- David Webster was born on the 12 December 1944
- He was an academic and anti-apartheid activist
- David worked as an anthropologist at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was a senior lecturer at the time of his assassination
- Webster was a founding member of the Detainees’ Parents’ Support Committee (DPSC) in 1981, a founder member of the Five Freedoms Forum, and a committed comrade in the United Democratic Front
- His doctorate had been written on a traditional topic of anthropology (kinship), but it was focused on a politically explosive field, namely migrant workers from Mozambique. In 1976, he taught for two years with Peter Worsley at the University of Manchester
- Webster was active in the political anti-apartheid movement, especially in the 1980s for the Detainees’ Parents’ Support Committee, an organisation advocating the release of political detainees held without trial in South Africa
- Webster was shot dead outside his house at 13 Eleanor Street in Troyeville, Johannesburg, by assassins in the employ of the Civil Cooperation Bureau, a clandestine agency of the apartheid state
- Dr Webster was an active member of the Orlando Pirates supporters’ club
- The house in Troyeville where Webster lived with his partner Maggie Friedman has been declared a heritage site
- On the site of his assassination outside David Webster House there is a mosaic that includes the words “Assassinated here for his fight against apartheid
10 Things You Didn’t Know About David Webster Scientist
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