Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, an Indian- originanti-apartheid icon who spent times locked on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela and Ahmed Kathrada, has failed. He was 84, South Africa’s ruling party African National Congress (ANC) has blazoned.
Ebrahim failed after a long illness at his home on Monday, the party said in a statement on Monday.
“The ANC learnt with deep sadness of the end of Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim. We offer our sincere condolences to his woman and children, as well as their extended family, musketeers and comrades,”it said in the statement participated on Twitter.
“Comrade Ebi, as he was affectionately known, was a longstanding member of the ANC, a loyalist who served his country in different capacities with modesty, fidelity and distinction,”the party said.
Ebrahim served time on Robben Island as a political internee alongside Mandela, Kathrada and others. After his father was arrested doubly for defying laws that confined the movement of Indians in South Africa, he joined the emancipation struggle at the age of 13.
He frequently stated how he’d been inspired by the Satyagraha style of Mahatma Gandhi, which he used in his passionate representation of the ANC in global conflict situations in Sri Lanka, Palestine, Rwanda, Kosovo, Bolivia and Nepal.
Ebrahim was arrested in 1963 and locked on Robben Island, where he participated a cell with former chairman Jacob Zuma, whose part in state prisoner and corruption he latterly reprobated.
After his release, Ebrahim went into exile to continue his work with the ANC, but was kidnapped by intolerance- period security police from neighbouring Swaziland, tortured and doomed to a alternate term on Robben Island.
He attained two university degrees while on Robben Island.
After the release of all political captures and the election of Mandela as South Africa’s first popular chairman, Ebrahim served in colorful capacities, including as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Parliamentary Counsellor to Mandela.
Participating their condolences, the mortal rights organisation#Africa4Palestine conceded the part Ebrahim played in the ANC resolution for the immediate and unconditional downgrade of the South African Embassy in Israel to a Liaison Office in 2017.
The Congress of Business and Economics, an offshoot of the quondam Transvaal Indian Congress, fete Ebrahim with a Continuance Achievement Award in 2018.
“ Comrade Ebie, as he was fondly known, recalled at the time how he’d spent half of his adult life in captivity but that he’d do it each over again if he’d to because of his establishment belief in floundering for peace, justice and the end of the scourge of intolerance and racism across the world,” said CBE Executive Director Yusuf Moosajee.
“ In all my relations with Ebie, both locally and abroad, he was always passionate about South Africa and its part in world politics,” said internationally-famed filmmaker Anant Singh in a homage.
Ebrahim leaves behind his woman Shannon, a famed foreign news pen for the Independent Media group, and two children.