opposing rent increases in Durban townships. Through this became a member of the regional executive of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Natal. His activities brought him to the attention of the security police and he was detained several times in the mid 1980s. Because of his political activism he was asked to leave Tongaat Hulett. He joined the church organisation Diakonia as an education officer, organising adult literacy courses and student bursaries.
Mkhize led resistance to government attempts to incorporate his township of Hambanathi outside Durban into the KwaZulu homeland, and this almost cost him and his family their lives. Two busloads of Inkatha supporters and kombi-loads of impis invaded Hambanathi and, using armoured four-wheel-drive vehicles equipped with flame throwers, set his house and car on fire. Mkhize left the area but returned when the situation seemingly improved.
When news spread that Mkhize had returned to Hambanathi, a mob of about 200 Inkatha supporters waving pangas, axes and spears gathered outside his house one night, singing pro Inkatha songs and vowing to kill him. When they began their war chant "usuthu, usuthu", Mkhize, his wife Eunice and four young children fled. In the confusion they were separated and his wife and youngest child spent the night hiding in a sugar cane plantation. After this incident, Mkhize and his family did not return.
In 1994, Mkhize quit politics and worked full-time as an educationist in the nongovernmental sector.
Mkhize is survived by his wife and six children.