It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of a courageous and inspiring colleague, Margaret Legum on November 1, 2007. Khulumani knew Margaret as an economist who had committed her life to the struggle for social and economic justice in the world and in South Africa and who continued to share her clear thinking in published articles that were accessible to the layperson.

As the organised membership organisation of victims and survivors of apartheid-era human rights atrocities, Khulumani Support Group received Margaret's generous intellectual support for our own efforts to secure the economic transformation of the lives of those most marginalised as a result of apartheid processes that systematically impoverished people who had in many instances previously been self-reliant. On several occasions, Margaret sent us messages of support that included expressions of her outrage that Africans should be expected to overcome their deliberate disempowerment within a brief ten years since the establishment of a democratic government, while European survivors of horrendous events such as the Holocaust, were not judged for pursuing justice over more than sixty years.

Margaret openly expressed her support for the Khulumani lawsuit against multinational corporations that were complicit in helping to support the security agencies of the apartheid government. She stood by Khulumani when our own government objected to South African victims of these security agencies seeking legal redress in courts in the United States. The South African government has continued to try to cast these issues as political, rather than as about specific individuals seeking damages.

Khulumani Support Group will miss Margaret and her generous sharing of her knowledge and insights in language that was accessible to our membership.

Hamba Kahle, Margaret.