How the Rivonia triallists triumphed

Dubbed the Rivonia Trial – a nod to the Johannesburg suburb where the accused were arrested – it in the end saw Nelson Mandela and seven anti-apartheid activists convicted of conspiring to overthrow the state and sentenced to life in prison. But it also provided a pulpit from which the accused drew back the veil on the horrors and oppression of the apartheid regime.

During the Rivonia Trial, Mandela made his now famous “I am prepared to die” speech. Andrew Mlangeni, the last surviving triallist before his death this week, also made the following brief, but powerful, statement from the dock: “The court can now see that some of the evidence given against me is true and some false. I have chosen not to give evidence, my Lord, because I do not want to be cross-examined about people I have worked with and places I have visited in case I might give these people away.

South African political activist and former political prisoner Andrew Mlangeni demonstrates how he used to sleep on the floor in a prison cell on Robben Island. Pictures: EPA

“Also, my Lord, I have frankly admitted that I have assisted Umkhonto we Sizwe. I want to say that I joined the ANC in 1954. I did it because I want to work for my people. I did this because of the treatment my people have received from the rulers of this country. In the ANC I found a political home where I was free to talk against the government.

“South Africa, my Lord, is a very rich country, the resources could be exploited for the benefit of all the people who live in it. This government and the previous governments have exploited not the earth, but the people of various racial groups whose colour is not white.

“The government daily makes suppressive laws in its white parliament, which laws are aimed at suppressing the political aspirations of the majority of the people. I know that you, my Lord, have to administer the law, but when you do so, I ask you to remember what we, the Africans and nonwhite people, have had to suffer. That is all I have to say, except to add that what I did was not for myself but for my people.”

In handing down sentence, Judge Quartus de Wet said the crime the accused had been convicted of was “in essence one of high treason”. He stopped short of sentencing them to death, though, saying: “Consistent with my duty, that is the only leniency I can show.”

The men who were the catalysts of fight that led to democracy

The death of ANC stalwart Andrew Mlangeni and the accolades showered on him have highlighted the roles played by the cream of the crop of Rivonia triallists in the fight for democracy.

Almost every mention of the Rivonia Triallists the name of Nelson Mandela, followed by Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu and Raymond Mhlaba, although Sisulu and Mhlaba sometimes swap positions.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela during her 80th birthday celebrations on September 26, 2016 in Soweto. Photo: Gallo Images

Why were these leaders so important in the Rivonia Trial that began in October 1963, and ended with their sentencing in June 1964?

Mlangeni, Mandela, Mbeki, Mhlaba, Sisulu, Elias Motsoaledi, Denis Goldberg and Ahmed Kathrada had active roles in the Defiance Campaign and in acts of sabotage. The authorities regarded Mandela as the instigator of the anti-apartheid bombing campaign. He had also left the country illegally, undergone military training abroad and was among the first soldiers of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe.

Another significant figure in the Rivonia Trial was Govan Mbeki. He was a senior member of the SA Communist Party (SACP) and was viewed as a menace by the government. Sisulu was not only a mentor to Mandela, whom he recruited in the Transkei and brought to the Transvaal, he was most active as secretary of the ANC in Transvaal. He subsequently became a member of the ANC national executive committee.

Sisulu was seen as the brains behind all the ANC activities post-1940, after the ANC Youth League was founded.

Mhlaba, although not as highly regarded as Mandela, Mbeki and Sisulu, was also seen as a danger by the apartheid system because he was part of the SACP. He, too, underwent military training under MK. All the Rivonia triallists were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, except Lionel Bernstein, who was acquitted.

Bizos had a pivotal role

The desire to resist repression is not a trait George Bizos acquired in his adult life. In fact, his decision, along with his father’s, to seek out the New Zealand soldiers hiding in the hills of his village in Greece led to them having to abandon their home to become refugees in South Africa when George was 13.

Perhaps it was the experience of being an outsider that led to his decision years later at Witwatersrand University to join left-leaning student movements calling for segregation on campus to be eradicated. It was also here where his lifelong friendship with Nelson Mandela began.

Bizos first came to prominence as part of a team of lawyers, including Bram Fischer, Arthur Chaskalson, Joel Joffe and Vernon Berrangé, who were representing Nelson Mandela and his co-accused in the Rivonia Trial (1963 to 1964) on charges of sabotage. Bizos’ decades-long political activism and his knowledge of Mandela and his co-accused resulted in the adoption of a litigation strategy which saved all these men from certain death. Today, the Bizos name embodies the maxim of “people first”.

Troubles with judges of old

As a young defence lawyer working in the apartheid era and representing political prisoners, Thumba Pillay recalls praying for a sympathetic judge.

“The bench was all white then and it was generally a very unsympathetic lot,” Pillay, now a retired judge of the high court, said this week. There were only a handful of judges, like John Didcott, who you could rely on to actually apply the law as they should.”

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA ñ MARCH 17: An example of how the dictabelt was packaged and stored, during the handing over of the digital audio recordings from the Rivonia Trial on March 17, 2016 in Pretoria, South Africa. According to reports, the Department of Arts and Culture reached an agreement with France’s National Audiovisual Institute to digitise the court proceedings of the 1963-1964 Rivonia trial. (Gallo Images / Beeld / Theana Breugem)

Pillay represented Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim when the struggle stalwart was charged under the Sabotage Act in the ’60s. This saw Pillay banned for the greater part of a decade. He was then unable to travel between his home in Durban, to which he was confined, and Pietermaritzburg, where the trial was taking place.

“I couldn’t even communicate with my clients. It was an impossible situation.”

Eventually, the judge president persuaded the security police to give Pillay permission to communicate with his clients and travel to and from Pietermaritzburg, subject to a host of conditions.

“It was very difficult practising law back then. The ’60s were turbulent years. They ushered in a plethora of laws which defied just about everything that was sacred to the ideals of a democratic state and the rule of law.”

Pillay said the country has come a long way since then, but there was still a way to go. “I, like many people, am very, very disappointed with where we are at the moment,” he said.

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