After the apartheid government banned the ANC and other political parties, Kathrada went underground and joined the armed struggle. Kathrada spoke about how the sentence was a relief, because most of the Rivonia trialists expected to hang. With other anti-apartheid leaders, Kathrada helped turn Robben Island into a university, attaining four university degrees in the process. The imprisoned activists began charting a way forward for a post-apartheid South Africa. Denis Goldberg, a close friend of Kathrada, and fellow Rivonia prisoner, called into a popular morning radio show to make an appeal.

Source: CNN March 28, 2017 08:37 UTC