Cape Town - Defence Minister Thandi Modise on Thursday said if the future generations were to learn anything from late Struggle veteran and Robben Islander Ebrahim Ebrahim, it was to work fearlessly towards finding solutions.
“Abie believed when we said young people must take over and run because it is what his generation did.
“That does not free us from responsibilities as oldies to say to you ‘don’t allow us to determine your future’, but also don’t be reckless about your future because we still have the responsibility to tell you where you go wrong,” Modise said.
The minister made the statement during the book launch of Ebrahim’s memoirs “Beyond Fear” that was held at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town.
“We still have a responsibility to say the steps you are taking might not work in the end. With age comes a certain amount of caution,” she said.
Modise said Ebrahim, who joined Umkhonto WeSizwe at age 17 in the 1960s like her in the 1970s, was a man who put his youth on the line.
“This is a man who dreamt about young people. This is the man who kept on the straight and narrow. He became a mentor to some of us,” she said.
“I am proud that none of us here in this room or outside this room can ever say Ebrahim Ebrahim betrayed his generation,” she added.
Shannon Ebrahim, widow of the unsung liberation hero, said Ebrahim was never motivated by money.
“He was in that sense incorruptible,” she said, adding that whenever he was offered shares in companies, he declined them.
“He comes from a simple and humble upbringing,” she said.
Modise said it was the humility of Ebrahim, a hero in his own, that made him never demand a position.
“I am always ashamed when I hear ‘ndazalaba (I struggled) and I am entitled to this’. We did not join for that. We volunteered,” she said.
“Whatever it is we are given to serve, must be about service and honesty. If there is anything I want to emphasise on the life of Abie it is the sacrifices he went through,” Modise said.
She described Ebrahim as someone who was measured and hardly ever lost his temper.
Cape Times