The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation was formed in 2008 to continue the legacy of anti-apartheid struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada and his generation. The Foundation is an independent, non-partisan entity. Kathrada, a former Robben Island prisoner, served 26 years in jail alongside his fellow Rivonia Trialists for their stance against the apartheid government. Kathrada’s life has been characterised by his commitment to the best values and principles of the South African liberation struggle, particularly that of non-racialism.
Our Key Objectives
The objective of the Foundation is to deepen non-racialism in post-apartheid South Africa. The Foundation works towards this objective by executing programmes, projects and campaigns, which support
the following areas:
– Promote the values, rights and principles enshrined in the Freedom Charter and the Constitution of the Republic of
South Africa.
– Organise seminars,lectures, debates and discussions and undertake research on issues which promote a nonracial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa.
– Collect, record, promote and display, through historical artefacts and contemporary material, Kathrada’s role in South Africa’s liberation struggle and its relation to the role of other individuals, groups and movements both nationally and internationally.
– Establish a research and documentation centre that will provide selective historical and contemporary documentation and archival material on liberation history in South Africa in general, and to make this available for academic and scholarly research.
– Identify and support projects and programmes that will deepen non-racialism and create an equitable society
– Maintain a centre that will carry out all of the activities and programmes of the Foundation.

“Remember that no struggle in any part of the world was won in the drawing rooms and conference tables…we must at all times know that, as with the struggles of all peoples, the main brunt will have to be borne by the youth” – Ahmed Kathrada