Born on 15 November 1938 in Yeoville, Johannesburg, Ronald Kasrils was the son of Rene (born Cohen) and Isidore Kasrils. His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Latvia and Lithuania, who fled from the Czarist pogroms at the end of the 19th century. A matriculant at the King Edward VII High School, he excelled in athletics and history. His initial career was as a script writer for a Johannesburg film studio and then for Lever Brothers, as Television and Film Director for their advertising division in Durban, until 1962.

Political history 1960-1994

The Sharpville massacre prompted Ronald Kasrils to join the African National Congress (ANC) in 1960, serving as the secretary of the ANC-aligned Congress of Democrats in Natal until it was banned in 1962. His involvement led to bannings from gatherings and various forms of employment, and having his movement restricted to Durban. In 1963 he registered to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree and joined the Cross Country Team at the University of Natal. His plans were cut short when the security police sought to arrest him under the Terrorism Act. He evaded arrest and began operating underground. A member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC's military wing, since its inception in 1961, he was involved in its first operations. In 1963 he became the Commander of the Natal Regional Command of MK. He fled South Africa in October 1963 together with his future wife Eleanor Logan, who had escaped from police custody, where she was held for her own political activities. They got married in Tanzania in 1964 and later had two sons, Andrew and Christopher.

Exiled years and Transition

Ronald Kasrils was sent by the ANC to the Odessa Military College in the Soviet Union where he graduated at the end of 1964, having completed a general military course as well as a specialist course in military engineering. He later served in various capacities and deployments in London, Luanda, Maputo, Swaziland, Botswana, Lusaka and Harare. He became Chief of MK Intelligence in 1983, served on the ANC's Politico-Military Council (PMC) in Lusaka from 1985, on the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) from 1987 and on the South African Communist Party's Central Committee (SACP) from 1985. Just before the unbanning of the ANC in February 1990, he played an active role in Operation 'Vula' which aimed to infiltrate leadership back into South Africa. He subsequently lost the indemnity given to returning NEC members by FW de Klerk's government and again was on the run from police, this time until June 1991. He continued to work within the ANC and SACP structures and was an active participants in the negotiations and a member of the Transitional Executive Council's Sub-Council on Defence.

New Democratic South Africa

In 1994 Ronald Kasrils was appointed Deputy Minister of Defence in Nelson Mandela's first cabinet, and served in this position until June 1999. His second appointment was Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, from 1999-2004, during which he also served as a member in the UN Secretary General's Advisory Committee on Water & Sanitation from 2002-2004. In 2004 he was appointed to the intelligence portfolio where he served as Minister for Intelligence Services from April 2004 to September 2008.

Ronald Kasrils retired from Government in September 2008. He has however remained actively involved in the political landscape of South Africa. From 2008 he has been active in the Palestine Solidarity Committee, and participated in the Jurist Russell Tribunal on Palestine since 2011. From 2012 he served as a Commissioner in the International Verification Commission, Basque Country, Spain.

His wife Eleanor Kasrils died in 2009. Ronald Kasrils married journalist Amina Frense on the 2 February 2012 in Cape Town.