The City of Joburg conferred the Freedom of the City honour and award to Andrew Mlangeni and George Bizos – the highest title offered by the City of Joburg – for the parts both men played during the Rivonia Trial.
Mayor Parks Tau said that they were being honoured for their noble and supremely principled stand at Madiba’s side, confronting the logic of a deeply illegitimate system with profoundly democratic clarity and eloquence – risking the death penalty and persecution to do it. He added that the City honoured Mlangeni and Bizos most explicitly not just by ceremonies and lunches, but by continuing and intensifying their work. He pointed out that Joburg’s economy was now twice the size it was in the first year of South Africa’s democracy, but added that the economy remained highly concentrated in the hands of the few.
“So we must not shirk from the transformation commitment, which is epitomised by the City’s Jozi@Work program, to empower and develop thousands upon thousands of community-level enterprises,” he said.
A visibly unwell Bizos thanked the City for bestowing the honour upon him and acknowledged the many lives that were sacrificed for South Africa to have freedom and democracy. Andrew Mlangeni was not present due to ill health but his son Sello Mlangeni accepted the award on his behalf. Mlangeni’s granddaughter, Ntsebeng Mlangeni, said that she was proud that her grandfather had received the award as he had dedicated his life to the freedom struggle. “There are many like my grandfather who went to prison, some even died so that we can enjoy the rights and freedoms that we have enshrined in our constitution,” She said.
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