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A photographic exhibition to honour Ahmed Kathrada was opened at Constitution Hill on Wednesday, a year after the passing of the ANC veteran and struggle icon.
Max Sisulu, a board member of the Kathrada Foundation, said Kathy, as Kathrada was fondly known, was always so caring towards the Sisulu family.
“Kathy always believed that freedom would come and he was like my elder brother, a son to my parents. Kathy was very important in the struggle for freedom.”
Kathy was not only pivotal in the fight for political freedom during apartheid but weighed in on the struggles of democratic South Africa.
Nompendulo Mkhatshwa, a former student leader in the #FeesMustFall movement, honoured Kathrada for being supportive and playing a significant role in the free education struggle.
“His presence protected the dignity of #FeesMustFall and he allowed us to unpack our frustrations about the system.
“He passed on lessons learnt from one generation to another.”
Barbara Hogan, anti-apartheid activist and Kathrada’s widow, said: “I love the fact that I was able to spend time with someone who had such a lovely personality.
“I was never in doubt that Kathy’s love for the ANC was a love of a set of values we both stood and fought together for. It was a fierce commitment particularly to non-racialism.”
Hogan said that South Africans were becoming more polarised and the project of building a new country had to be put in motion once again.
“We are not here to spend our lives hating one another for simple reasons that we have inherited from a very distorted past.”
Kathy went to Robben Island 300 times as a tour guide and yet espoused values of not being a victim, of triumphing over evil and setting a political pace by example, she said.
“Somehow those values have been lost in all the pains that we have suffered in this country individually and collectively.
“We need to look at how we get out of that pain. But some of us are wallowing in victimhood,” Hogan said.
She lashed out at greedy struggle heroes who sought to enrich themselves in the name of democracy and lauded those who stood principled and engaged with South Africans on an equal basis.
“What about the struggle for equality?” asked Hogan.
Pravin Gordhan, minister of public enterprises, echoed Hogan’s sentiment, saying: “We’re losing the value of non-racialism and our politics is declining.
“The morality and principles of Kathy’s generation should be adopted.”
He said the ANC’s December elective conference introduced a new dawn and era of optimism marked with a real sense of what can happen.
“This is the beginning of a struggle to recover from the past 10 years.”
However, Gordhan said that corruption was still happening and a lot needed to be done with the culture of the public and private sectors.
“We need to bring back the slogan ‘pay back the money’,” he said.
Meanwhile ANC veteran, Reverend Frank Chikane expressed his concerns about the ANC’s leadership before the elective conference.
“That demon that haunted us must never come back again.”
The exhibition at Constitution Hill will later serve as part of a history exhibition of Kathrada’s life.
