Mr. McKaiser studied at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, starting in 1997, earning a bachelor’s degree in law and philosophy, then a master’s in philosophy, before winning a Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford in 2003. The scholarships were founded by the British arch-colonialist Cecil John Rhodes at his death in 1902.
Mr. McKaiser later backed the campaign to remove statues of Rhodes at the universities of Cape Town and Oxford, and called for a broader effort to change the institutional mind-set of such places of learning to remove all vestiges of colonialism.
“The point is simple, yet challenging: toppling the statues of racists is necessary but not sufficient to achieve an anti-racist society,” he wrote in The Guardian in 2020.
Mr. McKaiser was also known as a competitive debater.
He began his career as a radio broadcaster with a late-night talk show on Radio 702, a commercial station based in Johannesburg, and worked for other stations, including SABC3, a public television channel, and PowerFM, a talk radio station. In 2021, he launched a podcast called “In the Ring.”
He published several books on politics and race, including “A Bantu in My Bathroom,” “Could I vote DA: A Voter’s Dilemma” (DA refers to the opposition Democratic Alliance), and “Run, Racist Run.”
Reflecting his reputation as a mentor to young South Africans, several accounts of his life highlighted one of his final social media posts, inspired by Musa Motha, a 27-year-old South African amputee who had just reached the finals of a British talent show.
“Stop what you’re doing. Right now,” Mr. McKaiser wrote on Twitter shortly before his death. “You need to watch this. Wow. I am speechless and ran out of tears.”
“This,” he added, “is the inspiration you needed for this week.”
