Yunus Mohamed
Author, Composer and Singer
Yunus "YM" Mohamed (sometimes Mahomed) (12 June 1950 – 6 January 2008) was a South African lawyer and activist instrumental in founding the United Democratic Front (UDF).
Mohamed was born in Johannesburg to Amina and Ismail Mohamed, one of at least five children. Growing up in Jeppe, he was educated at Gold Street Primary School and William Hills Secondary School. He then went to Natal, to the University of Durban-Westville, where in 1972 he took part in SASO's student boycotts. He eventually graduated from the University of South Africa.
He joined the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in 1970, and later the South African Communist Party (SACP) and ANC.
In 1976 he became an attorney, going on to work for the law firm of Shun Chetty, which had a record of defending anti-apartheid activists. He joined the Democratic Lawyers' Association and his work included the Chatsworth housing action committee and the Natal rates committee. From 1981 to 82 he was detained, and in 1985 was arrested again. In 1986 he served on the economic intelligence desk of the ANC. He was involved in negotiations with the Inkatha Freedom Party to help reduce political violence in KwaZulu-Natal.
He was a founding member of the UDF in 1983, and later became regional secretary for Natal.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8061393. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1950, 2008, 1972 and 1970.
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This entry incorporates text from “Yunus Mohamed” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.