In April last year, after South Africa's highest court found that Zuma had violated his oath of office by refusing to abide by an order to pay back some of the millions of dollars in public money spent on upgrading his rural home, Kathrada wrote a letter to the president asking him to step down. "Dear Comrade President, don't you think your continued stay as president will only serve to deepen the crisis of confidence in the government of the country," Kathrada wrote. Kathrada was married to former government minister Barbara Hogan, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail for high treason against the apartheid government in 1982.