Mandela’s confidant rejects Canadian visa rules

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — A confidant of former President Nelson Mandela and former Robben Island inmate said Monday he had canceled a planned trip to Canada because Canadian rules require even former political prisoners of apartheid to get a police clearance for a visa.

Ahmed Kathrada, who spent 26 years as a political prisoner, said after first telling him he needed police clearance, a Canadian diplomat called him later and said they didn’t realize who he was.

“He was leading up to telling me I didn’t need clearance but I stopped him and told him I didn’t want any special treatment. There are hundreds of former political prisoners who are not high profile. And Canadians don’t need a visa to come to South Africa,” Kathrada said by telephone from Cape Town.

Lizette van Niekerk, the spokeswoman for the Canadian High Commission, the country’s embassy in Pretoria, said referred requests for a response to Greg Scott with the Canadian Department of Citizenship and Immigration in Ottawa. There was no immediate response to a message left on his voice mail.

Kathrada said most political prisoners are proud of the time they served in prison for opposing apartheid and never thought of it as a criminal conviction but rather a political one.

He said he had planned to visit Canada this month as part of a trip to the United States to launch his second book, “Memoirs.”

“I tried to go to Canada in 1996 and they told me I needed police clearance and I canceled the trip. Later they invited Mandela, who has the same convictions as I have, and said they had relaxed the requirements. They gave me a five-year visa,” said Kathrada.

“This time I wrote them a letter that told them about my conviction that was political and asking if they needed anything else to give me a visa. They sent me the regular circular,” said Kathrada, who said the instructions said he must get police clearance.

Kathrada said he will still make the trip to the United States.

“I have never had a problem there. I have been to the United States four times since 9-11 and there still have been no problems,” he said. (Associated Press)