Kathrada passes on

The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation is deeply saddened to announce the passing on of ANC veteran Ahmed Kathrada (87) this morning, at the Donald Gordon Hospital in Johannesburg.

Kathrada passed away peacefully after a short period of illness, following surgery to the brain.

Neeshan Balton, Executive Director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, confirmed that the anti-apartheid struggle veteran “breathed his last today”.

“This is great loss to the ANC, the broader liberation movement and South Africa as a whole. Internationally, he was staunch in his support for the Palestinian struggle. ‘Kathy’ was an inspiration to millions in different parts of the world,” said Balton. 

Kathrada Foundation Chairperson, Derek Hanekom, was overcome with emotion saying he has lost a “revolutionary mentor and dear friend”.

“Comrade Kathy was a gentle, humane and humble soul. He was a determined revolutionary who gave his entire life to the liberation struggle in our country,” he added.

Kathrada will be buried according to Muslim religious rights, details of which will be made publicly available in due course.

Fellow Robben Island prisoner, Laloo ‘Isu’ Chiba (86) said that his comrade’s death has left a deep vacuum in his life.

“I have worked with Kathy for over sixty years. He has been my strength in prison, my guide in political life and my pillar of strength in the most difficult moments of my life. Now he is gone,” said a visibly shaken Chiba.

Kathrada has had an illustrious political career having served between 1994 and 1999 as the parliamentary counsellor to late President Nelson Mandela.

He was born on 21 August 1929 in rural Schweizer-Reneke and was introduced to politics as a young boy when he joined a non-racial youth club run by the Young Communist League.

At the tender age of 17, Kathrada participated in the 1946 Passive Resistance Campaign led by the South African Indian Congress. He was part of 2000 resisters who were arrested and imprisoned for defying a law that discriminated against Indian South Africans.

Kathrada, under the tutelage of Transvaal Indian Congress leader, Dr Yusuf Dadoo, later befriended emerging ANC leaders such as Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo.

In 1951, Kathrada visited East Berlin to attend the youth festival jointly organised by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), and the International Union of Students (IUS). While there he visited Poland, where the Auschwitz concentration camp left an indelible impression on him.

Back home in 1952, Kathrada was in a group of 20, including Mandela and Sisulu, who were sentenced to nine months in prison with hard labour - suspended for two years - for organising the Defiance Campaign against six unjust, apartheid laws. The campaign was jointly organised by the ANC and SA Indian Congress.

In 1954, Kathrada was placed under restrictions by apartheid security police and was arrested several times for breaking his banning orders. In 1956, he was among the 156 Congress activists and leaders charged for High Treason. The trial continued for four years after which all the accused were acquitted. Kathrada, Mandela and Sisulu were among the last 30 to be acquitted.

While they were on trial in 1960, the ANC and PAC were banned. In 1962, Kathrada was placed under “house arrest”. The following year Kathrada broke his banning orders and went underground to continue his political and military work in the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK).

In July 1963, the police swooped on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, a Johannesburg suburb where Kathrada and other banned persons had been meeting secretly. This led to the famous Rivonia Trial in which eight accused were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour on Robben Island. His fellow prisoners included ANC leaders such as Mandela, Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni.

Kathrada spent 26 years and 3 months in prison, 18 of which were on Robben Island. In 1982, Mandela, Sisulu, Kathrada, Mhlaba and Mlangeni were transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town.

While in prison he obtained four university degrees, namely, BA (in History and Criminology), B Bibliography (in African Politics and Library Science), BA Honours (History) and BA Honours (African Politics).

Soon after his release on 15 October 1989, the ANC was unbanned. At its first legal conference in South Africa, Kathrada was elected onto its National Executive Committee. Until 1994, he headed the ANC’s Public Relations Department. At its Conference in 1997, Kathrada declined nomination to the National Executive Committee.

In 1992, Kathrada undertook the Islamic Haj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

In 1994, Kathrada was elected to Parliament and served as President Mandela's Parliamentary Counsellor. He was chairperson of the Robben Island Museum Council from 1997 until his term expired in 2006.

In 2008, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation was launched with the aim of deepening non-racialism. Kathrada was an active participant in the Foundation’s work, which includes promoting Constitutional ideals and human rights, youth leadership and development, challenging racism and preserving and promoting liberation history.

Kathrada’s activism spanned a total of 75 years.

Ahmed Kathrada received the following awards:

Honorary Degree, Central London Polytechnic, February 1986

Honorary Degree, Canada University of Guelph, February, 1986

“Isithwalandwe”, the highest award bestowed by the ANC, 1992

Fellow of the Mayibuye Centre, University of the Western Cape, 1991

The ANC's Merit Award for Long Service

Presidential Order for Meritorious Service Class 1: Gold, 1999

Honorary Doctorate: University of Massachusetts, May 2000

Honorary Doctorate: University of Durban-Westville

2002 Mahatma Gandhi Award by the Congress of Business and Economics, October 2003

Doctorate of Humane Letters: University of Missouri, January 2004

Voted 46th in the Top 100 Great South Africans, 2004

Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award by President of India, January 2005

Doctor of Humanities: Michigan State University, December 2005

Recognition award of his sacrifices and outstanding contribution to democracy, constitutionalism and human rights in South Africa, Constitution Hill Trust, October 2009

Kentucky State Award, April 2011

Honorary Degree from Kentucky University, April 2011

Honorary Doctorate: University of Kentucky, May 2011

Freeman of the City of Johannesburg, August 2012

Honorary Doctorate: University of the Witwatersrand, 2012

Centenary Distinguished Leadership award from ANC Rivonia “Heroes” branch, March 2012

Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oliver Transformation and Empowerment Awards, April 2014

Founders Award by the Asian Awards, April 2014

Medal of the Prefecture of Reunion Island and honorary citizenship from the city of Le Port, August 2014

 Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur from the French Government, Bastille Day 2015

City of Cape Town’s Freeman of the City, August 2015

Doctor of Law, University of Cape Town, June 2015

Freedom of Sedibeng Region, January 2016

Freedom of the City of London, January 2016

Honorary Doctorate: Durban University of Technology, April 2016

Desmond Tutu Social Justice Award from South Africa Partners (Boston USA), May 2016

Ad Portas’ most prestigious award honouring South African heroes from Michealhouse, October 2016

South African Men of Year Awards: Honoured Legend, 2016

Books by and about Kathrada include:

1999 - Letters from Robben Island

2004 - Memoirs

2005 - A Free Mind: Ahmed Kathrada's Notebook from Robben Island

2008 – A Simple Freedom

2009 – Dear Ahmedbhai, Dear Zuleikhabehn

2015: Triumph of the Human Spirit - Ahmed Kathrada and Robben Island 

2017: Conversations with a Gentle Soul 

Kathrada is survived by his wife, Barbara Hogan, also an ANC stalwart and veteran.

Statement issued by Communications Officer Zaakirah Vadi, Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, 28 March 2017