AHMED KATHRADA – RICH HISTORY RADIO DOCUMENTARY PART ONE

(Ahmed Kathrada at the Mahatma Gandhi  ashram in Gujerat in  1995. He is seen here with Joel Netshitengwe. They had travelled to India as part of the delegation that accompanied Nelson Mandela during his official visit after being elected as the first president of democratic South Africa in  May 1994).

(Ahmed Kathrada at the home of one of his relatives in Lenasia, Johannesburg, after his release from Robben Island in October 1989)

A few days after Ahmed Kathrada was released from Robben Island in October 1989 after 25 years, I had the pleasure of interviewing him at the home of one of his relatives in Lenasia, Johannesburg. 
At this time, I was working for the Press Trust of India (PTI) based in New Delhi, India. PTI asked me to make arrangements to talk to him in Johannesburg because he had his roots in the north Indian state of Gujerat. Two of Mr Kathrada’s relatives were kind enough to pick me up from the Johannesburg international airport and take me to Lenasia for the interview. 

At the home I was surprised to find one of our well-known activists, Mr Cassim Salojee, to be there as well. He was present throughout my interview with Mr Kathrada.
 I compiled a three-part series after the interview and this was first broadcast in 2007 when I started my Rich History series about the contributions made by anti-apartheid activists and leaders in the struggles for freedom. 
This is Part One which concentrates mainly about Kathrada’s views about the political situation at the time of his release in October 1989. 


                                                 

                                               OUR RICH HISTORY

I decide to profile the contributions of the people because of their rich and treasured history. Right from the time our ancestors arrived in the then Natal Colony to work as indentured labourers, they made enormous sacrifices to promote their religions, their cultures, their traditions, and educational needs alongside the struggles for equality, freedom, justice and finally liberty in 1994. 
The organisations that made a tremendous impact in the social, political and sporting lives of the people are the Natal Indian Congress, founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1894, the Transvaal Indian Congress, the South African Indian Congress and later in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s various community and sporting organisation such as the South African Soccer Federation (SASF), and the South African Council of Sport (SACOS), and of course the United Democratic Front (UDF), the Mass Democratic Movement and the African National Congress (ANC). 
Some of the political leaders who played an invaluable role in the early years are Dr Monty Naicker, Dr Yusuf Dadoo, Dr Kesaval Goonum and later Billy Nair, M J Naidoo, I C Meer, Fatima Meer, J N Singh, D K Singh and thereafter activists like Dr Farouk Meer, George Sewpersadh, Professor Jerry Coovadia, Mewa Ramgobin, Ela Gandhi, Pravin Gordhan, Yunus Mahomed, Krish Govender, Saths Cooper, Strini Moodley, Sam Moodley, Radhakrishna Roy Padaychie, and hundreds of others. 
Several journalists also played a crucial role in the struggles. They included Bobby Haripersadh, Farook Khan, Deven Moodley, Ronnie Govender, M S Roy, Tix Chetty, Dennis Pather and this correspondent. 

The Rich History reports and radio documentaries will be derived mainly from my archives since the early 1970s to the early 1990s and thereafter. I will be starting with Part One of the Radio Documentary I had compiled after interviewing Ahmed Kathrada following his release from Robben Island in October 1989. Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada  passed away on Tuesday, March 28 2017 at the age of 87.

This is the interview:

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