South Africa: Apartheid fighter Kathrada passes away

Ahmed Kathrada, the long-time friend of Nelson Mandela who shared his political ideals and his struggle against apartheid, died on Tuesday 28 March 2017 at a medical centre in Johannesburg. He was 87 and was buried the next day in what the BBC called a simple funeral according to Islamic rites. A few South African leaders including former president Kgalema Motlanthe and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan attended the farewell ceremony.

Kathrada was voted 46th in the Top 100 Great South Africans in 2004. He was also awarded the Pravasin Bharatiya Samman by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in 2005.

Ahmed Kathrada was tried and sentenced in June 1964 to life imprisonment along with Nelson Mandela and other ANC leaders. For the following 18 years, he was confined to the Robben Island maximum security prison off Cape Town. In October 1982, he was moved to Pollsmoor Mzimum security prison near Cape Town. While in jail on Robben Island and in Pollsmoor, Kathrada completed his Bachelor’s degree in History and Criminology as well as three other degrees. He was released from Johannesburg prison on October 15, 1989.

After the unbanning of the ANC in February 1990, Kathrada served on the interim leadership committees of both the ANC and the South African Communist Party. In July 1991, he was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee. During the same year, he was appointed as head of the ANC public relations.

In the first all-inclusive democratic South African elections in 1994, Kathrada was elected as a member of parliament for the ANC. In September 1994, he was appointed as the political advisor to President Mandela in the newly created post of Parliamentary Counsellor. He was married to Barbara Hogan, a recent Minister of Public Enterprises.

Ahmed Kathrada frequently visited Mauritius and during the official visit of Nelson Mandela in Mauritius in 1998, he was among the delegation and took the opportunity to visit Reunion Island. Alain Laridon, Mauritian ambassador to Mozambique from 2005 to 2012, met Ahmed Kathrada very often and discussed with him of the economic and social struggles of the continent.

Mr Laridon had this to say: “Kathrada was a humble and modest freedom fighter endowed with a great intelligence. He frequently visited Mauritius where many of his relatives are living. His death is a great loss to the free world, as he was a freedom fighter and was well known in his country, South Africa as the Bridge between the Continent and India. With his demise the third world has lost a staunch fighter against apartheid. His name together with Nelson Mandela will for ever remain a symbol of fight for freedom both on the continent as well as in the Third World still under the yoke of colonialism.”