Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

South African anti-apartheid icon Kathrada dies at 87

Published 03/28/2017, 03:41 AM
Updated 03/28/2017, 03:41 AM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ahmed Kathrada, close friend of former South African President Nelson Mandela, speaks during Mandela's funeral ceremony in Qunu

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ahmed Kathrada, close friend of former South African President Nelson Mandela, speaks during Mandela's funeral ceremony in Qunu

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Veteran South African anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, who was sentenced to life imprisonment alongside Nelson Mandela and went on to be an open critic of President Jacob Zuma, died on Tuesday aged 87.

Affectionately known as "Uncle Kathy", the liberation struggle stalwart who spent 26-years in prison under the apartheid government, was hospitalized in Johannesburg this month after surgery to relieve blood clotting on the brain.

Kathrada's foundation said his condition had deteriorated rapidly with pneumonia affecting both lungs. It announced his death at 6 a.m. local time (0400 GMT).

President Jacob Zuma said Kathrada would be honored at an official state funeral and flags at government offices would fly at half-mast until then.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Kathrada helped inspire the world's confidence in South Africa's long battle against white-minority rule.

"May Ahmed rest in peace and rise in glory," Tutu said in a statement. "May he rejoice in many heavenly cups of hot chocolate with his old friends and comrades."

Kathrada, who dedicated his life to fighting the racial injustice of white-minority rule, was also one of the most senior African National Congress (ANC) leaders to criticize Zuma as allegations of government corruption mounted.

Last year, Kathrada wrote an open letter calling on Zuma to resign after a series of scandals, from using taxpayers money to upgrade his rural home to destabilizing financial markets by flip-flopping on cabinet appointments.

"I am not a political analyst, but I am now driven to ask: Dear Comrade President, don’t you think your continued stay as president will only serve to deepen the crisis of confidence in the government of the country?" Kathrada said then.

Born to immigrant Indian parents in the small town of Schweizer-Reneke in the North West province just before the Great Depression in 1929, Kathrada became involved in politics at the age of 12 when he distributed leaflets for the Young Communist League of South Africa.

Following decades of activism, Kathrada was sentenced to life imprisonment and hard labor in 1964, together with seven other ANC luminaries such as Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki, after a guilty verdict during the Rivonia treason trail.

Jailed at the age of 34, Kathrada spent the next 18 years at the maximum security section on apartheid's most notorious prison, Robben Island, a few miles offshore from Cape Town.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ahmed Kathrada, close friend of former South African President Nelson Mandela, speaks during Mandela's funeral ceremony in Qunu

He was moved to Pollsmoor prison in 1982 and was released from jail on 15 October 1989 at the age of 60, having spent just over 26 years in jail.

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.