Tony Trew

Who is Tony Trew?

Tony Trew is a South African politician and discourse analyst. He was one of the editors of the seminal book Language and control, which helped establish critical linguistics as an academic field.

He obtained a BA in Political Theory from the University of Witwatersrand in 1962. His overt political compromise against apartheid led to his being imprisoned from 1964 to 1965 for collaboration with noted activist Edward Joseph Daniels; at his release he left the country for the United Kingdom, where he continued his studies at Oxford University. In 1970 he was appointed a lecturer at the University of East Anglia, where he taught logic, history of science and discourse analysis. He left the university in 1980 to hold a post as Director of Research at the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, where he would remain until 1991; in this position he coordinated research on South Africa, as well as monitoring tasks in collaboration with political dissenters and NGOs.

He returned to South Africa in 1991 to work as senior researcher for the African National Congress, and in 1993 he was selected as research coordinator for the Elections Commission of the ANC.