Ahmed Kathrada

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Ahmed Kathrada, 2006

Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada (born August 21, 1929 in Schweizer-Reneke , Transvaal ; † March 28, 2017 in Johannesburg ; nickname Kathy ) was a South African politician and opponent of apartheid . He was one of the leading members of the African National Congress (ANC) and was a companion of Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu .

Life

Youth and first political activities

Kathrada was born in the western Transvaal in what is now the Northwest Province . His parents were Indian immigrants . Kathrada experienced the start of school in an educational institution in his birthplace for black students. He received his further education at a boarding school in Johannesburg, as there were no secondary schools for students of Indian origin in his home region due to racial segregation. In Johannesburg he was influenced by leaders of the Transvaal Indian Congress such as Yusuf Dadoo . At the age of twelve he attended events of the Young Communist League of South Africa, the youth organization of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA, later SACP). Two years later he joined the party and came into closer contact with Ruth First while working there . In the fight against the Pegging Act , with which Indian merchants were disadvantaged, he distributed leaflets in 1941, among other things. In the early stages of World War II, he was involved in the anti-war campaign of the Non-European United Front and for the Communist Party of South Africa. At the age of 17, the year he graduated from Johannesburg Indian High School , he left school early because of political commitment and got a job with the Transvaal Passive Resistance Council (about: Transvaal Council for Passive Resistance), which opposes the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act (such as the Law on Land Ownership by Asians and Political Representation of Indians). Kathrada did not complete his Matric until 1949. This law, which tightened the Pegging Act , stipulated, among other things, in which areas of South Africa Indians were allowed to live and trade. He was imprisoned for a month and shortly thereafter became Secretary General of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress. In the 1940s he met leading members of the ANC Youth League such as Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu.

Kathrada began studying at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, but later dropped out to pursue his political activities. In 1951 he was a delegate of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress at the World Youth Festival in East Berlin . He then stayed in Budapest for nine months to work at the headquarters of the World Federation of Democratic Youth . He also visited the Auschwitz concentration camp .

In the 1950s, the South African Indian Congress and the ANC converged. Kathrada took part in the Defiance Campaign in 1952 and was sentenced to probation along with Mandela, Sisulu, and others. He was banned . He broke the spell several times and was sentenced to prison terms for it. From 1956 he was one of the 156 defendants in the Treason Trial . Like all the defendants, he was acquitted in 1961 of charges of treason . After the ANC was banned in 1960, it continued its activities. In 1962 he was placed under house arrest; In early 1963 he went underground.

Participation in armed resistance, imprisonment and post-apartheid activities

On July 11, 1963, Ahmed Kathrada was arrested with several ANC members at the South African headquarters of the ANC's armed arm, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), in Rivonia . Although he was no longer a member of the MK leadership, he was indicted along with the main ANC leaders in the Rivonia trial from October 1963. The charges were sabotage and attempted overthrow . In June 1964, like most of the other defendants, Kathrada was sentenced to life imprisonment. He spent his imprisonment with the co-defendants on the prison island Robben Island near Cape Town and from 1982 in Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town, where the other defendants had also been taken. During his imprisonment, he received four undergraduate degrees from the University of South Africa . He was denied master’s degrees. During this time he kept several diaries and correspondence, which he secretly collected and later published in part. On October 15, 1989, Kathrada was released from prison. He had spent a total of 26 years and three months in prison.

Kathrada (2nd from right) with the Obama family on Robben Island

After the ANC and SACP were legalized in February 1990, Kathrada was elected a member of both boards. With his election to the National Executive Committee of the ANC, he retired from the Board of Directors of the SACP in 1991. In the same year he became head of public relations for the ANC. In 1992 he went on the Hajj . Kathrada was elected to parliament in April 1994 in the course of the first free elections in South Africa, and in September 1994 President Mandela appointed him political advisor. In 1997 Kathrada left the board of directors of the ANC, in June 1999 he retired from active politics. Instead, he founded the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation , whose motto is Deepening Non-Racialism (for example: " Deepening non -racial thinking"). Kathrada took over the chairmanship of the Robben Island Council , whose concern it is to keep the memory of the political prisoners alive. He wrote several books and guided state guests, including Barack Obama , on Robben Island. In 2016 he wrote a letter to the president and fellow party member Jacob Zuma , in which he asked him to resign because of several scandals.

From around 1990, Kathrada was in a relationship with Barbara Hogan , who was Minister of Health for the ANC from 2008 to 2010.

death

Kathrada died on March 28, 2017 as a result of brain surgery. He was on the following day at the Heroes' Acre of West Park Cemetery buried in Johannesburg. Numerous high-ranking guests attended the celebration, including former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe and Vice President Cyril Ramaphosa , but not Jacob Zuma at Hogan's request. Mourning flags were ordered across the country.

Honors

Works

  • 1999: Letters from Robben Island. A selection of Ahmed Kathrada's prison correspondance 1964–1989. Michigan University Press, Ann Arbor, ISBN 0-87013-527-9 .
  • 2004: Memoirs. Zebra Press, Cape Town, ISBN 978-1-86872-918-0 (also as: No bread for Mandela. Memoirs of Ahmed Kathrada, prisoner 468/64. )
  • 2005: A free mind: Ahmed Kathrada's notebook from Robben Island. Jacana Media, Johannesburg, ISBN 978-1-77009-124-5 .
  • 2008: A simple freedom: the story of Robben Island prisoner No 468/64. University of Kentucky Press, Lexington, ISBN 9780813167268 (with Tim Couzens ).

Web links

Commons : Ahmed Kathrada  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Thomas Scheen: Ahmed Kathrada died . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of March 29, 2017, p. 5.
  2. ↑ a b c Shelagh Gastrow: Who's Who in South African Politics Number 3 . Ravan Press, Johannesburg 1990, 1st edition p. 116
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Biography (English), accessed on January 13, 2012
  4. ^ Timeline Ahmed Kathrada 1929–2017 at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on August 15, 2014
  5. ↑ a b Ahmed Kathrada, anti-apartheid activist in South Africa, dies at the 87th New York Times of March 28, 2017, accessed on March 29, 2017
  6. ^ A b South Africa: Mandela's co-accused asks Zuma to resign. allafrica.com of April 2, 2016 (English), accessed March 29, 2017
  7. ↑ Tower of strength Kathrada has fallen. news24.com of March 28, 2017 (English), accessed March 30, 2017
  8. ↑ Comrade Barbara, we salute you. Mail & Guardian, November 8, 2010, accessed March 28, 2017
  9. ↑ Ahmed Kathrada: Mandela companion and anti-apartheid fighter died. zeit.de from March 28, 2017, accessed on March 28, 2017
  10. ^ Gallery: funeral of Ahmed Kathrada. m.ewn.co.za of March 29, 2017 (English), accessed March 29, 2017
  11. ↑ South African anti-apartheid leader Ahmed Kathrada dies at 87th The Telegraph, March 28, 2017, accessed March 30, 2017
  12. ^ Freedom of London for men jailed with Nelson Mandela. bbc.co.uk of January 27, 2016 (English), accessed July 30, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Kathrada, Ahmed
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kathy (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Swiss Reneke
DATE OF DEATH March 28, 2017
Place of death Johannesburg