On behalf of our Chairman Professor Njabulo Ndebele, our Trustees and Staff, the Nelson Mandela Foundation sends its deepest condolences to the family, friends and comrades of the late Felicity Kentridge.
She was a pioneering lawyer who contributed immensely to a democratic South Africa.
Mr Mandela, himself a lawyer, counted amongst his friends Mrs Kentridge and her husband Sir Sidney Kentridge who served on his legal team in the 1956 Treason Trial.
Writing to Mrs Kentridge from Robben Island prison in 1976, Mr Mandela said: “I have never regarded women as in any way less competent than men.” He was seeking her advice about a female relative who wanted to study law against the advice of her father.
They had last seen each other in June 1964 when she attended the end of the Rivonia Trial which saw him and seven others sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage. Mr Mandela wrote to her: “You seemed glued to your seat in the jury box and listening attentively to the proceedings like a layman who was attending such proceedings for the first time in life.”
Hamba Kahle Mam’ Felicity. May you rest in peace.