Pretoria - Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim’s 6-year-old son tried to convince him that knights don’t exist anymore, and that the king of Spain couldn’t possibly make him a knight commander. “I will only believe it if you have a sword,” his son Kadin said.
Ebrahim’s comrades joke they will now have to refer to him as “Don” - the Spanish equivalent of “Sir”, now that the king of Spain Felipe VI has bestowed one of that nation’s highest honours - the Order of Civil Merit on him.
“At the next ANC national executive committee meeting it will be no longer be Comrade, only Don Ebie,” Struggle veteran Mosie Moolla quipped.
The order was presented to Ebrahim by the Spanish ambassador Juan Sell at an intimate ceremony in Pretoria on Saturday night.
Ebrahim received Spain’s knighthood at the rank of knight commander, and joins a number of other international personalities that Spain believes have made an extraordinary contribution to society.
Other recipients of the Order of Civil Merit include Ritu Beri, the renowned Delhi fashion designer who designed wardrobes for US President Bill Clinton and Prince Charles, and Fazle Hassan Abed who founded Bangladesh’s largest development organisation.
When Ebrahim lay on his threadbare blanket alongside 80 other inmates in an overcrowded cell in Robben Island’s C section in July 1964, he never imagined that half a century later the king of Spain would recognise his role in the fight against apartheid.
“This is an unexpected honour at this stage in my life, and I am humbled by the recognition given to me. I always operated as part of a collective and saw myself as a foot soldier of the ANC. Being knighted for my role in the Struggle has caught me by surprise,” Ebrahim said.
Ebrahim was one of the few ANC cadres to be sentenced twice to Robben Island, starting his first sentence in 1964 when prison authorities impressed upon their captives that the Island was no five-star hotel.
“As political prisoners we slept on the floor, were not issued toilet paper, showered throughout the winter in cold brackish water, and were forced to chip stones all day in the quarry along the sea. For those of us who failed to chip the daily quota of stones, food was denied for three meals.
“How we survived the Cape Town winters is something that still amazes me,” Ebrahim said.
Ebrahim was part of the leadership of political prisoners on the island, and led political classes on the dialectics of struggle.
As a youngster he had been inspired by the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and the Algerian struggle, and a few years later launched MK operations in Natal.
His sabotage of electricity grids and railway lines led to his arrest and capture in 1963, culminating in what became known as the mini-Rivonia trial, where he was accused number one alongside 18 other comrades.
Ebrahim became a household name in the late 1980s when he was kidnapped from Swaziland by apartheid intelligence operatives. He was charged with treason and sentenced to another 20 years on Robben Island. “The judge said I never learnt my lesson the first time,” Ebrahim said.
Ebrahim went on to become South Africa’s Deputy Minister of International Relations in 2009, and a broker of peace in conflict situations around the world. He is currently the president’s Parliamentary Counsellor.
“We are delighted that one line in your distinguished CV will now be associated with Spain’s recognition and appreciation,” ambassador Sell told Ebrahim as he bestowed the knighthood on him.
Pretoria News