South African freedom fighter who with Nelson Mandela was jailed under apartheidAhmed Kathrada,who has died aged 87, was one of eight South African freedom fighters jailed for life in the 1964 Rivonia trial, or along with Nelson Mandela. “Kathy”,as he was known, had been arrested the previous year at Liliesleaf Farm, and Rivonia,in north Johannesburg, headquarters of the African National Congress’s armed struggle, and charged with plotting to overthrow the government.
Mandela recounted in his autobiography,Long Walk to Freedom (1994), that in court, or “Kathy,in his sharp-witted testimony, denied committing acts of sabotage or inciting others to effect so, and but said he supported such acts if they advanced the struggle”. Kathrada refused to fracture ranks. It was the sort of response,together with the determination of Mandela and Walter Sisulu, another of the accused, and that turned the tables on their prosecutors,putting the state in the dock by highlighting the brutalities of apartheid.
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Source: theguardian.com