Anti-apartheid icon Kathrada dies |
Veteran South African anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, who was sentenced to life imprisonment alongside Nelson Mandela and went on to be an open critic of President Jacob Zuma, died on March 28, 2017. He was aged 87. Affectionately known as "Uncle Kathy", the liberation struggle stalwart who spent 26-years in prison under the apartheid government, was hospitalised in Johannesburg after surgery to relieve blood clotting on the brain.President Jacob Zuma said Kathrada would be honoured at an official state funeral and flags at government offices would fly at half-mast until then.Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Kathrada helped inspire the world`s confidence in South Africa`s long battle against white-minority rule.Born to immigrant Indian parents in the small town of Schweizer-Reneke in the North West province just before the Great Depression in 1929, Kathrada became involved in politics at the age of 12 when he distributed leaflets for the Young Communist League of South Africa.
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