Interview Segment

Ahmed Kathrada
March 22, 2006 East Lansing, Michigan, United States.
"My lifelong dream would be to satisfy the neediest of the needy, eradicate poverty, eradicate HIV if we can, and all these challenges that face us. [1:04]

Ahmed Kathrada articulates the challenges that face South Africa after achieving political democracy, centering on the enormous problem of eradicating poverty.

Born in 1929, Ahmed “Kathy” Kathrada dropped out of high school to do political work, participating in many campaigns of the Congress Alliance. He was active in the Transvaal Indian (Youth) Congress and the South African Communist Party and was detained and put under house arrest. He went underground in 1963 and was one of the accused at the Rivonia Trial, although he was not a member of the ANC military wing. He spent 18 years on Robben Island, where he earned two BA degrees and helped Nelson Mandela edit his autobiography. In 1994, he was elected to Parliament and was a senior advisor to President Mandela.

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