His Story
In Conversation
Creating a Portrait
A Judge:
Albie
Sachs
 
"I believe in the possibilities of transformation, and in using the negativity of the past to create positivity for the future."
Beautiful Sacrifice
Profile of an icon
Albie Sachs
 
Dear Albert, congratulations on your sixth birthday. May you grow up to be a soldier in the fight for liberation. At that tender age, Albie Sachs' future as freedom fighter had already been willed in a birthday postcard from his father.
Profile of an icon
Albie Sachs

Dear Albert, congratulations on your sixth birthday. May you grow up to be a soldier in the fight for liberation. At that tender age, Albie Sachs future as freedom fighter had already been willed in a birthday postcard from his father.

Sachs has met and exceeded his father’s expectations. He has been a freedom fighter, advocate, author and Constitutional Court Judge. Albie Sachs’ lifelong commitment to justice, freedom and equality is firmly rooted to his parents’ political activism as Communist Party members and trade unionists.

Despite their separation in his childhood, their steadfast resolve to work towards a liberated, just state left an indelible mark on Sachs. In his later years, Sachs recalls growing up in a home that blurred the divisive lines of race, class and creed and nurtured the ideals of respect, unity and dignity for all.

“In the world I grew up in, there was an energy, and a brightness, and a vitality, and the people had that as well. There was a lot of laughter, and wit, and storytelling, and interaction and people with very different backgrounds coming together.

“It was there right from the beginning. The sense that if the world, the society in which we grew up didn’t acknowledge that ordinary respect, there was something wrong with society, that it had to change,”

Play video
In Conversation
Albie Sachs
 
Former Constitutional Court judge and anti-Apartheid activist, Albie Sachs, talks to filmmaker Adrian Steirn during a portrait sitting about the meaning of fairness and democracy, as well as his role in ensuring these values are enshrined in South Africa.
 
 
 
 
Creating
A Portrait
 
A series of behind the scenes images reflecting the 21 icons team at work.
Photographed on granite rock under a dramatic sky. Sachs is holding a South African flag up high, looking up at it. The wind blows the flag and sleeve of his shirtsleeve, symbolising his commitment to creating change in his country and the sacrifices he has endured.