Acting President Paul Mashatile has remembered struggle stalwart and former Minister in the Presidency, Dr Essop Goolam Pahad, for traversing the world to ensure the struggle for liberation delivered victory to the ordinary masses.
“He represented the South African Communist Party (SACP) on the editorial Council for the World Marxist Review from 1975 – 1985. He was thus one of the leading cadres of our movement and did much to advance the international pillar of our struggle,” the Deputy President said on Thursday.
Paying his last respects to Dr Pahad during his funeral in Johannesburg, Mashatile described him as a robust intellectual who always sought the best possible decisions in humanity’s interest.
The former Minister was laid to rest at the Westpark Cemetery in a ceremony in which ceremonial honours were provided by the South African Police Service (SAPS). Pahad passed away at the age of 84.
In his capacity as Acting President, Mashatile declared a Special Official Funeral Category 2 as a mark of honour for the late struggle stalwart. The Deputy President delivered the eulogy in the capacity of Acting President this as President Cyril Ramaphosa undertook a State Visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Dr Pahad has left a void. Our movement and society is challenged to construct an environment in which, though they do not become clones, young people become as dependable as Dr Essop’s generation. In this way, the democratisation project does not lose its way. We who remain are obliged to spare no effort to ensure that we stay the course,” the Deputy President said.
He said he first met the struggle stalwart through the archives of the liberation movement, in which he and his contemporaries feature in photographs on the margins of the 1956 Treason Trial armed with placards and posters outside the court with the unequivocal message: "Hands off our leaders!"
“An active member of the Congress Youth Movement, he was one of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress volunteers who produced and distributed ANC pamphlets and posters in the three years after the 1960 banning of the movement. For his activities against the apartheid regime, he was banned for five years and left the country for exile in December 1964.
“His maturity into full membership and leadership of the ANC and the SACP spoke to the importance of political organisation as a school and teacher in society. He also trained in uMkhonto we Sizwe in Angola.
“He was a robust intellectual who always sought the best possible decisions in the organisation’s, the national and ultimately humanity’s interest. This was an all-around public intellectual whose political consciousness was shaped under the aegis of the Congress Movement,” the Deputy President said.
In 1994, Dr Pahad became one of the cadres the ANC deployed into the first democratic parliament, which gave citizens hope about the future of democratic South Africa.
“When he left [the] public service, Comrade Essop established The Thinker, a quarterly journal for discussion, which added to the diversity of opinion in our media and public discourse spaces. This is yet another of his numerous notable and unerasable contributions to the betterment of our society,” Mashatile said. – SAnews.gov.za
