Ahmed Kathrada
A veteran ANC politician and former political prisoner, Kathrada was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia Trial and held alongside Nelson Mandela in Robben Island and then Pollsmoor Prison. He was released in 1990 and later became an ANC MP. He made an emotional farewell speech to Mandela, his life-long friend, at the family funeral. Kathrada’s political career began when he was 17, and participated the passive Resistance Campaign of the South African Indian Congress, and was jailed for defying a law discriminating against Indians. At the age of 22 he was among a group of 20 – including Mandela – who were given a suspended sentence for organising a Defiance Campaign against apartheid laws. After the banning of the ANC he went ‘underground’ to continue his political work after being placed under house arrest, but was arrested at a farm in Rivonia. Released after 26 years in prison, he was elected onto the ANC National Executive Committee and headed its Public Relations department. In 1994 he was elected to parliament and served as President Mandela’s Parliamentary Counsellor.