The US Friends of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation
- Communicates information on the life and the life and the values of Ahmed Kathrada and the work of the Foundation
- Organizes events and programs designed to deepen non-racialism, strengthen democracy, and further the other aims of the Foundation
- Advises the foundation on its US efforts, outreach, and messaging
- Identifies potential collaborators between the Foundation and individuals, institutions and organizations in the US
- Helps cultivate US interest in and support for the Foundation
This event was held in remembrance of the fifth anniversary of Ahmed Kathrada’s passing, as one way to honor his legacy and introduce his work and that of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and the US Friends to a larger international public.
Patrick Gaspard was the US Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa, appointed by President Obama, where he led efforts to redesign the US government’s HIV/AIDS initiative, integrating it into the South African health-care system. He also led negotiations resulting in an unprecedented ten-year renewal of the bilateral African Growth and Opportunity compact between the trading partners. Until recently, Gaspard was president of the Open Society Foundation, where he confronted significant threats to open societies around the globe, including the rise of authoritarian regimes and the spread of COVID-19. He shaped the foundation’s $220 million commitment to civil rights in the wake of the national reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd. Gaspard, who was born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, to Haitian parents and grew up in New York City, now heads the Center for American Progress and the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Pravin Gordhan is the Minister of Public Enterprises in South Africa. A leading anti-apartheid activist, he then undertook pivotal roles in the establishment of the nation’s new democracy, including in the seminal multi-party negotiations leading to the first free elections and in the implementation of the new South African Constitution. He has served as a member of Parliament, the Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service, and the country’s Minister of Finance. He remains dedicated to defending democracy, advancing racial and gender equality, fighting corruption, and building a prosperous future for all people in South Africa.
The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation is a South African-based foundation founded in 2008 to carry on the work and legacy of anti-apartheid stalwart Ahmed Kathrada and his generation. Kathrada, who spent twenty-six years in prison alongside Nelson Mandela and their fellow Rivonia Trialists, went on to serve as a member of Parliament, the Parliamentary Counsellor to President Mandela, and a voice of moral conscience for his nation. The Foundation’s main objectives are to deepen non-racialism in post-apartheid South Africa and to advance the best values and principles of the South African liberation struggle, the Freedom Charter, and the South African Constitution.
US Friends of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation was founded in 2017, shortly after Ahmed Kathrada passed away, by his longtime friends and colleagues based in the US, who are committed to carrying on his legacy and supporting the vital work of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.
