l Narandran Jody Kollapen was born in 1957 in Lady Selbourne, the mixed-race Pretoria suburb that suffered forced removals as a result of the Group Areas Act.
l One of four children, the story of his life is that he took part in the 1956 women's march to the Union Buildings before he was born - his mother was pregnant with him!
l While black folk from Marabastad were moved to such places as GaRankuwa and Mamelodi, his own people were truck-loaded to Marabastad.
l He did two years of his undergraduate studies at the then University of Durban-Westville before relocating to Wits, where he further did his LLB part-time.
l After serving articles with a Pretoria law firm, he opened what he calls "a little practice" in Marabastad, where he did a lot of public-interest work, political cases of the time.
l He worked with renowned struggle attorney Priscilla Jana on many of these cases.
l Given his specialist interest, he then took up a position with Lawyers For Human Rights, where his first case was the landmark facilitation for the release of political prisoners.
l He is married to Rani with three daughters - Kumeshni, a medical doctor; Karusha, who has just completed her LLB and the baby of the family, Kiyashni, who is in high school.
Fighting injustice since conception
l Narandran Jody Kollapen was born in 1957 in Lady Selbourne, the mixed-race Pretoria suburb that suffered forced removals as a result of the Group Areas Act.
l One of four children, the story of his life is that he took part in the 1956 women's march to the Union Buildings before he was born - his mother was pregnant with him!
l While black folk from Marabastad were moved to such places as GaRankuwa and Mamelodi, his own people were truck-loaded to Marabastad.
l He did two years of his undergraduate studies at the then University of Durban-Westville before relocating to Wits, where he further did his LLB part-time.
l After serving articles with a Pretoria law firm, he opened what he calls "a little practice" in Marabastad, where he did a lot of public-interest work, political cases of the time.
l He worked with renowned struggle attorney Priscilla Jana on many of these cases.
l Given his specialist interest, he then took up a position with Lawyers For Human Rights, where his first case was the landmark facilitation for the release of political prisoners.
l He is married to Rani with three daughters - Kumeshni, a medical doctor; Karusha, who has just completed her LLB and the baby of the family, Kiyashni, who is in high school.