South African anti-apartheid veteran Ebrahim dies aged 84

Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, a veteran of the fight against apartheid who spent years imprisoned on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela, died on Monday aged 84, South Africa’s ruling party announced.

Ebrahim passed away at his Johannesburg home after a long illness, the African National Congress (ANC) said in a statement.

He “was a longstanding member of the ANC, a patriot who served his country in different capacities with humility, dedication and distinction,” the party said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa also paid tribute to the “gentle revolutionary”.

“I am saddened by the passing of a distinguished comrade and counsellor who devoted his life to the liberation of our country and the resolution of conflicts around the world,” he said in a statement.

A largely unsung figure in the chronicles of apartheid, Ebrahim joined the struggle against white-minority rule in his early teens, becoming an ANC youth activist in 1952.

His life followed the arc of the liberation movement — beginning with non-violent protests, becoming a guerrilla fighter, getting imprisoned on Robben Island twice, and eventually joining the democratic government.

Known as “Ebie”, he was born in Durban on July 1, 1937. As a child, he saw his father get arrested twice for breaking laws that prevented Indians from travelling freely within South Africa.

By the time he was 13, he was already taking part in liberation politics.

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s passive resistance campaigns in India, Ebrahim attended speeches by Albert Luthuli, the ANC leader who in 1960 became the first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

He tried joining protest campaigns, but the liberation parties would not let him because of his young age.

As an Indian, Ebrahim initially was not allowed to join the ANC. He instead joined the Natal Indian Congress and became a delegate to the landmark Congress of the People in 1955.

That meeting gathered activists of all races, pulling together a massive public consultation on how South Africans wanted to be governed. The result was the Freedom Charter, now seen as a foundational document underpinning South African democracy.

As with many others in the movement, the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 changed Ebrahim’s mind about peaceful resistance. The sight of police shooting 69 protesters dead pushed him to join the ANC’s armed wing.

He was arrested in 1963 and imprisoned on Robben Island, where he studied alongside Mandela and shared a cell with Jacob Zuma, who would later become president.

“In prison we were assaulted, starved, under-clothed and exposed to bitter cold weather,” he wrote later in a memoir.

“We were sworn at and humiliated in the most degrading manner. We broke stones and ate a measly meal.

“I was very close to him and we slept next to each other,” he said, however adding that in prison Zuma was “highly disciplined”.