50th anniversary of Rivonia Trial sentencing
HOUGHTON - The Nelson Mandela Foundation will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the sentencing of the Rivonia trialists.
On 12 June 1964, eight men stood in the dock in the Palace of Justice in Pretoria awaiting their sentence on sabotage charges.
They were all expecting to be sentenced to death for their role in the African National Congress’ armed struggle.
“The menacing shadow of the gallows stalked us in and outside the courtroom throughout that trial. In prison one lived in a pervading atmosphere of the death sentence. Prison officials, maliciously or otherwise, went out of their way to constantly cast such shadows in my path,” Nelson Mandela wrote later in prison.
On the day of the sentencing a large crowd had gathered in the street outside the court in support of the men who had been tried for eight-and-a-half months in what had become known as the Rivonia Trial.
The men were Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Mlangeni and Elias Motsoaledi. Lionel “Rusty” Bernstein was acquitted on 11 June.
“It was a tense moment when the judge finally delivered his sentence; it was a source of encouragement to see that it was not the accused in the dock who were visibly nervous but the judge himself,” Mandela wrote.
Madiba added, “The whole of South Africa and the world tensely awaited the verdict and the unprecedented step was taken to have it broadcast directly from the court. The judge’s voice was barely audible as he pronounced sentence of life imprisonment and quickly left the court. Among the spectators there was a sigh of relief and many hurriedly left the court to convey the news to the excited throng outside.”
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