Jean Swanson-jacobs: Deputy minister, academic and activist
1955-2013
JEAN Swanson-Jacobs, who has died in Cape Town at the age of 57, was an anti-apartheid activist and academic who became deputy minister of social development in the Thabo Mbeki administration.
She was born Jean Swanson in Parow in the Western Cape on November 24 1955 and matriculated at Immaculata High School in Wynberg. She enrolled at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in 1973. She quickly joined the vanguard of student anti-apartheid politics and was elected as the first female member of the students representative council. Later in the year she was suspended from the university for her political activities.
In 1974, she enrolled for a diploma in business administration at Peninsula Technikon, but promptly left when told she had to change her jeans for Crimplene slacks.
She got a job as an administrative assistant at the Sunday Times’s Cape Town office. On her first day she asked for a toilet and was directed to one with a “whites only” sign on the door. When she tried to use it, a white woman barred her way and snarled: “Can’t you read the sign?”
The matter went to Stanley Uys, who, in addition to being political editor of the Sunday Times, was head of its Cape Town bureau. He tracked the offending woman to the offices of Newsweek magazine and made her apologise. Swanson-Jacobs was allowed to use the toilet — but the sign stayed up.
She began contributing freelance articles for the Sunday Times Extra supplement. Meanwhile, she continued her political activism, participating in the Viva Frelimo rallies of 1974 organised by Saths Cooper.
In 1975, he was charged under the Terrorism Act. After Swanson-Jacobs was called to police headquarters and interrogated about her participation, she was subpoenaed to testify in the trial of Cooper and 12 others. She decided to leave South Africa instead and spent the next five years in London, where she completed a BSc at the University of North East London.
She returned in 1980 and joined the academic staff of the UWC. While lecturing there in social psychology, she completed an MSc at the University of Cape Town, followed by a doctorate at the UWC. She subsequently became head of the department of psychology at
She expressed her disappointment with the performance of the government in later years
the university and a member of its senate. She also served on its transformation forum and was at the forefront of moves to open the university, hitherto an institution for coloured students only, to all races. She was also active in off-campus activism as a member of the United Democratic Front. She was a lover of jazz and played the guitar at cultural rallies against apartheid.
When Nelson Mandela became president in 1994 and UWC principal Jakes Gerwel became director-general of the Presidency, Mandela asked him to recruit bright UWC academics for the ANC’s team in parliament.
In 1997, he asked Swanson-Jacobs, who had worked closely with him in his efforts to transform the university, to become a member of parliament, which she did.
In 2004, she was made deputy minister of social development. She took an active interest in fighting drug abuse, particularly in schools.
Swanson-Jacobs made her mark as a hardworking, conscientious deputy minister and was disappointed to be dropped from the cabinet in 2009.
She retired from politics and devoted herself to church activities.
She was a profoundly loyal member of the ANC, but expressed her disappointment with the party and the performance of the government in later years.
In 1981, she married Mike Benjamin, who was a fellow academic in the social psychology department at the UWC.
This ended in divorce after 17 years and she married Aubrey Jacobs seven years ago.
She was diagnosed with cancer two years ago.
Swanson-Jacobs is survived by her husband, Aubrey, and three children. — Chris Barron