Patric Tariq Mellet is Director Immigration at OR Tambo International Airport and a history and heritage activist specialising in migration, Cape slavery and indigene heritage studies and national liberation studies.
Rooted in District Six, Woodstock and Salt River he joined the SA Congress of Trade Unions when he started working at the age of 15. He has been a lifelong activist since and spent many years in exile.
He is a qualified lithographic printer and a qualified mechanical engineering fitter, and also holds an MSc in Tourism Development and Management. His dissertation was on black entrepreneurship in heritage tourism in the Western Cape and their alternative Narratives rooted in Cape Slavery and indigene experiences.
He has worked in various capacities in government and in NGOs. He is a frequent commentator on history and heritage and in 2010 was awarded Provincial Honours in the Western Cape for his contribution to the promotion of Cultural Heritage.
In 2009, he published ‘Lenses on Cape Identities – Exploring roots in South Africa‘.
