Cape Town - Martin Deysel, the trade unionist who successfully fought to have the ballot papers for South Africa’s first non-racial parliamentary elections printed in the country, has died after a long illness.
His funeral will be held in Pretoria on Friday.
At the age of 76, he remained as general secretary of the SA Typographical Union (SATU), the oldest trade union in the country.
A printing compositor, Deysel joined SATU in 1971 and went on the become the union’s youngest general secretary.
Deysel. who was also a former deputy president of the Federation of Unions (Fedusa), played a major role in the establishment of the statutory council for the printing, newspaper and packaging industry and fought with the apartheid government to have SATU declared a non-racial trade union.
He is survived by his wife, two daughters and two grandchildren.
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE UPDATE: Get Fin24's top morning business news and opinions in your inbox.
Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter: Fin24’s top stories