My wonderful friend, Duncan Innes, has died after a long illness.

I will always remember his leadership of the 1968 sit-in at the University of Cape Town, when around 600 of us protested at the university’s refusal to stand up to the apartheid government, which objected to the appointment of Archie Mafeje on the grounds of race.

I later stayed with Duncan and Francine de Clercq in Warwick when I came to Britain to study at the university. Subsequently I visited Duncan and Helene Perold in Johannesburg and in Hermanus. They were all warm, caring friends.

Duncan and I collaborated on an article: CLASS STRUGGLE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA: THE INTER-WAR YEARS which can be read here.

Duncan_Innes_and_Martin_Plaut_-_Class_struggle_and_economic_development_in_South_Africa,_the_inter-war_yearsDownload

Duncan was a major player in the industrial relations field after the end of apartheid and the author of Anglo American and the Rise of Modern South Africa, in 1984. He was executive director of the Innes Labour Brief and a lecturer in the School of Economic and Business Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

I will miss him deeply. My condolences to Helene.

Martin