Minister of Tourism Lindiwe Sisulu says the late Ebrahim Ebrahim is among the best that the African National Congress (ANC) has produced.
The former deputy minister of International Relations passed away on Monday after battling cancer.
Sisulu directed the programme proceedings at his Special Provincial Official funeral on Tuesday in Johannesburg.
She was in exile with Ebrahim in Swaziland in the 1980s where he headed the ANC’s political-military committee – before being kidnapped by the South African security forces and detained in South Africa.
Sisulu says even while Ebrahim’s fate hung in the balance, he was still committed to the cause.
“He was always doing something. He was always on a mission and so I became his kind of partner making sure that his back was covered because I belonged to the security part of our work in exile. So I was constantly looking out to make sure that he is secure and on that one occasion when I called him to indicate that I didn’t think the house that he lived in was secure, he kind of in his normal way said don’t worry, I’ll look after myself and just that night they picked him up, kidnapped him and brought him to South Africa,” explains Sisulu.
The late Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim described as a gentle giant:
His widow Shannon Ebrahim has described him as a steadfast ANC supporter and member who still believed in the values of the organisation.
Shannon says Ebrahim was disappointed in the trajectory of the ANC but remained hopeful that it could return to its core principles.
