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Anti-apartheid activist Aziz Pahad passes away
He was 82 years old.
Former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Africa Aziz Pahad at the launch of The Rev Frank Chikane’s book, “Eight Days in September” in Johannesburg, South Africa on March 14, 2012. (Photo by Gallo Images / Sunday World / Tsheko Kabasia)
Anti-apartheid activist Aziz Pahad has passed on. According to reports, Pahad died on Wednesday at his Saxonwold home surrounded by his family. He was 82 years old.
Pahad left South Africa after the Rivonia trial and returned to the country from exile in 1990. He became the deputy head of the ANC department of international affairs in 1991.
He was deputy minister of foreign affairs from 1994 until 2008. He also served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 until 2008.
He was also a member of the national executive committee of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1985 to 2007.
His death comes just two months after the death of his brother and former minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad.
According to a statement from the family, Essop “died peacefully in his sleep” in July at the age of 84.
After South Africa’s general elections in 1994, Essop served as the Parliamentary Counsellor to then deputy president Thabo Mbeki. In the 1999 general election, Essop was appointed as the minister in the Presidency.
Essop had been in retirement after serving as minister from 1999 to 2008.
READ MORE: Former minister in the presidency Essop Pahad dies at 84
Additional reporting by Faizel Patel
