Kathrada’s passing left a huge void: Hogan

The widow of struggle icon Ahmed Kathrada, Barbara Hogan says she is delighted to see South Africans from all walks of life showing how much her late husband meant to them.

She says Kathrada’s passing left a huge void but the overwhelming support the family has been receiving has made the challenging time a little easier.

On Wednesday Hogan visited Kathrada’s grave in commemorating a year since her husband died.

The former cabinet minister says those in authority must be on the lookout for those who are seeking to enrich themselves in the name of democracy.

“In order to understand our history for the past 20 to 25 years, we really need to understand why some people who were involved in the struggle decided that their way forward was to enrich themselves in the name of democracy while others refused to enrich themselves.”

Hogan says even though Kathrada wrote a letter to former president Jacob Zuma, requesting that he resign he knew he wasn’t going to be popular with some in the ANC.

She says Uncle Kathy felt the need to express his unhappiness with the direction the ANC was taking.

“We know that Kathy, under great difficulty wrote that letter when he finally found and believed that it was correct to speak out. That letter had a lot of impact and it was a shelter to many people who felt the same way.”