Ahmed Kathrada remembers heroes of the struggle on Mandela Day

The ethos of International Nelson Mandela Day is to take action and inspire change – not just on Madiba’s birthday, but every day.

Across the globe individuals and groups take part in Mandela Day in various ways, from helping out at care centres and schools to planting trees and handing out food parcels to those in need.

This year Ahmed Kathrada, a trustee at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and a former political prisoner and anti-apartheid activist, took part in two very different Mandela Day activities.

On 18 July 2012, Kathrada and Laloo Chiba, accompanied by members of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation visited the graves of heroes of the political struggle at Avalon Cemetery in Soweto, at Lenasia Cemetery and at Westpark Cemetery.

At each of the graves the group laid wreaths and spent 67 minutes talking about the achievements and enormous contributions made by each of the fallen struggle heroes. 

To read more about the day’s event, please click on the image on the top right. 

In a very different type of Mandela Day endeavour, Kathrada and Barbara Hogan were invited by the South African Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Shirish Soni, to travel to the country and take part in various Mandela Day programmes.

Kathrada and Hogan arrived in the country on 11 June and took part in a variety of different events, including a talk at the UN office, a musical performance dedicated to Madiba that took place in Astana (the capital) and a celebration of Mandela day with some 100 children from primary schools across the country.

To read more about the activities they enjoyed in Kazakhstan, please click on the two images below.