Ram Salojee

Rashid Ahmed Mahmood "Ram" Salojee (24 March 1933 – 2 December 2020), often misspelled Ram Saloojee, was a South African politician, medical doctor, and former anti-apartheid activist. Between 1994 and 2009, he represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and both houses of Parliament.

Salojee rose to prominence through the local civic movement in Lenasia, where he ran a medical practice. His erstwhile political party, the People's Candidate Party, dominated the Lenasia Management Committee from 1973 until 1977, when Salojee changed his stance on participation in apartheid structures and withdrew from the committee. He subsequently became a prominent figure in the Congress-aligned anti-apartheid movement in the Transvaal, and from 1983 he served simultaneously as the vice-president of the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC) and the Transvaal branch of the United Democratic Front (UDF).

Early life and education The eldest of twelve children, Salojee was born on 24 March 1933 on his family's farm in Kliprivier in the former Transvaal province. His nickname, Ram, comes from the first three initials of his name. His family had close links to Mahatma Gandhi's satyagraha movement, and his father was a leading member of the TIC. Much later, while serving in Parliament, Salojee wrote in a letter to the Mail & Guardian that, "I was never made to feel a part of my Alma Mater. Overt discrimination, subtle prejudices and exclusion from the social milieu left me feeling empty, deficient and unfulfilled." After a decade of practicing medicine in Nylstroom, he completed further training at Johannesburg's Coronation Hospital in 1964 and thereafter settled in Lenasia, where he spent much of the rest of his life. and he was also active in local sport administration organisations, himself an ardent cricketer.

The activities of the Anti-SAIC Committee led to the formal relaunch of the TIC in May 1983, and Salojee was elected as deputy president of the congress, deputising Essop Jassat. Later the same year, the UDF was established, and Salojee became the vice-president of its Transvaal branch. Following the UDF's largely successful campaign to boycott the 1984 general election, Salojee's house was raided, and he was detained at John Vorster Square from 21 August 1984 to 10 December 1984. He served in his seat until January 1996, when he was transferred to an ANC seat in the Senate. and 2004 and where he served until he retired at the 2009 general election.

During his last speech to the chamber in March 2009, Salojee reflected:I sometimes feel unfulfilled. I do not know whether we are still living in the liberation struggle era or are we now in the modern era of an economic and industrial state... What about the vulnerable, the ill, the denied, the poor, the unemployed?... the poor who have [not been] given greater opportunities, which we have not been able to offer, unfortunately, even in the fifteen years of our democracy.

In February 1960, Salojee married Sara Makda,