Cape Town -
Struggle veteran and maths professor Sedick Isaacs, who had taught fellow Robben Island inmates like President Jacob Zuma and Justice Dikgang Moseneke, died on Thursday. He was 73.
“He passed away in hospital [of] cancer,” Isaacs’s brother-in-law, Riedewaan Davids, said.
Isaacs was 23 when he began a 13-year sentence for sabotage, sharing time with Nelson Mandela, after the apartheid police captured him in 1964.
“He had a passion to teach and had touched so many lives. Sedick started the library on Robben Island,” said Davids.
Isaacs was freed in 1977, but banned for seven years.
Davids said Isaacs was born in Bo-Kaap, grew up in the area and was close friends with the late historian Achmat Davids. He taught maths and science at Trafalgar High School at the time he was captured. Davids said Isaacs studied at UCT and Unisa and was a fellow of the Royal Statistical College in London.
While Isaacs was on the island, he completed a Bachelor’s degree in maths, a Master’s in information science and a doctorate in computer science.
“While on the island he made a key that could fit all the cell doors. He had to make another one because after the prison was shut down, the last person to leave apparently lost the key. Sedick kept a copy of the key and from it he made a duplicate. His key is still here. Sedick was dedicated, always seeking truth and justice.”
After his release Isaacs was not involved in party politics, but returned to teaching and was involved in business.
Zuma’s spokesman, Mac Maharaj, was asked for comment, but did not respond by deadline.
ANC provincial chairman Marius Fransman saluted Isaacs and paid tribute to him for the contribution he made to the struggle. Isaacs was an example of the finest activists who fought for freedom, he said.
“We are saddened to hear that a hero of the struggle has passed on. Sedick left his own legacy on the island as a sports administrator and a scientist. Our deepest condolences go to the family and we thank them for… a man who dedicated his life to the struggle.”
One of Isaacs’s Trafalgar High School pupils, Mogamat Salie of Wynberg, said he had taught maths and science not only during school hours, but also in his free time at home.
“He was the most humble and kind person. He also taught after hours for free. I last saw him when I went to get my copy of his book Surviving in the Apartheid Prison autographed recently. He was sickly. I’ll remember him as a good teacher and a kind man,” Salie said.
The book details Isaacs’s experiences on the island, including how inmates played soccer with a ball fashioned from rags.
Isaacs will be buried according to Muslim rites this afternoon. He is survived by his wife, Mareldia, two daughters, Nadia and Wanita, and two grandchildren.
Cape Times