his most recent work was focused on the tension between multilingualism and the hegemony of english in the public sphere. he founded and was director of praesa from 1992 until the end of 2011 and a member of the interim governing board of the african academy of languages. in 1981, he was appointed director of the south african committee for higher education (sached). at the time of his death, he had retired from being director of praesa at the university of cape town. in 1994, his trotskyist workers organisation for socialist action contested the elections.