Barely a week has passed since the ANC was left utterly shocked by the passing of a highly-promising district council mayor of the Sarah Baartman municipality, Mzimkhulu Njadayi. Considering his relatively young age, his death left an indelible mark on the hearts of fellow comrades.
While still very much in the process of coming to terms with his death, the party has suffered a striking blow as another high-profile leader has sadly passed away this morning.
The ANC took to the micro-blogging site, Twitter this morning to confirm the passing away of former deputy minister of Internal Relations and Cooperation, Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim. The party indicated that he died aged 84 surrounded by family at his Johannesburg home.
Ebrahim was reportedly suffering from a long-term illness which supposedly took despite the extraordinary level of medical care he was receiving.
PHOTO: News24
In typical ANC fashion, the part waxed lyrical about the significant contribution he made during his time in the struggle against Apartheid colonialism as well as a myriad of roles he held during working in government.
Ebrahim was of Indian descent and he joined the liberation movement in the early 1950s as part of the cohort that would ultimately draw the imperative Freedom Charter document at the Congress of the People. He spent 15 years on Robben Island after he was charged with sabotage in 1964. This was around about the same time as former President Nelson Mandela.
Documents Coutesy of ANC’s twitter account
Ebrahim was a political giant among giants, at the Nascent of the democratic dispensation in 1994, he was deployed by the ANC to the national assembly, wherein he served with absolute distinction in all the roles that he was assigned responsibilities.
When former President Jacob Zuma took office in 2009, he rewarded Ebrahim with a cabinet post as deputy minister of IR, where he served until his retirement in 2017.
PHOTO: Timeslive
Besides working in government, Ebrahim was also a National Executive Member of the ANC for 26 years after he was initially elected at the eThekwini conference in 1991.
Although death is the ultimate terminus ad quem, the ANC has really been punished this year, just by looking at the number of high profile leaders who have passed away.
PHOTO: News24
The party is at a cross-roads with itself and is seemingly plunged in a self-inflicted quagmire and desperately in need of experienced leadership. It is therefore one’s opinion that Ebrahim’s death has definitely robbed the party of extraordinary brains that still added value to the movement amid its most testing of periods.
The OnlineNewzBible team sends its most sincere condolences to Ebrahim’s family, May His Soul Repose Peacefully.
