Yunus Ismail Mahomed (“YM” or “Styles” as he was known) was born on 30 December 1950 in Johannesburg.  He was the eldest of five children of Amina and Ismail Mahomed.

Yunus Ismail Mahomed grew up in Jeppe, Johannesburg and attended the Gold Street Primary School and the William Hills senior Secondary School where he matriculated in 1967.  He travelled to school on a train that ran through the white suburbs and he became aware of the differences in the white and black areas.  In addition, some of his teachers made him aware of the political situation.  At school he was involved in distributing anti-Republic Day pamphlet in 1966.

Following a year in Pakistan, Mahomed worked for two years at the Prudential Insurance Company in Johannesburg and at Orchid Products in Durban as a clerk in the accounts department.

He then enrolled for a BA degree at the then University of Durban-Westville (UDW). At UDW, he was involved with various political groupings.  In 1972, he participated in the national boycott called by the South African Students Organisation.  It was while at UDW that Mahomed, together with student activists Yunus Suleman, Zak Yacoob, Krish Govender, Roy Padayachie and Pravin Gordhan, drew organisational and strategic lessons from struggles in the developing world and, sought to relate to the historical experience of the struggle in South Africa itself.  

 In 1974, he started his legal articles in Durban and completed his B.Proc. degree through UNISA in 1975.  He was admitted as an attorney in 1976 and worked as a professional assistant with the lawyer Shun Chetty and Company until 1978 when he became a partner.  When Chetty left South Africa, Mahomed took over the firm.

Mahomed became involved in the Natal Indian Congress (NIC), serving on its executive from the late 1970s and contributed significantly to the popular rebuilding of the Congress movement, after its long years of repressed silence in the 1960s.By the late 1970s, he had joined the underground of the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP).

From 1976 onwards, Mahomed was involved in setting up and working in community-based organisationssuch as the Phoenix Working Committee (PWC) as well as the Chatsworth Housing Action Committee.  He also served on the Release Mandela Committee formed in 1980.  Mahomed was also active in the Democratic Lawyers Association, the Natal Rates Committee and the Durban Housing Action Committee.

Mahomed was actively involved in the school and university boycotts that rocked Durban in the 1980s.  He was detained under the Terrorism Act on 27 November 1981 and held at the CR Swarts Police Station in Durban.  On 31 March 1982 he was transferred to the Kempton Park Police Station in the then Transvaal.  He was released at the end of April 1982.

Mahomed was elected Natal Regional Secretary of the United Democratic Front (UDF) at the regions first annual general meeting in 1983.  He was re-elected to this position in 1985.  He also served on the UDF National Executive Committee since 1983.

Yunus committed himself to building the democratic movement on a non-racial basis in all communities, working closely with the likes of Archie Gumede, Griffiths and Victoria Mxenge, Virgile Bonhomme, Jabu Sithole, Lechesa Tsenoli and Baba Dlamini. In the late 1980s he represented the UDF on a joint committee with COSATU to work for peace with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in stemming the endemic violence in Natal townships at the time.

In 1984, Mahomed was central in organising the occupation of the British Consulate by UDF leaders wanted on treason charges. This tactic spotlighted intense international attention on the repression of the apartheid government. 

Mohamed was again detained in August 1985 under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act as the state now sought to build a treason case against him and others.  He was held at the Bellair Police Station before being transferred to the Pretoria Central Prison.  He was released in October 1985.

In 1986, Mohamed was deployed to building the Economic Intelligence Desk of the African National Congress (ANC), working underground in developing the economic policies of the ANC. This led to the launch the Consultative Business Forum (CBF) to promote the interaction of business with the ANC. The establishment of CBF Holdings, was the basis of Mahomed’s involvement in business and economic transformation since the mid 1990s.

In October 1988, Mahomed was served with restriction orders which were renewed and made more stringent with the state of emergency declaration in June 1989.

Mahomed was one of the instructing attorneys in the Delmas treason trial where Popo Molefe, Mosiuoa Lekota and Frank Chikane, key leaders of the UDF, were arrested and charged under the prevailing security laws, along with 20 others in 1985.

In 1985 Mahomed also helped establish the Kagiso Trust to channel European Union support to victims of apartheid. This organisation grew as a social development grant agency, achieving self-sufficiency in the post-apartheid era with Mahomed’s sound strategic input as it established Kagiso Trust Investments.  Apart from being a founding trustee of Kagiso Trust, Mahomed was deputy chairperson of Kagiso Trust Investments, chairperson of CBF Holdings Limited, director of FirstRand Limited, director of the Johannesburg Housing Company and a non-executive director of Kagiso Media.

Mahomed passed away in January 2008.

References

• Gastrow, S. (1990). Who's Who in South African Politics-Number 3. Johannesburg: Ravan Press (Pty) Ltd.
• Hamlyn, M. 2008. Kagiso Trust chairperson dies. Mail & Guardian [Online] 10 January. Available at: mg.co.za [Accessed 25 January 2010]
• Biographical material supplied by Charm Govender, August 2011   

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