![]() ![]() The Rivonia Trial Fifty Years later. The Rivonia Trial Fifty Years later. The Nelson Mandela (Rivonia) Trial: An Account by Douglas O. Linder (2010) Nelson Mandela It's 'the trial that changed South Africa.'. Mandela, Nelson Title: I am prepared to die Sub-title: Nelson Mandela's statement from the dock at the opening of the defence case in the Rivonia Trial Item type: Statement Acquisition method: Audio Recording Unique ID: NMS010. On June 12, 1964, Nelson Mandela received a life sentence for committing sabotage against South Africa’s apartheid government. Educators, challenge your students to learn vital Web research skills and study an event in history with the On This Day Challenge. The Treason Trial was a trial in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956. The main trial lasted until 1961, when all of the defendants were found not guilty. During the trials, Oliver Tambo left. ![]() Fifty years after the beginning of the Rivonia Trial, officially known as the State versus Mandela and others, we are able to look at what happened in the light of the literature that has been published since 1. South Africa’s democratic era. Context and Overview: The Rise and Fall of Resistance. The Rivonia Trial was an event that brought to a conclusion an intense period of resistance and agitation against apartheid that began with the resuscitation of the ANC after its radicalisation by the ANC Youth League. When Anton Lembede, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and their comrades formed the Youth League in the mid- 1. Programme of Action in 1. Following the Indian Passive Resistance campaign against the Pegging and Ghetto Acts in 1. Indians in South Africa, the ANC embarked on the Defiance Campaign in 1. But the apartheid state cracked down on all forms of resistance, at first outlawing the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) in 1. As the Defiance Campaign lost its momentum, ANC and Congress Alliance leaders were put on trial for treason in 1. ![]() Treason Trial. The state failed to prove that the ANC was a communist organisation and was unsuccessful in its efforts to eliminate the ANC and its leaders, and they were set free in March 1. Policemen outside court during the trial. Another organisation that sprang up during the decade was the Pan Africanist Congress(PAC) which was formed when its members broke away from the ANC in 1. The PAC launched its anti- Pass Law campaign, which culminated in the Sharpeville Massacre, a State of Emergency and the banning of the ANC, PAC and other organisations. The PAC, as well as the ANC in concert with the SACP, began to consider military campaigns to resist the apartheid state, and the ANC formed a military wing, u. Mkhonto we Sizwe (MK), while members of the PAC did the same, launching Poqo. Around the same time, some members of the Liberal Party also launched the African Resistance Movement (ARM), an organisation aimed at carrying out sabotage attacks against the state. The ANC tasked Oliver Tambo with the establishment of an external wing outside the country, and he went into exile and began setting up offices in various countries, beginning in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, then in Ethiopia and Algiers in Algeria. Both MK and Poqo embarked on sabotage campaigns. The Washington Post’s Sudarsan Raghavan talks about the life and legacy of former South African president Nelson Mandela. Now at the trial, Mandela and his close friend and fellow defendant Walter Sisulu led the defense strategy. They insisted on turning.MK operations began on 1. December 1. 96. 1, when the organisation announced its establishment. Nelson Mandela went on illegal trips on the continent to drum up support for the ANC from newly independent African countries, and he returned to South Africa in the midst of an intense police campaign to arrest him. Known as the Black Pimpernel, Mandela evaded arrest for 1. August 1. 96. 2. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison for incitement. Before his arrest the MK High Command began to consider a military campaign, a plan titled Operation Mayibuye. The SACP, in the meanwhile, bought a farm north of Johannesburg in Rivonia, called Lilliesleaf, which the party used as a base for underground operations. It was here that police conducted a raid which saw the arrest of members of the ANC, MK and the SACP: Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada, Lionel Bernstein, and Dennis Goldberg. Andrew Mlangeni and Elias Motsoaledi were arrested later. ![]() The police also found documents related to sabotage campaigns, including the plan for Operation Mayibuye. The men were detained for three months while the state . The Rivonia Trial began on 9 October 1. It culminated in the conviction of most of the accused on various charges, and they were sentenced to life imprisonment. The incarceration of the leaders of the ANC, MK and the SACP marked the beginning of a period of brutal state repression against any form of resistance by any organisation of the oppressed, a period of quiescence that only ended with the rise of the Black Consciousness Movement in 1. Operation Mayibuye. Nelson Mandela first discussed the possibility of using violence against the state in the early 1. June 1. 96. 1 that he raised the issue with the ANC’s Working Committee, and on that occasion Moses Kotane, who was an ANC executive member as well as the secretary of the SACP, vigorously opposed the idea. But Mandela convinced him and Kotane did not oppose the idea when Mandela again brought up the issue at a meeting. Eventually, he was authorised to form u. Mkhonto we Sizwe. David Welsh, in a book published in 2. Hundreds of MK recruits would go abroad for military training, thereafter returning to four rural areas to be joined by thousands of local recruits. Attacks would be launched on strategic targets, complemented by urban sabotage and mobilisation for protest. Including a national anti- pass campaign. By mid- 1. 96. 3, 3. The plan was accepted by the High Command, although it evoked strong opposition in the SACP’s Central Committee.’Mandela formed a High Command, which included Govan Mbeki, Joe Slovo, and Jack Hodgson. Joe Slovo was tasked by the Central Committee with presenting the plan for consideration by the leadership in exile. Ahmed Kathrada, in a book of memoirs published in 2. Mayibuye. Bernstein, according to Kathrada, said that the . Lilliesleaf Farm. The South African Communist Party established a . Vivian Ezra was its sole director and on 2. August 1. 96. 1 signed the offer to purchase. James Kantor and Partners handled the transaction on behalf of Ezra. Once the dilapidated outbuildings and main house were renovated, Arthur Goldreich and his family moved into the main house, ostensibly as the . He then travelled throughout Africa to raise support for MK, visited the United Kingdom and underwent military training in Ethiopia. In March of 1. 96. Mr Mandela received training from the Algerian National Liberation Front at bases of the latter across the border in Morocco. Source: Pretoria News Library. When Mandela returned to Bechuanaland (Botswana) he slipped across the border and drove directly to Lilliesleaf, where, the next night, he met with the Working Committee who debriefed him on his mission. Mandela made it through, but while driving back to Johannesburg he was intercepted by the police near Howick, Natal and captured, on 5 August 1. Mandela was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison for leaving the country illegally without a passport and inciting workers to strike. Nelson Mandela, second from left, with members of the Algerian National Liberation Front in Morocco, 1. According to Welsh, it soon became the nerve centre of MK, and he goes on to say that its reclusiveness . He quotes Rusty Bernstein in support: . Things that should never have been kept there, were; and people who should not have known of its existence were taken there”. Lieutenant Van Wyk, Detective Warrant Officer Kennedy, Detective Warrant Officer Dirker, Lieutenant Van Heerden and several other Security Branch policemen secured the premises and arrested Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada, Lionel Bernstein, and Bob Hepple who were in the thatched cottage discussing Operation Mayibuye. Denis Goldberg was seized inside the main house and the police combed through material at Lilliesleaf Farm during the raid. Police considered Sisulu the prize, having a while before mounted a manhunt for the ANC Secretary General. Police found stacks of incriminating documents: pamphlets issued by the ANC, SACP and MK, left- wing literature, and crucially, the plan for Operation Mayibuye. The men were whisked away to the Johannesburg Fort and some to the Marshall Square police station, and kept in detention under the Ninety Day Detention Law (General Law Amendment Act), which was passed on 1 May 1. Police also arrested Harold Wolpe while he was about to cross the border into Bechuanaland (Botswana) in an attempt to leave the country, and later his brother in Law, James Kantor. Besides the accused, all the farm workers were held under the 9. Prelude to the trial. Arthur Goldreich one of the accused who escaped before the trial. In the weeks before the trial, several dramatic events took place. Harold Wolpe, Arthur Goldreich, Abdullah Jassat and Mosie Moolla escaped from prison after bribing a young policeman, Constable Johan Greef, who facilitated their exit. The four left the country as newspapers splashed details of their dramatic escape. Goldreich and Wolpe, were smuggled inside the boot of a vehicle into Swaziland, at the time a British protectorate, and once disguised as priests flown to Bechuanaland. The police were deeply embarrassed by the episode, and turned their anger on those they had in custody, and especially on James Kantor, Wolpe’s brother- in- law, whose legal practice facilitated the purchase of Lilliesleaf. Bram Fischer, the distinguished lawyer who was the leader of the underground SACP, took on the task of defending Mandela and his co- accused. Canon Collins of the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) raised at least . From the outset, Fischer knew that the best that could be achieved would be to avert the death sentence, and he saw it as the mission of the defence to save the men’s lives – anything more would be too much to hope for. The trial became the focal point of local and international attention and set in motion the destruction of the ANC led underground and the launch of the sabotage campaign. The 1. 1 accused emerged from the basement of Court Three, their friends and relatives taken aback by their appearance – they had obviously been through traumatic experiences. Mandela, who had been sent to Robben Island soon after his arrest, was dressed in prison khaki shorts and shirt, and had lost at least 1. According to Hilda Bernstein, his face looked hollow, and his complexion had taken on a . When Hilda Bernstein tried to talk to Mrs Sisulu, a policeman prevented any contact, and ordered Bernstein to return to the white section. The prisoners were seated on a long wooden bench specially built for the trial.
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