Eulogy by ANC President Jacob Zuma at the funeral of Cde Prof Ismail Mohamed

Director of the programme

Mrs Ellen Mohamed and the Mohamed family

Ministers and Deputy Ministers in our midst

Premier of Gauteng, Cde Nomvula Mokonyane

Leadership of the ANC and the Alliance

Comrades, friends, fellow mourners

We have converged here today sadly to pay our last respects and say our fond final goodbyes to one of the most committed servants of our people, comrade Ismail Jacobus Mohamed.

As we mourn the passing of this great South African, we are also comforted by the fact that his life is worth celebrating.

He lived amongst us and we gained a lot from his exemplary life. He dedicated his life to the struggle for freedom and the service of our people.

The life of comrade Ismail Mohamed epitomizes great courage and resilience.

We learn from his life that hard work always pays off.

Having been born and bred in a poor working class family in colonial and apartheid South Africa, Comrade Mohamed defied the odds and pursued his passion in mathematics until he obtained a doctoral degree from London.

His love for education and commitment to it should serve to inspire the younger generations to succeed academically despite and in spite of their unprivileged circumstances.

We must learn from his life that through education, we can lift ourselves and our families out of conditions of unemployment and poverty.

Young people should be inspired by the life of comrade Ismail Mohamed to be educated beyond just an ordinary junior degree.

Comrades and friends

From an early age, Comrade Ismail Mohamed was exposed to extreme poverty and inequalities in his immediate environs.

As a youngster, he would follow his mother to Communist Party meetings where the importance of workers and workers' unity was discussed.

He would listen intensely in order to gain an understanding of why some were rich while others were poor.

This revolutionary quest for knowledge would continue to define him even in the later when he was at university.

He diligently studied Marxist literature including the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, and many others despite the fact that these were not part of the prescribed material for his coursework.

Once again, a positive lesson to be drawn from this is that no one possesses the sacred right to dictate terms when it comes to the production and consumption of knowledge.

We must learn from his life that in the field of intellectual inquiry, no one can decide what we should or should not know. There must be no limits!

His mother's activism as a worker and member of the Garment Workers Union influenced him greatly and he joined the struggle for freedom.

He actively participated in various programmes aimed at raising awareness of the apartheid brutality and mobilizing mass support against the oppressive regime.

He was a young energetic revolutionary whose vision for a free South Africa rested on the end of exploitation of man by another.

He was particularly impressed with the adoption of the Freedom Charter by the Congress of the people in 1955 and by the ANC in the following year.

In essence, it is the Freedom Charter which convinced comrade Ismail that the ANC led Congress Movement was the correct movement to lead the South African revolution to its logical conclusion which is both political and socio-economic freedom.

Comrades and friends,

Today we bid farewell to a man of great capabilities.

During the course of the struggle, comrade Ismail Mohamed continued teaching at various reputable institutions of higher learning here at home, in the African continent and abroad.

It is here where he would meet many angry and impatient students yearning for freedom.

He had the ability to turn their anger and impatience into positive energy for progressive change. He transformed quantity into quality.

Like a true revolutionary, wherever he was, he went beyond the mandate of his employment, mobilising and organising workers and students, despite the consequences.

He understood that the struggle for total emancipation for the black majority and education were not mutually exclusive, that in fact, they reinforced one another.

The important lesson here is that we must use our academic qualifications for the betterment of society as a whole and not just ourselves.

Young people, in particular, must emulate his example of not using his academic qualifications and intellectual prowess as a means to detach himself from the people and define himself outside the broader context of our daily struggles.

Director of the programme

Comrade Ismail Mohamed served his country with distinction.

He worked hard in the underground structures of the ANC and was a founding member of the United Democratic Front. He was elected as one of its Vice-Presidents alongside Cdes Albertina Sisulu and Allan Boesak.

He was a leader. He led the Transvaal Anti-Presidents Council Committee and actively campaigned against the Tri-Cameral Parliament because he refused to believe that any race group was superior to another.

He believed that all of us are equal as South Africans. That is the cornerstone of our non-racialism. He was part of the UDF 16 accused arrested and subjected to a long trial for the cause of freedom.

After the first democratic elections, he went to serve his people as a Member of the democratic Parliament. He helped shape the future of this country. He served as an MP until he retired in 2009.

Comrades and friends

Nature has robbed us of one of the finest revolutionaries our movement has seen thus far. Today we say: Hamba kahle

Comrade Professor Ismail Mohamed,

A patient teacher,

An outstanding revolutionary,

A fervent and organic intellectual,

A husband and father,

A humble servant of our people.

Lala ngoxolo!