Tribute to Ahmed Kathrada

Ahmed Kathrada

The Ahmed Katrada Foundation announced the passing of ANC Veteran Ahmed Katrada (87) this morning, at the Donald Gordon Hospital in Johannesburg. Katrada passed away peacefully after a short period of illness, following a surgery to the brain.

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.

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).

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.

Ahmed Kathrada received some of 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.

Katrada was also very vocal on the runnings of the country by current President Jacob Zuma. Last year (2016) he wrote to the president asking him to resign. These are some of the key things he said on his letter to the president.

“In all these years it never occurred to me that the time would come when I would feel obliged to express my concerns to the Honourable President. It is, therefore, painful for me to write this letter to you. I have been a loyal and disciplined member of the ANC and broader Congress movement since the 1940s. I have always maintained a position of not speaking out publicly about any differences I may harbour against my leaders and my organisation, the ANC. I would only have done so when I thought that some important organisational matters compel me to raise my concerns.

I did not speak out against Nkandla although I thought it wrong to have spent public money for any President's private comfort. I did not speak out though I felt it grossly insulting when my President is called a "thief" or a "rapist"; or when he is accused of being "under the influence of the Guptas". I believed that the NEC would have dealt with this as the collective leadership of the ANC.

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?"

I know that if I were in the President's shoes, I would step down with immediate effect. I believe that is what would help the country to find its way out of a path that it never imagined it would be on, but one that it must move out of soon.”

Those are some of the key points in the letter that Katrada wrote to the President. 

Meanwhile President Zuma has declared a special official funeral for the struggle stalwart.

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