Klaaste was born in Kimberley as one of eight children. When he was three, his family moved to Sophiatown in Johannesburg, where his father became a clerk at a gold mine. In 1955, when Sophiatown was dismantled, the family moved to Meadowlands in Soweto.
After graduating he became became a journalist, first with Drum magazine and subsequently with The World (which was banned by the South African government in 1977) and The Post (which became the Sowetan in 1981). In 1977 he was arrested along with The World editor at the time, Percy Qoboza, and spent nine months in jail.
Prior to his death, he was an executive with the black empowerment company New Africa Investment Ltd. as well as the chairperson of the Johannesburg Tourism Company.
He was voted 58th in the Top 100 Great South Africans (see List of South Africans) in 2004.
When, under Aggreys editorship, the Sowetan positioned itself as the flagship for nation building as a political outlook, the move was guaranteed to earn him much attention, and he got it.
Aggreys response to the trio was humorous, a little removed from the truth, and rather arrogant.
Aggrey probably brought the criticism he got on himself, for he was wont to characterise himself as a fl liberal.