South Africa activist’s funeral exposes divide over future
JOHANNESBURG — The funeral of one of South Africa’s leading anti-apartheid activists on Wednesday exposed the angry divide over the fate of a country he fought decades to see exist. President Jacob Zuma said he wouldn’t attend after Ahmed Kathrada’s family asked him to stay away, while funeral-goers rose in a standing ovation for Kathrada’s recent call for the scandal-ridden Zuma to step aside.
Kathrada, who spent years in prison with Nelson Mandela for opposing the former white minority government, died Tuesday at age 87. He stepped into the spotlight last year to urge Zuma to quit after numerous corruption allegations against him shook the faith of many in the ruling African National Congress, the country’s former liberation movement.
The ANC flag covered Kathrada’s coffin Wednesday, and a statement from Zuma’s office said South Africa had lost “one of its valuable and most respected freedom fighters.”
But the growing frustration over the country’s leadership burst out among the aging activists, including Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela Mandela, 80.