By Fakir Hassen, IANS,
Johannesburg : As people across the globe prepare to mark the inaugural Mandela Day Saturday with a variety of community service projects, four South African Indian veterans of the struggle against apartheid recalled the time they spent on Robben Island with the first democratic president of the nation.
Ahmed Kathrada, one of Nelson Mandela’s closest confidantes, spent 25 years in the tough, high-secuirty island prison, just two years less than Mandela. Isu Chiba was there for 18 years, and Shirish Nanabhai and Reggie Vandeyar for 10 years each.
On Saturday, the four will go to Rose Park in Lenasia, the sprawling Indian township south of here created under the apartheid-era Group Areas Act, which prescribed separate residential areas for race groups.
“They will join in our plans to spend 67 minutes with (underprivileged) children from informal settlements around the greater Lenasia area at Rose Park,” said Zarina Motala of the ANC Lenasia branch, which is organising the event.
Speaking on behalf of the former inmates, Chiba said: “Madiba (a popular clan name for Mandela) was a pillar of strength to all other prisoners on the island. With others, he kept our morale high and our spirits high, helping us through difficult times.”
Kathrada said he would leave Mandela to spend his birthday in peace with his family. “But I pray that he still has many happy years and that South Africans and the rest of the world do something to support his legacy.”
Mandela Day has already caught the imagination of millions of people in South Africa as well as the US and other countries, who will spend 67 minutes Saturday doing something that is of benefit to their fellow citizens – one minute for each year that Mandela, who will turn 91, spent in service of mankind.
Besides huge musical events at various centres here, people have started projects to clean up the environment, provide food and blankets to the needy during the current bitter cold weather.