The South African anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, one of Nelson Mandela’s closest colleagues in the struggle against white rule and a fellow Robben Island prisoner, has died aged 87.



Kathrada, who was affectionately known by his nickname Kathy, was among those jailed alongside Mandela after the Rivonia trial in 1964. The case drew worldwide attention and highlighted the brutal legal system under the apartheid regime.

He died in hospital in Johannesburg following a short illness after brain surgery.

Kathrada spent 26 years and three months in prison, 18 of which were on Robben Island. After the end of apartheid, he served from 1994-99 as parliamentary counsellor to President Mandela in the first African National Congress (ANC) government.

In recent years he was highly critical of President Jacob Zuma and the ANC government. Nevertheless, the ANC said South Africa had “lost a titan”. “His life is a lesson in humility, tolerance, resilience and a steadfast commitment to principle,” it said in a statement.

Ahmed Kathrada, left, alongside Winnie and Nelson Mandela at Soweto football stadium in 1990. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features

“Uncle Kathy, despite disagreement with the ANC leadership from time to time, never abandoned nor turned his back on the ANC.”

South Africa’s deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, described Kathrada as “a beloved comrade, father and friend”.

He added: “He will be remembered as an unassuming freedom fighter, whose wisdom, tolerance, humility, steadfastness and humour earned him the love and respect of our people.”

The retired archbishop Desmond Tutu said Kathrada was “a man of remarkable gentleness, modesty and steadfastness”, calling him a moral leader of the anti-apartheid movement.

“These were people of the highest integrity and moral fibre who, through their humility and humanity, inspired our collective self-worth – and the world’s confidence in us,” Tutu said.

“This is great loss to the ANC, the broader liberation movement and South Africa as a whole,” Neeshan Balton, head of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, said. “‘Kathy’ was an inspiration to millions in different parts of the world.”

Nelson Mandela and Ahmed Kathrada before an address to parliament in Cape Town, March 1999. Photograph: Reuters

His activism against the white-minority apartheid regime started at the age of 17, when he was one of 2,000 “passive resisters” arrested in 1946 for defying laws that discriminated against Indian South Africans.

The ANC was banned in 1960, and two years later Kathrada was placed under house arrest. Soon afterwards, he went underground to continue the struggle as a member of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe.

In July 1963, police radi Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, a Johannesburg suburb where Kathrada and other senior activists had been meeting in secret.

At the Rivonia trial, eight of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour on Robben Island. His fellow prisoners included Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Denis Goldberg.

Rivonia trialists (left to right on top row): Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Gowan Mbeki and Raymond Mhlaba. Bottom row: Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni, Ahmed Kathrada and Denis Goldberg. Photograph: Reuters

Derek Hanekom, a fellow veteran activist and now a government minister, said he had lost a “revolutionary mentor and dear friend”.

“Comrade Kathy was a gentle, humane and humble soul. He was a determined revolutionary who gave his entire life to the liberation struggle in our country,” Hanekom said.

Fellow Robben Island prisoner Laloo “Isu” Chiba said Kathrada was a moral figurehead of the anti-apartheid movement.

“He has been my strength in prison, my guide in political life and my pillar of strength in the most difficult moments of my life. Now he is gone,” Chiba, 89, said in a statement from the foundation.

While in prison, Kathrada obtained four university degrees.

Last year he urged Zuma to resign after South Africa’s highest court found the president had violated his oath of office by refusing to pay back public money spent on upgrading his rural home.

“I know that if I were in the president’s shoes, I would step down with immediate effect,” he said. “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.

Kathrada would be buried according to Muslim religious rights, his charity foundation said.

People hold candles as they gather for a night vigil to pray for Kathrada. Photograph: Mujahid Safodien/AFP/Getty

Agence-France Presse contributed to this story