Legal eagles who fought the brave fight

Joel Joffe was the instructing attorney for the Rivonia Trial accused.

After the trial, he moved to the United Kingdom, where he worked in the financial services sector. In 2000, he became a member of the British House of Lords. He died in 2017, aged 85.

In a letter from the accused, dated 11 May, 1964, they described Joffe as “the general behind the scenes of our defence”.

“He has managed and marshalled this most complex case with understanding and skill.

“His judgment of the strength of our case, and of its weaknesses, has been keen and stated without hesitation.

“He has understood and accepted that, above all else, we would not compromise our beliefs or consciences for legal advantage,” they wrote.

“As a friend, Joel has taken on himself services far beyond the call of a lawyer’s duty. He has assisted in all the personal and family problems that have beset us, as though our friendship had been long and close.

“Nothing has been too much trouble for him or fallen outside his concept of a lawyer’s responsibility to his client.”

The lead advocate for the defence, Bram Fischer, was himself arrested and charged with contravening the Suppression of Communism Act following the Rivonia Trial.

But he went underground soon afterwards and in a letter read out in court, Fischer said his absence from his trial, while deliberate, was not intended “in any way to be disrespectful”.

“Nor is it prompted by any fear of the punishment which might be inflicted on me,” he said. “My decision was made only because I believe that it is the duty of every true opponent of this government to remain in this country and to oppose its monstrous policy of apartheid with every means in his power.

“That is what I shall do for as long as I can.”

“I can no longer serve justice in the way I have attempted to do during the past 30 years. I can do it only in the way I have now chosen.”

Fischer did eventually stand trial and was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

He was released from prison in 1974, after he developed cancer, though, and died some weeks later.

After defending the Rivonia accused, Arthur Chaskalson went on to help found the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and became the first president of the Constitutional Court after the advent of democracy.

In a speech made by George Bizos in 2012, in the wake of Chaskalson’s death, his friend and colleague recalled their time spent together as law students at the University of Witwatersrand and spoke of a single event which had solidified their lifelong friendship.

Bizos, who was on the students’ representative council at the time, had threatened to withdraw funding for the law faculty’s annual dinner unless eight black students were allowed to attend.

“Not all students agreed. They called a meeting to vote for a motion of no confidence in me,” he explained.

“Shortly before a vote was to be taken, Arthur Chaskalson put up his hand. He said that we were posing the wrong question.

“What was the policy of the government and the university authorities and how they were to be applied was not the issue.

“He emphatically stated that the issue was ‘what is right and what is wrong’. It became his trademark whenever difficult professional or moral issues arose.”

The only surviving member of the defence, George Bizos, is today a celebrated human rights lawyer and was also a founding member of the LRC. This year, he marks his 30-year anniversary with the centre.

Nersan Govender, the director of the LRC, said this week that Bizos – now 91 – had played “a critical role in the mentorship and grooming of young and nascent attorneys, eager to pursue human rights work”.

“While here, he has worked dutifully to ensure the rights enshrined in the constitution remain applicable to all people, especially the poor who are often rendered outliers from justice.

“Notably, he has led the LRC’s legal interventions on behalf of the families of those slain at Marikana.

“His involvement in this matter was integral in initiating the independent forensic work that exposed the horrors of the massacre and he also played a significant role in placing evidence before the Farlam inquiry into the killings.”

Known as the “defender of the people”, Vernon Berrangé was banned in the 1950s and fled to Swaziland, but he returned to South Africa to join the defence for the Rivonia accused.

He died in Swaziland in 1983. In 2010, Berrangé was posthumously awarded the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo in silver “for his excellent contribution to the struggle against racial oppression in South Africa”.

“Berrange contended that the ideas and beliefs expressed in the Freedom Charter, although opposed to the policy of the government at the time, were such as they were shared by the overwhelming majority of humankind of all races and all colours and also the overwhelming majority of the country’s citizens.

“He also emphasised that what was essentially on trial were not just individuals, but the ideas which they and thousands of others in SA had openly espoused and expressed,” the motivation read.

Harold Hanson delivered the closing address in mitigation of sentencing, which ultimately saw the Rivonia accused spared the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison instead.

In arguing, Hanson said: “Political offences ... rarely take place when there is an avenue through which grievances can be stated and a remedy sought. The average man, anywhere in this world, eschews violence as long as he can hope for amelioration. But it is when hope ceases entirely that you have a sense of frustration which leads men to less peaceful methods.”

Hanson died in 1973.

Percy Yutar led the prosecution of the Rivonia accused and went on to become South Africa’s first Jewish attorney-general.

He died in 2002, aged 90.

In a 2014 interview, his son, David Yutar, said his father “encountered anti-Semitism and wanted to become the first Jewish attorney-general”.

“And the National Party offered him that chance with this trial. That suited him. And it suited the National Party because they could refute allegations they were anti-Semitic. They could say they just appointed a Jewish prosecutor to handle a high-profile case.”

In 1995, Nelson Mandela invited Yutar to lunch.

Of the gesture, Yutar said: “I wonder in what other country in the world would you have the head of the government inviting someone to lunch who prosecuted him 30 years ago. It shows the great humility of this saintly man.”