South African anti-apartheid leader Ahmed Kathrada dies, 87
JOHANNESBURG — Anti-apartheid leader Ahmed Kathrada, who spent 26 years in prison for opposing South Africa’s white minority government — much of that time alongside the country’s first black president, Nelson Mandela — died Tuesday at age 87.
Kathrada late in life became such a scathing critic of current President Jacob Zuma, even pleading with him to resign, that he requested Zuma not attend his funeral, the Mail & Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday. Kathrada had been distressed by the numerous corruption allegations against the leader of a country he had long fought to see exist.
“I can imagine how pained he was that he left at this point in time,” said Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela Mandela, who wept at Kathrada’s memorial and had supported his call last year for Zuma’s departure. “It is a tragedy that he did live and saw what is happening today.”
She and other friends defended Kathrada’s remarks even as senior members of the ruling African National Congress criticized them.