City awards Freedom of the City to Ahmed Kathrada

19 August 2015

It is a great honour and privilege to announce that Full Council today voted in favour of bestowing the Freedom of the City on Struggle icon and stalwart, Mr Ahmed Kathrada.

Mr Kathrada started his struggle against apartheid in 1941 and was arrested for the first time at age 17 for his involvement in the Passive Resistance Campaign. He continued to fight against injustice and for non-racialism for the next two decades.

During the Rivonia Trial, he was among the eight accused who were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour. He spent 18 years of his 26-year sentence on Robben Island. He was released from Pollsmoor Prison in 1989. In 1994, he was elected to Parliament and appointed as President Mandela’s Parliamentary Counsellor.

The Freedom of the City is the highest honour which a Council may bestow on any person of distinction.

Ahmed Kathrada now joins the other recipients of the Freedom of the City which include Professor Richard Van Der Ross (1988), Former President Nelson Mandela (1997), Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu (1998) as well as Barack and Michelle Obama (2012).

In terms of the way forward, I have been given the mandate to determine a suitable date and place for a ceremony to be held to present the Freedom of the City.

On 21 August Mr Kathrada will be 86 years old. This gesture is therefore just in time for his birthday and a token of appreciation for the heroic service he has rendered to our country.

Statement issued by Patricia de Lille, Executive Mayor of the City of Cape Town, August 19 2015