Rivonia Trial special
STRATEGISING: USED COURT TO TELL WORLD OF APARTHEID’S HORRORS Nelson Mandela, Andrew Mlangeni made memorable speeches from dock.
From November 1963 to June 1964, what was then the Supreme Court of South Africa – now part of the High Court in Pretoria – played host to one of the most significant political trials in the country’s history.
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.
“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.” –