Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada (or 'Kathy', as he is popularly known) was born on 21 August 1929 in Schweizer-Reneke, a small rural South African town, about 200 miles from Johannesburg. He was introduced to politics as a child in Johannesburg when he joined a non-racial youth club run by the Young Communist League.
At the age of 17 Kathrada participated in the Passive Resistance Campaign of the South African Indian Congress. He was part of 2 000 people who were arrested and imprisoned for defying a law that discriminated against Indians.
In the 1940s Kathrada first met Congress leaders, Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, I C Meer and J N Singh.
In 1951, Kathrada was selected to visit East Berlin to attend a youth festival jointly organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), and the International Union of Students (IUS). From 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 organizing a Defiance Campaign against six apartheid laws. The campaign was jointly organized by the ANC and SA Indian Congress.
In 1954, Kathrada was placed under restrictions by the 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 work. In July 1963, the police swooped on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, a Johannesburg suburb where Kathrada and other “banned” persons had been meeting. This led to the famous 'Rivonia Trial', in which eight accused were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.
They included Mandela, Sisulu, Kathrada, 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.
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 its Public Relations Department. At its Conference in 1997 Kathrada declined nomination to the National Executive Committee. In 1992, Kathrada undertook the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca.
In 1994 Kathrada was elected to Parliament and served as President Mandela's Parliamentary Counsellor. He was chairperson of the Robben Island Musuem Council until his term expired in 2006.
Ahmed Kathrada received the following awards:
“Isithwalandwe”; the highest award bestowed by the ANC
The ANC's Merit Award, for long service
Presidential Order for Meritorious Service; Class 1: Gold
Honorary Doctorate: University of Massachusetts, May 2000
Honorary Doctorate by the University of Durban-Westville, 2002
Doctorate of Humane Letters by the University of Missouri, January 2004
Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, by President of India, January 2005
Doctor of Humanities, Michigan State University, December 2005
May 2011. Honorary Doctorate from the University of Kentucky
The City of Johannesburg bestowed its highest honour, Freeman of the City, August 2012
Honorary Doctorate from Wits University, December 2012
Books Published:
In 1999 - Letters from Robben Island
In 2004 - Memoirs
In 2005 - A Free Mind: Ahmed Kathrada's Notebook from Robben Island
