Anti-apartheid leader, Ahmed Kathrada, aged 87

Ahmed Kathrada, pictured, who spent 26 years in jail for acts of sabotage against South Africa’s white minority government, has died in Johannesburg at the age of 87.

Mr Kathrada’s foundation announced he died after being admitted to hospital with blood clotting in his brain earlier in the month.

Born on August 21 1929 in a small town in north-western South Africa, he became involved in activities against apartheid.

He was arrested on the outskirts of Johannesburg in July 1963, and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964.

He spent many years in jail alongside the country’s future president, Mandela.

After his release from prison in October 1989, at the age of 60, he became an MP and married anti-apartheid activist Barbara Hogan.

Recently Mr Kathrada had been a critic of President Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress (ANC) government. Nelson

Last April, he called on Mr Zuma to resign after South Africa’s highest court found that the president had violated his oath of office by refusing to pay back public money spent on upgrading his rural home.

Neeshan Balton, chief executive of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, said in a statement: “This is a great loss to the ANC, the broader liberation movement and South Africa as a whole.”

Tourism minister Derek Hanekom said: “Comrade Kathy was a gentle, humane and humble soul.

“He was a determined revolutionary who gave his entire life to the liberation struggle in our country.”