Family spokesperson Dr Fazel Randera said the former member of Parliament and anti-apartheid activist Aziz Pahad died on Wednesday evening.
He was described as a nationalist and freedom fighter who devoted his life to the ruling ANC and serving South Africans. He was 82 years old.
“He is also mourned by countless friends, comrades and colleagues in South Africa and across the world,” said Randera, adding that funeral arrangements had commenced.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula confirmed the death of the stalwart and shared the party’s condolences with Pahad’s family.
Pahad was the deputy head of the ANC’s Department of International Affairs in 1991.
He was a member of the National Peace Executive Committee in 1991 and 1992, served as a member of the Transitional Executive Council’s sub-committee on foreign affairs in 1994, and the ANC’s national executive committee between 1985 and 2007.
Between 1994 and 2008, he served as an MP and deputy minister of foreign affairs. He occupied these positions after returning from exile in 1990.
After the Rivonia Trial, Pahad left South Africa for the United Kingdom in 1964. He lived between London, Angola and Zambia while maintaining strong ties with the ANC as an anti-apartheid activist.
Apart from establishing an anti-apartheid movement in Europe in 1966, he was a member of the ruling party’s Revolutionary Council and Political Military Committee and a member of the ANC’s team that negotiated with the apartheid government after the ANC was unbanned. Pahad is survived by his wife Angina.
