South African activist on 'Top 200' list

The chairman of the Johannesburg-based Media Review Network has been included on the Mail and Guardian’s list of “Top 200 Young South Africans”. Zaakir Mayet is a law graduate and leads the NGO in the struggle against Islamophobia while promoting justice and human rights for, among others, the people of Palestine and the victims of the US war on terror.

Although he was raised in a home within which the concepts of justice and injustice were discussed openly, it was Israel’s violence and brutality against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip which pushed the 25-year old to employ his legal skills in the fight for justice.

“As chairman of the MRN,” he told the local media, “I utilise my understanding of domestic and international human rights law to challenge Islamophobic content in the media.” Other issues dealt with by the organisation include the geopolitical implications of the conflict in Syria and the legalities of drone warfare, he added.

Mayet explained that the Media Review Network articulates voices that are often silenced by mainstream propaganda, echoing prize-winning author Arundhati Roy, who said: “There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”

“A perfect example of this is the Palestinian issue,” insisted the MRN chairman. “The challenge is ever-present; we are all obliged to change the status quo.”

The South African Mail and Guardian newspaper has published its list of “young stars who are shaping the country’s future” annually for the past 10 years. Readers are invited to send in their nominations, from which the final 200 are chosen by the editorial team.