Image Courtesy of Reuters.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared days of national mourning for the struggle stalwart Denis Goldberg who passed away in the early hours of Thursday.

In terms of this declaration, the National Flag is to fly at half-mast at every station in the country from Friday, 1 May 2020 to Monday, 4 May 2020, as a mark of respect and in observance of days of national mourning for Goldberg.

Ramaphosa has expressed his deep condolences at the passing Goldberg, who passed away at the age of 87.

“At this time we cannot say our goodbyes in person and in our numbers. May the silent prayers and gratitude of the people of South Africa carry his brave and patriotic soul to its final rest,” President Ramaphosa said.

Denis Theodore Goldberg was born in Cape Town on April 11, 1933. Both parents were London natives, the children of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. His father, a merchant seaman during World War I, had an adventurous streak that led the family to settle in South Africa, where he ran a small bus company. His mother later spent time in prison for her anti-apartheid activism.

Goldberg studied civil engineering at the University of Cape Town, receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1955. He turned toward activism with encouragement from Esme Bodenstein, a physical therapist who treated him for a college rugby injury and was later held in solitary confinement for her anti-apartheid work.

They married in 1954, and while Goldberg was imprisoned in Pretoria she lived in exile in Britain, raising their children, David and Hilary Goldberg. She died in 2000, and two years later Goldberg married Edelgard Nkobi, a German journalist who died in 2006. His daughter died in 2002.