Ramaphosa pays tribute to ‘thinker, strategist’ Essop Pahad
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the passing of struggle hero Essop Pahad deeply saddens him.
The former minister in the Presidency died in his sleep on Wednesday night at the age of 84.
Pahad had been in retirement after serving as minister from 1999 to 2008.
He was an active ANC and the South African Communist Party member during the apartheid era.
He went into exile in 1964 after being banned from all political activity by South Africa's apartheid government.
In a statement released on Thursday, Ramaphosa described Pahad as a strategist who played a vital role in introducing democracy to South Africa.
“We mourn the passing of a veteran of our struggle, 65 years after he took his first revolutionary step of becoming a member of the Transvaal Indian Congress,” the president said.
“Essop Pahad was a thinker and strategist who brought his understanding of the human condition, injustice and inequality at the national and international level to bear on our transition to democracy and in introducing a democratic, non-aligned and activist South Africa to the global community.”
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