Max Coleman

Max Coleman (1926 –16 January 2022) was a South African human rights activist and former businessman. He represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly from 1994 to 1995 and then served in the South African Human Rights Commission from 1995 to 1996. During apartheid, Coleman was a founding member of the Detainees' Parents' Support Committee, a civil society organisation, after his son Keith was detained for his political activities. Coleman subsequently sold his business in order to organise on the committee's behalf full time.

Early life and education Max Coleman's father was an Orthodox Jew, born in Lithuania but raised in Ireland, and his mother was an Irish Catholic. Coleman was born in 1926, the year after they emigrated to South Africa.

He studied at the University of the Witwatersrand ("Wits"), where he was politically active,

Business career Upon his return to South Africa, Coleman co-founded a successful chemical and photographic business, Photra, which employed around 500 people at its height.

Also during that period, Coleman, his wife, David Webster, and others founded a committee, initially meeting at Wits University, for the parents of the young activists who had been detained in the October 1981 raids. Inspired by the Argentinian Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, they called the group the Detainees' Parents' Support Committee. it established headquarters in Khotso House in Johannesburg.

Recognition and honours In November 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa awarded Coleman the Order of Luthuli in silver "for his contribution to the fight for liberation and promotion of human rights through active involvement in lobbying utilising both civic organisations and government institutions". His wife received the honour at the same time and afterwards they released a joint statement that was highly critical of the ANC and government, writing: The freedoms Nelson Mandela and the ANC so bravely fought for, the vision of egalitarian, non-racial democracy, is today but a flickering glimmer of the light that shone brightly on 27 April 1994. State capture and thuggery have corrupted not only the state, but the minds and soul of the ANC. They have attempted to steal the freedom, vision and hopes of the nation. They cannot be allowed to succeed. The ANC must rid itself of corrupt elements, the democratic state must be restored to its historic duty to put South Africans first.

The Colemans jointly received the Mahatma Gandhi Satyagraha Award from the Gandhi Development Trust in 2014.

Personal life and death In 1953, Coleman married Audrey Coleman (née Goldman), the sister of an old friend whose anti-apartheid activism – initially through women's organisation Black Sash – predated her husband's.