Strini Moodley, 60; Anti-Apartheid Activist Later Edited Newspaper

Strini Moodley, 60, one of the founders of the Black Consciousness Movement during South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle, died Thursday in Durban after a brief illness.

He had been a friend of Steve Biko, the Black Consciousness leader who died in police custody in 1977 after a beating.

Moodley was convicted on terrorism charges in 1976 and served a six-year term at South Africa’s notorious Robben Island prison.

He later became a journalist and was the deputy news editor at the Natal Witness, a daily in Pietermaritzburg.

The governing African National Congress paid tribute to Moodley, noting that the former freedom fighter had died on Freedom Day, the holiday on which the country commemorates the anniversary of the first all-race elections in 1994.