Cape Town – The ANC in the Western Cape has been saddened to announce the sudden death of one of its ’’youngest and brightest new MPs’’, advocate Hishaam Mohamed.
A University of the Western Cape graduate, who also holds a qualification from Harvard University, Mohamed passed away this afternoon, the ANC said in a statement.
According to crime activist Yusuf Abramjee, it’s believed he died of a heart attack.
He went to Parliament after the 2019 general election as the MP for Grassy Park. Mohamed, who grew up in Lotus River, was also the ANC whip for the justice and correctional services portfolio committee.
“The sudden death of this kind, gentle, and committed servant of the people came as a great shock.
“We are devastated because Comrade Hishaam touched us all and went out of his way to help wherever he could,” the ANC said.
A protégé of the late minister of justice Dullah Omar and a former United Democratic Front activist, Mohamed had been the provincial head of the Department of Justice.
He served the department for 27 years and pioneered the establishment of the first Family Court, Mobile Courts, Tax Court and the development of Community Safety Forums.
He also served on the South African Board for Sheriffs, the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster Committee, the National Child Maintenance Task Team, and the National Task Team on the Transformation of the Judicial System. In 2009, he launched a free legal advice centre for the southern suburbs community.
“I have worked under five different ministers. One of my greatest successes was the Isondlo initiative, Pay Your Maintenance,” Mohamed told Weekend Argus last year.
Mohamed, who spent his first years as a prosecutor at the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court, graduated with an LLB degree from UWC in 1992.
He began his work in the legal fraternity when he was 25 as a temporary clerk at the Athlone Magistrate’s Court on February 1, 1990.
Ten days later, on February 11, the ANC was unbanned and Mohamed said he sprayed his Datsun car in the ANC’s colours.
The cricket-mad Mohamed is survived by his wife Ragmat and their three children – Imran, 25, who was named after the former Pakistan World Cup-winning cricket captain Imran Khan, daughter Haneem, 18, and son Uzair, 16.
IOL