Glenn Moss was born in Pretoria on 5 May 1952. Matriculating at Pretoria Boys High at the end of 1969, he then enrolled for a BA degree at the University of Witwatersrand, graduating with majors in Political Science, English and African Studies. He subsequently completed a BA Honours in Development Studies and a Master of Arts in Political Science, with a thesis on the 1976 student uprising in Soweto.
While at university, he served in various student leadership positions both on campus, and in the National Union of South African Students (Nusas). These included
President, Student Representative Council, 1973-74, Vice-president, Students Representative Council, 1971-72, Deputy Vice-President, Nusas (National), 1971, Chair, Nusas, (University of Witwatersrand), 1970-71, Chair, Academic Freedom Committee, 1971 and Chair, Arts Students Council, 1973.
As a result of his political activities, the state withdrew Glenn's passport in 1971 and he was unable to travel legally until 1986.
Glenn was closely associated with the development of radical politics on English speaking campuses during the first half of the 1970s, leading the ‘Release all political prisoners’ campaign at Wits University in 1974, and planning the ‘History of opposition’ campaign in the same year.
He was involved in focusing attention on the vicious system of detention without trial, experiencing the first of many arrests in 1970 when he joined an illegal protest march to John Vorster Square police station calling for the release of political detainees. The march focused on the situation of ‘the 22’, who had been detained in 1969, charged, acquitted and then re-detained under the Terrorism Act. This group included a number of high-profile ANC supporters, including Winnie Mandela, Samson Ndou, Rita Ndzanga, Lawrence Ndzanga and Elias Shabangu who, the state claimed, were trying to revive the banned African National Congress.
He was actively involved in campaigning against torture and deaths in detention, chairing meetings of the Ahmed Timol Memorial Committee in 1973, which subsequently became the Human Rights Committee.
At the end of 1974 he left university to become an organiser for the Industrial Aid Society, but left the organisation following ideological and strategic differences between factions in the emerging trade union movement. Shortly after this, he was detained under Section Six of the Terrorism Act. On release, he was re-arrested and charged with furthering the aims and membership of the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP). At the conclusion of the trial, which ran for a year, all accused were acquitted.
He was one of a new generation of Nusas activists who were supportive of the emergence of Black Consciousness in the early 1970s, rejecting Nusas’s previous adherence to liberalism and organisational multi-racialism. He was part of a Nusas group which continued to meet with the South African Students Organisation (Saso) leaders in the early 1970s. Over time he became more associated with the ‘new left’ and socialism, increasingly arguing that racial oppression had to be understood through the prism of class structures of power. The use of socialist and democratic Marxist forms of analysis to understand South African society, and develop strategies to transform it, was one of the constant themes in his writing over two decades.
In 1977, Glenn co-founded Work in Progress, together with Gerry Maré and Susan Brown, and remained an editor of the magazine until 1988. He was then recruited to head Ravan Press, a leading anti-apartheid publishing house based in Johannesburg. During this period, he served on the executives of various publishing and journalistic bodies, including the Association of Democratic Journalists, the Independent Publishers Association (which he chaired), and the African Publishers Network, where he represented South African publishing.
Between 1977 and 1985, he often worked as a defence consultant for attorneys Shun Chetty and Priscilla Jana in political trials. These included the sedition case arising from the Soweto student rebellion of 1976 (S vs Twala and others), the Silverton and Soekmekaar treason trial of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) guerrillas (S vs Lubisi and others), and the United Democratic Front (UDF) Pietermaritzburg treason trial (S vs Ramgobin and others). He wrote a book, Political Trials in South Africa, 1976-1979, based on this work, and contributed a section on political trials to Work in Progress for over a decade which monitored political and military resistance to apartheid.
Glenn was a founding editor of the South African Review, and involved in compiling and editing the first seven editions of this annual review of political and economic developments.
He was a founding member of the Detainees Parents Support Committee, set up to support the families of those detained in the security police’s 1981 clampdown on non-racial and Congress-aligned individuals and organisations.
During the second half of the 1980s, he attended the Children’s Conference in Harare, the conference on a post-apartheid economy held at York University, and the Culture in Another South Africa colloquium held in Amsterdam, where discussions between ANC and SACP leadership and internal activists and intellectuals took place.
He was the founding trustee of the David Webster Trust, set up following the assassination of Webster, a close friend and colleague. Through this, he became involved in investigations into Webster’s death and other political assassinations.
Glenn left publishing in 1995, and was retained by the Central Statistics Service, a national government department, as a consultant. He remained associated with what became Statistics South Africa for 15 years, helping to build capacity in dissemination and analysis of data and information, data management, inter-governmental relations and strategic communications.
He is married to Georgina Jaffee. They have two children, Michael (23) and Anthony (21).
Source: South African History Online (SAHO)
While at university, he served in various student leadership positions both on campus, and in the National Union of South African Students (Nusas). These included
President, Student Representative Council, 1973-74, Vice-president, Students Representative Council, 1971-72, Deputy Vice-President, Nusas (National), 1971, Chair, Nusas, (University of Witwatersrand), 1970-71, Chair, Academic Freedom Committee, 1971 and Chair, Arts Students Council, 1973.
As a result of his political activities, the state withdrew Glenn's passport in 1971 and he was unable to travel legally until 1986.
Glenn was closely associated with the development of radical politics on English speaking campuses during the first half of the 1970s, leading the ‘Release all political prisoners’ campaign at Wits University in 1974, and planning the ‘History of opposition’ campaign in the same year.
He was involved in focusing attention on the vicious system of detention without trial, experiencing the first of many arrests in 1970 when he joined an illegal protest march to John Vorster Square police station calling for the release of political detainees. The march focused on the situation of ‘the 22’, who had been detained in 1969, charged, acquitted and then re-detained under the Terrorism Act. This group included a number of high-profile ANC supporters, including Winnie Mandela, Samson Ndou, Rita Ndzanga, Lawrence Ndzanga and Elias Shabangu who, the state claimed, were trying to revive the banned African National Congress.
He was actively involved in campaigning against torture and deaths in detention, chairing meetings of the Ahmed Timol Memorial Committee in 1973, which subsequently became the Human Rights Committee.
At the end of 1974 he left university to become an organiser for the Industrial Aid Society, but left the organisation following ideological and strategic differences between factions in the emerging trade union movement. Shortly after this, he was detained under Section Six of the Terrorism Act. On release, he was re-arrested and charged with furthering the aims and membership of the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP). At the conclusion of the trial, which ran for a year, all accused were acquitted.
He was one of a new generation of Nusas activists who were supportive of the emergence of Black Consciousness in the early 1970s, rejecting Nusas’s previous adherence to liberalism and organisational multi-racialism. He was part of a Nusas group which continued to meet with the South African Students Organisation (Saso) leaders in the early 1970s. Over time he became more associated with the ‘new left’ and socialism, increasingly arguing that racial oppression had to be understood through the prism of class structures of power. The use of socialist and democratic Marxist forms of analysis to understand South African society, and develop strategies to transform it, was one of the constant themes in his writing over two decades.
In 1977, Glenn co-founded Work in Progress, together with Gerry Maré and Susan Brown, and remained an editor of the magazine until 1988. He was then recruited to head Ravan Press, a leading anti-apartheid publishing house based in Johannesburg. During this period, he served on the executives of various publishing and journalistic bodies, including the Association of Democratic Journalists, the Independent Publishers Association (which he chaired), and the African Publishers Network, where he represented South African publishing.
Between 1977 and 1985, he often worked as a defence consultant for attorneys Shun Chetty and Priscilla Jana in political trials. These included the sedition case arising from the Soweto student rebellion of 1976 (S vs Twala and others), the Silverton and Soekmekaar treason trial of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) guerrillas (S vs Lubisi and others), and the United Democratic Front (UDF) Pietermaritzburg treason trial (S vs Ramgobin and others). He wrote a book, Political Trials in South Africa, 1976-1979, based on this work, and contributed a section on political trials to Work in Progress for over a decade which monitored political and military resistance to apartheid.
Glenn was a founding editor of the South African Review, and involved in compiling and editing the first seven editions of this annual review of political and economic developments.
He was a founding member of the Detainees Parents Support Committee, set up to support the families of those detained in the security police’s 1981 clampdown on non-racial and Congress-aligned individuals and organisations.
During the second half of the 1980s, he attended the Children’s Conference in Harare, the conference on a post-apartheid economy held at York University, and the Culture in Another South Africa colloquium held in Amsterdam, where discussions between ANC and SACP leadership and internal activists and intellectuals took place.
He was the founding trustee of the David Webster Trust, set up following the assassination of Webster, a close friend and colleague. Through this, he became involved in investigations into Webster’s death and other political assassinations.
Glenn left publishing in 1995, and was retained by the Central Statistics Service, a national government department, as a consultant. He remained associated with what became Statistics South Africa for 15 years, helping to build capacity in dissemination and analysis of data and information, data management, inter-governmental relations and strategic communications.
He is married to Georgina Jaffee. They have two children, Michael (23) and Anthony (21).
Source: South African History Online (SAHO)