Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has hailed the late former International Relations Deputy Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim as a disciplined ANC member whose example ought to be embodied by other members of the party.
Ebrahim was laid to rest at the Heroes’ Acre at Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg this afternoon.
Ebrahim died yesterday morning at the age of 84, after a long battle with cancer.
The late Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim described as a gentle giant:
He joined the struggle in his teens and served a total of 18 years on Robben Island where he shared a cell with former President Jacob Zuma.
Dlamini-Zuma has urged members of the ANC to follow in his footsteps, “Unfortunately comrade Ebie leaves us at a time when our movement needs his discipline and unifying voice the most.
Comrade Ebie was an embodiment of what an ANC and Communist Party cadre should be. He embodied everything that we needed to be as members of this glorious movement and I think we should emulate Ebie.
He was a beautiful human being, a disciplined cadre of the movement and if we did nothing but just followed in his footsteps, this movement of ours, the ANC would be a very strong movement.”
Meanwhile, Gauteng Premier David Makhura has made an impassioned plea to ANC members to acknowledge and cherish Ebrahim’s lifelong contribution to the struggle for liberation.
Makhura was addressing mourners at the funeral of the late struggle stalwart.
Makhura further added that the vision of a better ANC could be a reality in the memory of the former ANC’s head of International Affairs.
“We stand here to express our gratitude comrade Ebie for the seven decades of unbroken struggle and for the life dedicated to the service of humanity as well as the supreme sacrifices you made for justice not only in our land but also for peace across the world. We know you strode all the pillars of our struggle and worked with the various generations of the liberation struggle with great ease. Throughout the many decades of your involvement in the struggle, you were subjected to many life-threatening and soul-testing moments but you remained loyal to the vision and the ideals of freedom, democracy, non-racialism, non-sexism, social justice and equity.”
