Yahoo News South African anti-apartheid leader Ahmed Kathrada dies at 87
Anti apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, who died in Johannesburg on Tuesday morning, was sentenced to life imprisonment with Nelson Mandela for fighting injustice imposed by the South Africa's white minority rulers but he will also be remembered for his scathing criticism of the corruption that riddled the ANC-led government.
Mr Kathrada, 87, who was part of a group of eight who was sentenced with Mr Mandela in 1964, was a regular at demonstrations and marches around South Africa, frequently offering his support to students protesting for free tertiary education or workers fighting for higher wages.
It was his criticism of President Jacob Zuma however, that brought him back into the headlines.
In April last year, after South Africa's highest court found that Mr Zuma had violated his oath of office by refusing to abide by an order by the country's corruption ombudsman to return at least some of the public money spent on upgrading his rural home, Kathrada pleaded with the president to resign.
"Now that the court has found that the president failed to uphold‚ defend and respect the Constitution as the supreme law‚ how should I relate to my president?
We are deeply saddened to learn this morning of the passing on of our dear friend & founding trustee, Ahmed #Kathrada. Hamba Kahle Kathy pic.twitter.com/VUPvGugmK1
— NelsonMandela (@NelsonMandela) 28 March 2017
Kathrada was born on 21 August 1929, to Indian immigrant parents in a small town in north west South Africa.
He was arrested on the Liliefleef Farm in the suburb of Rivonia on the outskirts of Johannesburg in July 1963, where he and other “banned” persons had been meeting.
He, Mr Mandela and six others were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour at the subsequent "Rivonia Trial" after being found guilty of acts of sabotage.
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 Cape Town city.
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 for his anti-apartheid activities.
At a memorial in Johannesburg on Tueday morning Mr Kathrada's friends defended his criticism of the ANC-led government.
Mandela's ex-wife Winnie Mandela, 80, who last year supported Mr Kathrada’s call for Mr Zuma to step down, wept through much of the memorial.
"Anyone who cannot see that South Africa is in a crisis is kidding themselves," she said after paying tribute to Mr Kathrada.
Mr Kathrada’s fellow Rivonia trialist, Andrew Mlangeni, 91, said his friend criticised the ANC because he loved it.
"It was not that he hated the organisation,” he said. "He criticised it because he loved it and he was prepared to say where it had gone wrong."
Roshan Dadoo, a close friend of the Kathrada family, said South Africans should follow Mr Kathrada's example and never fear calling out leaders "who are not doing what the likes of Uncle Kathy fought for".
Mr Kathrada was married to former health minister and anti-apartheid activist Barbara Hogan, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail for high treason in 1982.
He died at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Johannesburg after being admitted for surgery linked to blood clotting on the brain.
His funeral will be held at the Westpark cemetery in the city on Wednesday morning.
Mr Zuma described Mr Kathrada as a stalwart of the liberation struggle and ordered the national flag to be flown at half mast at all government buildings.
