South Africa’s (SA) President Cyril Ramaphosa has told mourners at the funeral service of civil rights leader in the United States (US), Reverend Jesse Jackson, in Chicago, that South Africans will never forget the role Jackson played on the global stage.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa has paid tribute to the late civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson, at a private funeral service in Chicago Illinois, in the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the long and painful years of our struggle, when the voices of our people were often silenced, Jesse Jackson chose to belong to us by raising his voice against apartheid on our behalf. When our cause was ignored, and many would look away he stood firm in solidarity with us,\u201d says Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looked at a people he had never met and said: their pain is my pain. Their chains are my chains. Their struggle for freedom is my struggle. And for this, the people of SA\u00a0remember him not as a distant friend, but as a brother in the struggle for justice and freedom,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
Jackson passed away following an illness, and his funeral service follows several memorial services.<\/p>\n
While given just two minutes to speak, Ramaphosa said that the story of Jackson and SA can never be told in a short time. He says Jackson had an impact from the streets of Chicago to the streets of Soweto.<\/p>\n
He described Jackson as a proud African, likening him to the likes of Pixley ka Isaka Seme.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe epitomised the image that was depicted by one of the key founders of the African National Congress, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, who delivered a most famous speech in 1906 when he was a student at Columbia University,\u201d says Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said: \u2018I am an African, and I set my pride in my race over against a hostile public opinion. The brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already I seem to see her chains dissolved.\u2019 That speech captured the spirit of African pride and hope. This is what Jesse Jackson meant to South Africa and Africa. Hence we stand here today and say he also belongs to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says at the height of aparthied in SA, Jackson was one of the people that stood with the people of SA.<\/p>\n
\u201cJesse Jackson stood with the people of South Africa during our darkest hour. He told the world that the struggle for dignity in the US of America was inseparable from the fight against apartheid and injustice in SA,\u201d says Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–SABC–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28041,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-28040","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Ramaphosa has paid tribute to the late civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson.","published_date":"","news_description":"Ramaphosa has paid tribute to the late civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28042,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28040\/revisions\/28042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}