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CNBC Africa spoke to Mapula Bodibe, the Executive for Consumer Business at MTN South Africa on the high data costs that have been in the spotlight in the country, the presence of women in the ICT sector.

MTN SA’s Mapula Bodibe on high data costs

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Today the world celebrates international Nelson Mandela day. And, the former South African statesman and humanitarian would have been 99 years old.

Interesting facts you probably didn’t know about Mandela

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While people across South Africa are contributing 67 minutes of doing good to celebrate Nelson Mandela&#8217;s 67 years of activism, CNBC Africa&#8217;s Aviwe Mtila caught up with the leader of the Democratic Alliance to find out how he spent his. Mmusi Maimane also spoke of inequality in the Western Cape, where the DA governs, saying it&#8217;s rife across the country.

DA’s Mmusi Maimane on inequality in the Western Cape

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Mandela Day is celebrated around the world annually on the 18th of July, to honour the life and legacy of South Africa&#8217;s first democratically elected President Nelson Mandela.

World celebrates Mandela Day

One of the lawyers who saved Nelson Mandela from the rope and became a millionaire English lord died in his country home of Liddington, in Wiltshire, on June 18, aged 85.
Joel Joffe, the former chairman of Oxfam, was one of three surviving lawyers from the so called Rivonia Trial that ended in 1964 in life imprisonment for Mandela and his comrades on 221 charges of sabotage. He is survived by Johannesburg Human Rights Lawyers George Bizos and Denis Kuny.
I had the pleasure of meeting him at a 50th anniversary reunion of the raid on Liliesleaf, in Rivonia Johannesburg, the hideout where police arrested most of the accused in 1963.
I was struck by how he carried his wealth and title lightly – you wouldn’t have blinked if you saw him shopping in a Johannesburg supermarket. He was made Baron Joffe of Liddington, in 2000, by Labour premier Tony Blair; I asked about his title.
“Ag, just call me Joel,” says he.
At the time the trial began in 1963, Joffe, who wanted out of apartheid South Africa, was packing for Australia. Bram Fischer, who led the defence, asked him to be the instructing attorney.
“He slept on a mattress on the floor with his wife; his furniture had gone to Australia. He was persuaded to stay .They lived on as little as possible so the defence fund could go as far as possible…What Joel showed is that courage takes many different forms, here was a lawyer who wanted out of apartheid and yet stayed to uphold the principles of justice for people who had no hope of surviving, at a time when no other lawyer would take it on. That is courage,” says accused number three Denis Goldberg, aged 84, who lives in semi-retirement in Hout Bay, near Cape Town.
The trial, that lasted nearly a year, cost 29,000 pounds, at 1964 prices, but the defence team chose not to take a penny.
At the climax of the trial, Mandela spoke these words that went down in history: “It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
It was Bizos who added the words “if needs be” into the speech to try to stay the death penalty and Mandela wasn’t amused.
“I read my speech and there seems to be an error, he said. It is my sentence and I want it back!” chuckled Joffe.
On a more sombre note, Joffe recalled the handwritten note by Mandela, now in a museum, in which he wrote his last words, should he hang.
“This handwritten note said ‘I apologise for nothing, I was fighting for justice and there’s no sacrifice I am not prepared to make in the cause of justice’ that was Mandela, faced with hanging, no fear,” smiled Joffe on that warm spring evening back in 2013. He left the country of his birth in 1965 for England where he founded the life assurance Allied Dunbar, in 1970, with seed capital from Hambros Bank. It made him a multi-millionaire, yet he spent much of his time and money helping the poor. He was a little downbeat about the country of his birth when I asked him about it in 2013.
“In South Africa today sadly the majority of the population is living in poverty and unemployment and one believes there is much more that government could do about that and then these problems with corruption, incompetence and inefficiency would disappear.” he says.
Words that ring even truer today.

Joel Joffe: Rivonia Trial lawyer, a man you could bet your life on

In the liberation struggle against apartheid a small number of white people joined the battle to overthrow the South African regime. One of them, academic Raymond Suttner, was first arrested in 1975 and tortured with electric shocks because he refused to supply information to the police. He then served eight years in prison because of his underground activities for the African National Congress and South African Communist Party.
After his release in 1983 he was forced &#8211; after two years &#8211; to go underground to evade arrest, but was re-detained in 1986 under repeatedly renewed states of emergency for 27 months – 18 of these in solitary confinement.
First published in 2001, Suttner’s prison memoir “Inside Apartheid’s Prison”, has been made available again, now with a completely new introduction. The Conversation Africa’s Charles Leonard spoke to Suttner.
Why did you write the book?
I was hesitant to write it because there is a culture of modesty that is inculcated in cadres. I used to think it was “not done” to write about myself. I also thought that my experience was a “parking ticket” compared with the sentences of Nelson Mandela and others. But I came to feel that I have a story to tell.
Nevertheless I hope that resources will be found so that more stories are told, not only of prison but the many unknown people who pursued resistance in different ways in a range of relatively unknown places.
You were imprisoned and on house arrest for over 11 years. It was based on choices you made. Would you make the same choices today?
Yes. I did what I believed was right at the time and even if things are not turning out so well at the moment that does not invalidate those choices. I saw the liberation struggle as having a sacred quality and considered it an honour to be part of it.
I was very influenced by the great Afrikaner Communist <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/abram-fischer">Bram Fischer</a>. He had nothing to gain personally and could have been a judge, the president of the country or anything else. Instead he chose a life of danger and later life imprisonment. I was inspired by that example, amongst others, to do what I could.
When one embarks on revolutionary activities there are no guarantees of success. I was not sure that I would come out alive. I did what I believed was right and would make the same choices again.
So those choices were worth it?
Definitely. This was not a business venture where one could answer such a question through balancing profits and losses. For me joining the struggle, as a white, gave me the opportunity to start my life afresh by joining my fortunes with those who were oppressed. It gave me the chance to link myself with the majority of South Africans.
That was a more authentic way of living my life than whatever successes I may have achieved, had I simply focused on professional success. Most importantly I see this choice – to join the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/liberation-struggle-south-africa">liberation struggle</a> – as giving me the opportunity to humanise myself as a white South African in apartheid South Africa.
Do you still feel the damage after all these years in prison?
Yes. I have post-traumatic stress. I am not sure that it will ever be eliminated or that I always recognise its appearance. Many of us live with scars from that period.
I have not always acknowledged or understood that I have been damaged but it is directly related to my having <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/fibromyalgia/home/ovc-20317786">fibromyalgia</a> (a disorder characterised by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues), according to the specialist who diagnosed it. She cautioned me about returning to my prison experiences, in this book, fearing the possibility of it setting off physically painful symptoms. That didn’t happen as far as I am aware and returning to the scene of trauma may be part of healing, according to some.
Why did you break with the ANC over 10 years ago?
I had not been happy with many aspects of <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/thabo-mvuyelwa-mbeki">Thabo Mbeki</a>‘s presidency but that did not mean I should align myself with his successor <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/jacob-gedleyihlekisa-zuma">Jacob Zuma</a>. Zuma’s candidacy was promoted not only by ANC people but especially the South African Communist Party (SACP) and trade union federation <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/congress-south-african-trade-unions-cosatu">Cosatu</a>’s leaderships, presenting him as having qualities that were not valid. In particular the claim that Zuma was a man of the people with sympathy for the poor and downtrodden was untrue.
It was already known that he was <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/president-thabo-mbeki-sacks-deputy-president-jacob-zuma">linked</a> with corrupt activities before he was elected as ANC president in 2007. But what was decisive for me was Zuma’s 2006 <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2016-08-10-the-khanga-womanhood-and-how-zumas-2006-rape-trial-changed-its-meaning">rape trial</a>. There was something very cruel in the way the complainant, known as <a href="http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2016/10/10/who-was-khwezi-heres-what-we-learnt-during-the-zuma-rape-trial">“Khwezi”</a>, was treated, in the mode of defence that Zuma chose. I found that <a href="http://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/191680/khwezi-was-let-down-by-the-justice-system-of-this-country-nomboniso-gasa">unacceptable</a>.
Is it not lonely outside the ANC?
I miss the comradeship that I understood to bind me to people with whom I had shared dangers, joys and sorrows. When you are together in difficult times it creates a special bond. I did not conceive of that being broken.
But when you break away in a <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/rdm/news/2017-04-11-uct-slams-corruption-state-capture-under-zuma/">time of decadence</a>, what is it that one misses? I cannot resume relationships on the same basis as those which I previously counted as comradeship. Our paths diverged. I went out into the cold and some with whom I used to be very close chose to link themselves with a <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-need-to-despair-even-as-the-dream-of-south-africa-feels-like-a-nightmare-76129">project</a> that has meant corruption, violence and destroying everything that was once valued in the liberation tradition.
These former comrades have all been accomplices in <a href="https://mg.co.za/report/zumaville-a-special-report">Nkandla</a> (Zuma’s private rural home which was upgraded at a cost to the country of R246-million to taxpayers), the <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-grant-scandal-exposes-myths-about-how-the-state-should-run-things-74325">social grants scandal</a> and many other <a href="http://www.groundup.org.za/article/who-are-guptas/">features of this period</a> which have seen some individuals benefit unlawfully and at the expense of the poor. I do not say that every person I know has been improperly enriched. But all those who have been in the ANC/SACP/Cosatu leadership have endorsed, indeed even provided elaborate defences of some of the worst features of the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-17450447">Zuma period</a>.
In the new introduction to the book I use the word “betrayal” and I choose it to refer to these people, many of whom were once brave, who turned their backs on those from whom they came or whose cause they once adopted as their own.
Yes, it’s lonely. But that loneliness cannot be remedied by resuming bonds with people who have taken fundamentally different paths. I now build relationships with others from whom I am learning and growing.

Op-Ed: It’s cold outside Zuma’s ANC. But there’s little warmth left inside

Thirty years ago in southern Angola, four military forces were mobilising for <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/battle-cuito-cuanavale-1988">the largest conventional battle</a> in Africa since the Second World War. It was a battle that would have huge consequences for Angola, Namibia and South Africa. Indeed it has been referred to as a <a href="https://monthlyreview.org/2013/04/01/cuito-cuanavale-angola/">turning point</a> in southern African history.
On the one side was the Angolan army backed by Cuban forces and Soviet advisers. On the other was the South African backed Angolan rebel movement fighting to overthrow the government.
The rebel Union for the Total Independence of Angola, better known by their Portuguese acronym Unita, had been one of the three liberation groups fighting Portuguese colonialism. But it is the pro-socialist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) which <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/11/newsid_2539000/2539679.stm">won power</a> in 1975 and formed the government.
With western support and arms supplies from South Africa and the <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/79546/next-stop-angola-reagan-doctrine-communism-intervention">Reagan administration</a>, Unita’s campaign to topple the government turned Angola into a Cold War battleground. The climax of this was the battle at Cuito Cuanavale in southern Angola that lasted from March 1987 until the end of June 1988.
There are still fierce arguments about how important the battle was, who won and whether the South African army was really defeated.
That those who fought in the battle should have wildly different interpretations of its importance is not surprising. This is brought out strikingly in a new edition of Fred Bridgland’s book <a href="http://www.casematepublishing.co.uk/index.php/the-war-for-africa.html">The War for Africa: Twelve Months that Transformed a Continent</a>. Originally published in 1990, it’s an account, primarily from the South African side, of the military campaign that reached its climax at Cuito Cuanavale.
<h2>Contesting narratives</h2>
The ANC and it’s leader Nelson Mandela, the Cubans and the Angolan government claim the South African army was decisively defeated. The veteran ANC military intelligence chief Ronnie Kasrils, <a href="https://monthlyreview.org/2013/04/01/cuito-cuanavale-angola/">described</a> it as
<blockquote>a historic turning point in the struggle for the total liberation of the region from racist rule and aggression.</blockquote>
But many South African who fought in Angola swear that they were never defeated, as South African author and academic Leopold Scholtz noted in his <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/African-Defence-Forces-Border-1966-1989-x/dp/1909982768/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1496043564&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=Leopold+Scholtz">book</a> on the battle.
Objective observers declared the end to have been a tactical military <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/battle-cuito-cuanavale-1988">stalemate</a> between the allied forces on either side. But it was a stalemate that led to major strategic realignments with huge consequences for the whole region, leading to the independence of Namibia, the withdrawal of South African and Cuban forces from Angola and the eventual <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/gary-baines/replaying-cuito-cuanavale">dismantling</a> of apartheid.
Nelson Mandela lauded the result of the battle during a visit to Cuba in 1991 to thank Fidel Castro for supporting liberation struggles in southern Africa. The future president of South Africa said in his <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2013/12/11/nelson_mandela_on_how_cuba_destroyed">keynote speech</a>:
<blockquote>The decisive defeat of the racist army in Cuito Cuanavale was a victory for all Africa. This victory in Cuito Cuanavale is what made it possible for Angola to enjoy peace and establish its own sovereignty. The defeat of the racist army made it possible for the people of Namibia to achieve their independence. The decisive defeat of the aggressive apartheid forces destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor.</blockquote>
<h2>Stalemate in Cuito Cuanavale</h2>
At the time of the campaign and the key siege of Cuito Cuanavale, Bridgland was a journalist with unrivalled access to the rebels. Through the rebels, he also got access to South African Defence Force (SADF) in southern Angola. He says that the chief of the SADF, General Jannie Geldenhuys, gave him unfettered access to his officers and men on the frontline.
His account of the Cuito Cuanavale campaign is detailed and fascinating, but clearly written from one side. It was impossible for him to report from the Angolan government and Cuban side. The South Africans had been in Angola almost continuously since their unsuccessful bid in 1975 to put UNITA in power.
Their present objective was to weaken the socialist-oriented Angolan government, stop it from supporting the ANC and the Namibian Swapo movement. The aim was then to create a buffer to stop Swapo guerrillas entering South Africa-occupied Namibia.
The fighting lasted from initial skirmishes in March 1987, through the smashing of the Angolan army advance at the Lomba river in September-October 1987. Then followed the siege of Cuito Cuanavale by the South Africans and Unita from January to the end of March 1988. It ended with the Cuban bombing of the Calueque dam on 27 June 1988.
The battle for Cuito Cuanavale ended in stalemate with the SADF and Unita unable to overrun the Angolan positions and the Angolan-Cuban force unable to continue the offensive. The South Africans admitted to losing 79 dead, with two Mirage fighters and one Bosbok spotter plane shot down, plus three Olifant tanks and four Ratel armoured vehicles destroyed, as Bridgland describes in his very detailed book.
<h2>Politics by other means</h2>
The combination of being fought to a stalemate in the battle, and the heavy loss of life and material that couldn’t be replaced, was something South Africa couldn’t ignore. On top of that was the attack on the Calueque dam which demonstrated Angolan and Cuban air superiority.
Taken in the context of the domestic political violence, the growing economic crisis and international pressure, the results of the Cuito Cuanavale campaign were crucial in persuading the leaders of South Africa’s National Party to cut their losses. They did so following talks with the Soviet Union, Angola, Cuba, Britain and the United States.
This led directly to a ceasefire agreement on the total withdrawal of South African and Cuban forces from Angola. Also agreed was a timetable for UN-supervised elections in Namibia, leading to independence in March 1990. By this time, the ANC had been unbanned and Mandela released.
Cuito Cuanavale was not a military victory for any of the combatants. One must view it in the light of the maxim of the 19th century military theorist, Carl von Clausewitz that war is the <a href="https://www.clausewitz.com/readings/OnWar1873/BK1ch01.html">“continuation of politics by other means”</a>. There was never going to be a decisive military victory in southern Angola.
The battle of Cuito Cuanavale was a turning point, but one that needs to be taken in context.

Op-Ed: It’s 30 years since Cuito Cuanavale. How the battle redefined southern Africa

Content presented by GCIS
“Twenty-three years into our [South Africa’s] freedom and people can still complain; that is a sign of a very good democracy and a government that listens to its people.” These are the words of Ayanda Dlodlo, South Africa’s newly appointed Minister of Communications illustrating what freedom means to her.
She was speaking ahead of the commemoration of Freedom Day, celebrated on the 27th April in South Africa in remembrance of the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994. The elections were the first non-racial national elections.
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The Minister was hosting a dialogue with learners from various schools in Gauteng about what freedom means to them. In her address she remembered that as a young black woman living in apartheid South Africa, she, like many other freedom fighters, were forced to drop their studies and livelihoods and join the armed movement, living in bushes, carrying a rifle for protection.
“I did that for you… but you did not get this freedom, which was a result of the hard work, sweat, fear and tears, from us alone. Many people from all over the world sacrificed a lot for the freedom that you enjoy today,” said Dlodlo.
One such person, Minister Dlodlo points out was Sven Olof Palme, a Swedish Social Democratic Politician, Statesman and Prime Minister. “A white man that had nothing to do with South Africa, lost his life so that you and I could sit in this auditorium today and deliberate about what freedom means to all of us.”
The event took place at one of South Africa’s award-winning heritage sites, Liliesleaf, which has been described as “the nerve centre of the liberation movement”, a place of refuge for leaders including Nelson Mandela.
The purpose of the dialogue was to start on-going discussions with South Africans on what it means to Own your freedom. It should also cover areas that are working well and equally as well as those areas that South Africans feel are not working well and would like to see improvements from Government and Corporate South Africa, revealed Dlodlo.
The students who were invited to be a part of the dialogue, shared their concerns on the new South Africa, many of which spoke to issues of race, corruption and marginalisation of certain groups.
The Minister appealed to the youth; “while there are many problems in South Africa, I would implore you not to concentrate on those problems but to concentrate on this which you have, that none of us can take away from you, your freedom; let that frame the discussions”.
That’s not all.
There is also <a href="http://cnbc.africa/videos/2017/04/26/celebrating-freedom-day-with-freedom-of-speech/">Own Your Freedom</a>, a documentary named after this year’s freedom day theme, which can be viewed on CNBC Africa, see below.
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It serves as a voice to the voiceless. Now, 23 years after democracy, they experience remarkable freedom of speech, a right enshrined in the Constitution.
Presented by Comedian Lihle Msimang, and directed by David Kau, the documentary offers insights on some of South Africa’s biggest issues including, State Capture, education, the economy and the future of the country.
It may have taken 23 years but initiatives like this ensure the dialogue about South Africa and freedom never dies, that government institutions listen and continue to enforce the freedoms which were fought for.
Share with us below what Own Your Freedom means or tweet us using #OwnYourFreedom.

This is what my freedom means, what does it mean for you?

South Africa&#8217;s struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada died this morning, age 87 at the Donald Gordon Hospital in Johannesburg.. This is how the world remembers him:
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A generation of true leaders of heart and spirit who served our people with humility no selflessness. I salute <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AhmedKathrada?src=hash">#AhmedKathrada</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/hamba?src=hash">#hamba</a> kahle <a href="https://t.co/fTr2CqrgPi">pic.twitter.com/fTr2CqrgPi</a>
— Jay Naidoo (@Jay_Naidoo) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jay_Naidoo/status/846591348010553344">March 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Leah &amp; I extend our deepest condolences to all who loved &amp; were loved by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AhmedKathrada?src=hash">#AhmedKathrada</a>. God bless you all.
— DesmondTutu Official (@TheDesmondTutu) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheDesmondTutu/status/846595955889754112">March 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;To hate is to be enslaved by evil&#8221;&#8230; RIP <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AhmedKathrada?src=hash">#AhmedKathrada</a> <a href="https://t.co/7Qx4Pjrq5O">pic.twitter.com/7Qx4Pjrq5O</a>
— Sideshen Pather (@Sideshen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sideshen/status/846595947752775685">March 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Rest in peace <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AhmedKathrada?src=hash">#AhmedKathrada</a> <a href="https://t.co/SB8aWNZcKb">pic.twitter.com/SB8aWNZcKb</a>
— Phindy (@IamPhindy) <a href="https://twitter.com/IamPhindy/status/846598518072639488">March 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;It is a very sad moment for us as the Mandela family to have lost such a giant and icon,&#8221; Mandla Mandela on the passing of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AhmedKathrada?src=hash">#AhmedKathrada</a>. <a href="https://t.co/BhJvaGG2qi">pic.twitter.com/BhJvaGG2qi</a>
— eNCA (@eNCA) <a href="https://twitter.com/eNCA/status/846594630036537345">March 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
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&#39;Freedom did not fall from the sky, bt was fought for with blood , sweat &amp; tears&#39;- Ahmed Kathrada. Rest in peace uncle Kathy <a href="https://t.co/ziXyKr8Eh3">pic.twitter.com/ziXyKr8Eh3</a>
&mdash; TREASURY.GOV.ZA (@TreasuryRSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/TreasuryRSA/status/846601881883459584">March 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
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READ: 
<a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/special-report/2017/03/28/ahmed-kathrada-gentle-soul-died/">S.A’s struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada: The gentle soul has died 
</a><a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/southern-africa/2016/04/21/apartheid-struggle-stalwarts-receive-joburgs-highest-honour/">Apartheid struggle stalwarts receive Joburg’s highest honour 
</a><a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/southern-africa/2013/12/15/kathradas-tribute-to-nelson-mandela/">Kathrada’s tribute to Nelson Mandela 
</a><a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/2013/12/13/the-rivonia-trial-for-the-heroic-and-unflinching-in-the-face-of-death/">The Rivonia trial: For the heroic and unflinching in the face of death 
</a><a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/2013/12/06/nelson-mandela-my-friend-and-cellmate/">Nelson Mandela, my friend and cellmate</a>
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The world remembers Ahmed Kathrada

One of the last survivors of the rebels who faced death with Nelson Mandela was a genial, gentle, soul with resolve of iron.
Ahmed Kathrada (87) who died on Tuesday was one of the great worker bees of South Africa’s struggle against apartheid in the 1950s and early 1960s; at Liliesleaf farm, in the middle class Johannesburg suburb of Rivonia that was used as a hideout for the underground movement, Kathrada, wrote, worked and photocopied pamphlets tirelessly. When the struggle called on him to pose as a white man – he dyed his hair, put on make-up and pretended to be a Portuguese man called Pedro. It was a disguise that fooled people; despite this, he never felt comfortable going in to restaurants and the like where a non-white like himself was not allowed to go under apartheid.
This is the kind of gentle soul Kathrada was. Iron resolve, always, when it came to principle, but never arrogant or full of bravado. He admitted to me once, in an interview for CNBC Africa, that he feared he could have broken if he had been tortured by the special branch after his arrest. His heart was always tender and 26 years in prison left few callouses. Once, on national radio, I heard Kathrada break down when a caller reminded him of a comrade who had been tortured to death more than half a century before.
READ: <a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/southern-africa/2016/04/21/apartheid-struggle-stalwarts-receive-joburgs-highest-honour/"> 
Apartheid struggle stalwarts receive Joburg’s highest honour 
</a><a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/southern-africa/2013/12/15/kathradas-tribute-to-nelson-mandela/">Kathrada’s tribute to Nelson Mandela 
</a><a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/2013/12/13/the-rivonia-trial-for-the-heroic-and-unflinching-in-the-face-of-death/">The Rivonia trial: For the heroic and unflinching in the face of death 
</a><a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/2013/12/06/nelson-mandela-my-friend-and-cellmate/">Nelson Mandela, my friend and cellmate</a>
If the scars were deep, Kathrada’s spirit maintained a salving sense of humour that often saw the absurdities of the struggle and the brutal system they were fighting. With a laugh he told me how Govan Mbeki – the father of South Africa’s former president &#8211; used to sell the eggs he coaxed from the Liliesleaf chickens to his fellow activists despite their protestations. He also told me how the underground activists of Liliesleaf used to sell the vegetables they used to grow.
“Our best customer was the Rivonia Police!” he chuckled as it was the police of Rivonia who raided Liliesleaf with dogs, in July 1964 and sent Kathrada, in chains, to prison for life on Robben Island.
“We subsequently found out that life was to mean life,” he said with irony and his trademark smile.
When Kathrada emerged from a lifetime in prison in 1989, apartheid had taken a lot more from him than his youth; it had also taken his birthplace. The place where he grew up in Schweizer-Reneke, in South Africa’s North West province, had been bulldozed by the authorities in the cause of keeping the races apart.
Incarceration had taken much more. Computers, hotel room cards instead of keys, and the clutter modern world were a mystery to him. He tried driving on the motorways that he had never seen, once, but found it too stressful and confusing. Even a harmless ATM was a mission as Kathrada found out when he went to get some money with fellow Robben Island prisoner Laloo Chiba one Sunday morning.
“He put in his card and it was swallowed, then I put my card in and pressed a few buttons and it was also swallowed. We had to phone the bank and they came to open up the ATM and get our cards out. Now Barbara gets my money for me,” he told me.
Politician Barbara Hogan was Kathrada’s loving partner in later life and they appeared kindred spirits. It was compensation for a prison sentence that robbed Kathrada of being able to raise a family. The prison guards used of Robben Island used to cruelly keep children out of sight for all prisoners; Kathrada told me of the pain of two decades of never hearing that most natural sound, the carefree laughter of a child. Hogan was the nearest to family Kathrada ever knew upon his release.
“When I phone home from overseas my first question is: ‘What happened in Isidingo ( A TV soap opera) my second question is about whether the country has been overthrown!” Kathrada said in his own dry way.
One or two people in the African National Congress would whisper to you that Kathrada was a bit star struck when it came to big names and would drop everything to be with them. It was Kathrada who accompanied the then rising United States senator Barack Obama to Robben Island on his visit to South Africa.
When it came to integrity, there was never a waver or whiff of scandal around Kathrada. I shall remember him for six words he shot back to me in the studio all those years ago. I ventured that there was a rising generation of young people who didn’t know, nor care, about the causes and sacrifices of the struggle generation. 
“That is what we fought for.”
The principled and upstanding way of Ahmed Kathrada; sadly many of those principles he fought from were ignored by a generation old enough to know better.

S.A’s struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada: The gentle soul has died

The first known television interview with South Africa&#8217;s late anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela has emerged, featuring a bearded activist defiantly vowing to fight racism in footage believed to have dated from 1956.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation, an NGO dedicated to Mandela&#8217;s memory, said that the 24-second footage was probably filmed in 1956 during the &#8220;Treason Trial,&#8221; which ended in 1961 with the acquittal of Mandela and dozens of others on charges of treason.
Mandela, who died in 2013 aged 95, became South Africa&#8217;s first black president in 1994. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for his efforts to promote racial reconciliation in his racially scarred nation.
The footage shows a bearded and heavy-set Mandela wearing a grey suit and tie and standing before a plain paneled wall.
&#8220;From the very beginning, the African National Congress set itself the task of fighting against white supremacy,&#8221; Mandela said, referring to the movement that he went on to lead and which has been South Africa&#8217;s ruling party since the end of apartheid in 1994.
&#8220;We have always regarded as wrong for one racial group to dominate another racial group. And from the very beginning the African National Congress has fought, without hesitation, against all forms of racial discrimination and we shall continue to do so until freedom is achieved,&#8221; Mandela, who would have been around 38 at the time, said.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation said the interview took place at the Old Synagogue in Pretoria, where the Treason Trial was held and was broadcast on January 31, 1961 by a Netherlands television broadcaster, AVRO.
Previously, the first television interview with Mandela was thought to have been conducted in May, 1961, when he was in hiding. He would subsequently be arrested in 1962 and was only released from prison in 1990.
 
(Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by)
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