Redi Tlhabi: South Africa is in mourning. One of the last leaders of the anti-apartheid struggles, Ahmed Kathrada, died in Johannesburg this week, at the age of 87. Together with Nelson Mandela, a global icon and the founding father of the country’s democracy, Kathrada was tried and spent 26 years in prison for his anti-apartheid activism.
Let that sink in. He was jailed for 26 years for fighting racism and discrimination. He was on the famous Robben Island, an isolated, tiny compound whose exotic name betrays the horror and subjugation it represented. It was a prison, a dark hole that swallowed the youth and dreams of people who fought apartheid. Mandela and Kathrada were among the many, mainly black inmates who served time on the island, confined to a small cell, the floor as their bed, a bucket for a toilet, and hard labor. Kathrada and Mandela were so close that he told the world at Mandela’s funeral in 2013, “I have lost a brother. My life is a void, and I don’t know who to turn to.” Of Kathrada, known affectionately as “Uncle Kathy,” Mandela said, “Our stories have become so interwoven that the telling of one without the voice of the other being heard somewhere would have led to an incomplete narration.”
…Kathrada was laid to rest in accordance with Muslim rites. His comrades were there — including former presidents, deputy presidents and ministers in Zuma’s cabinet. Judges and the clergy were there. But conspicuous in his absence was the president. Kathrada specifically asked Zuma not to attend his funeral. This is an unprecedented but understandable rebuttal of South Africa’s current leadership. More here.