Ahmed Kathrada only became a member of the ANC in 1990 – after spending decades in jail and fighting apartheid.
The ANC stalwart‚ who died in the early hours of Tuesday‚ makes the revelation in a recently released book‚ possibly the last words published before his death.
“I only became a card-carrying member of the ANC in 1990‚ when we were preparing to launch the first ANC Branch in the old Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (PWV) region‚” Kathrada writes in the foreword to Unmasked: Why the ANC Failed to Govern by fellow ANC stalwart Khulu Mbatha.
The foreword is dated February 2017. In it‚ Kathrada recounts how he learnt in prison that the ANC had opened up its membership to Indians and coloureds‚ after initially being exclusively for Africans.
The membership decision had been taken at the ANC’s 1969 Morogoro conference in Tanzania.
Kathrada had been in prison for several years by the time he learnt of the decision from a comrade‚ James April. Kathrada‚ former president Nelson Mandela and others were jailed in 1964 in the famous Rivonia Trial.
“I became aware of the external debates about opening membership to the ANC when we were in the midst of a heated discussion on Robben Island and there was a proposal that since non-Africans were not allowed to be members‚ I and many others could not participate in the discussion and its outcome‚” Kathrada writes.
Even after the Morogoro decision‚ Indians and coloureds were not allowed to be part of the party’s leadership.
“I was at the time serving a life sentence for an organisation which I was technically not allowed to be a member of!” Kathrada notes in the foreword.
He also reflects on the state of the ANC‚ the subject of Unmasked‚ and refers to the liberation movement’s readiness to negotiate with the apartheid regime in the 1990s‚ a process that eventually lead to South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994.
Kathrada acknowledges that he may have been mistaken about whether or not the ANC should enter into negotiations at that time.
“Liberation movements seldom get the opportunity to determine the timelines for victory‚ and their level of preparedness for what comes after victory would at best be uneven‚” Kathrada writes.
“The ANC has proved to be no exception to this.”
Kathrada last year bemoaned President Jacob Zuma’s rule and called for his resignation. In the book‚ he is again frank about the ANC’s failures since 1994.
“Were we prepared to govern? I have said on many public platforms that we were not‚” Kathrada writes.
“Perhaps the most critical failure has been the inability to create an economy that is inclusive of all‚ one that could have been more equal than it is now. The inequality in our society is something that we did not fully prepare for and we now have to deal with the consequences.”
One of the most astonishing facts about Ahmed Kathrada’s life
The ANC stalwart‚ who died in the early hours of Tuesday‚ makes the revelation in a recently released book‚ possibly the last words published before his death.
“I only became a card-carrying member of the ANC in 1990‚ when we were preparing to launch the first ANC Branch in the old Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (PWV) region‚” Kathrada writes in the foreword to Unmasked: Why the ANC Failed to Govern by fellow ANC stalwart Khulu Mbatha.
The foreword is dated February 2017. In it‚ Kathrada recounts how he learnt in prison that the ANC had opened up its membership to Indians and coloureds‚ after initially being exclusively for Africans.
The membership decision had been taken at the ANC’s 1969 Morogoro conference in Tanzania.
Kathrada had been in prison for several years by the time he learnt of the decision from a comrade‚ James April. Kathrada‚ former president Nelson Mandela and others were jailed in 1964 in the famous Rivonia Trial.
“I became aware of the external debates about opening membership to the ANC when we were in the midst of a heated discussion on Robben Island and there was a proposal that since non-Africans were not allowed to be members‚ I and many others could not participate in the discussion and its outcome‚” Kathrada writes.
Even after the Morogoro decision‚ Indians and coloureds were not allowed to be part of the party’s leadership.
“I was at the time serving a life sentence for an organisation which I was technically not allowed to be a member of!” Kathrada notes in the foreword.
He also reflects on the state of the ANC‚ the subject of Unmasked‚ and refers to the liberation movement’s readiness to negotiate with the apartheid regime in the 1990s‚ a process that eventually lead to South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994.
Kathrada acknowledges that he may have been mistaken about whether or not the ANC should enter into negotiations at that time.
“Liberation movements seldom get the opportunity to determine the timelines for victory‚ and their level of preparedness for what comes after victory would at best be uneven‚” Kathrada writes.
“The ANC has proved to be no exception to this.”
Kathrada last year bemoaned President Jacob Zuma’s rule and called for his resignation. In the book‚ he is again frank about the ANC’s failures since 1994.
“Were we prepared to govern? I have said on many public platforms that we were not‚” Kathrada writes.
“Perhaps the most critical failure has been the inability to create an economy that is inclusive of all‚ one that could have been more equal than it is now. The inequality in our society is something that we did not fully prepare for and we now have to deal with the consequences.”
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