George Sewpersadh

Chanderdeo "George" Sewpersadh (7 October 1936 – 18 May 2007), also spelled Sewpershad, was a South African lawyer and anti-apartheid activist. He was a former president of the Natal Indian Congress and a defendant in the 1985 Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial.

Early life and education Sewpersadh was born on 7 October 1936 in Cato Manor, an Indian area on the outskirts of Durban in the former Natal Province. His father was a newspaper vendor and his mother was a housewife. Their family moved to Reservoir Hills during his childhood, and he matriculated at Sastri College in Durban. Jerry Coovadia said that Sewpersadh was an appealing candidate because he was "an old school type liberal: big on due process, civil rights and liberties, human rights." As leader of the NIC he faced arrest and banning orders on several occasions; On 6 October 1984, after three weeks in the consulate, Sewpersadh and two of his NIC colleagues – Naidoo and Ramgobin – voluntarily left the consulate and were immediately re-arrested on the pavement outside. though the charges against them were dropped in December 1985.

He died in Durban on 18 May 2007 after a short illness; he had cancer. He was unmarried. President Thabo Mbeki admitted Sewpersadh posthumously to the Order of Luthuli, awarding him the order in silver for "Opposing the apartheid regime and striving for the ideals of a non-racial, non-sexist, just and democratic South Africa."