JOHANNESBURG: Indian-origin South African freedom fighter Ahmed Kathrada has been awarded the Freedom of the City of Cape Town, becoming only the sixth such recipient in the country's oldest city.
Kathrada was a close confidante of South Africa's first black president and global anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.
Kathrada, 86, said in a lighter vein that he was awarded as a celebrated citizen because "all he had done was serve 26 years as a political prisoner alongside Mandela and others on Robben Island, which falls under the jurisdiction of the City, without paying any taxes".
The other recipients of the honour include Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.
Kathrada said he was nonetheless accepting the honour not for himself, but on behalf of the many other South African citizens who had "sacrificed life and limb to bring about a non-racial' non-sexist and democratic society".
"We sometimes forget that freedom came at huge costs and sacrifices and that many of those scars have not yet had time to heal. We sometimes forget that 1994 was only about the start of a new journey and not the final destination itself'" Kathrada said, referring to the election of Mandela as the country's first democratically-elected president.
Referring to Cape Town as "a beautiful city", Kathrada also reminded authorities that there was a dark side to it in its history of slavery and the social, economic, geographic and psychological dislocation caused by forced removals, which needed to be addressed.
"It manifests itself in unemployment, dire poverty, drug addiction and gangsterism in the insalubrious racially- segregated areas of the apartheid era.
"We must build a future of justice, equality and dignity for each and every person in Cape Town, and indeed, in our country, so that each citizen can aspire to and achieve to their fullest potential," Kathrada said.
Three years ago, Kathrada also received the Freedom of the City of Johannesburg, where he spent his youth before his arrest and imprisonment by apartheid authorities on treason charges.
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