THE RIVONIA TRIAL Rivonia Is a Township Near Johannesburg

Rivonia is a township near Johannesburg where most of the nine a c c u s e d in the trial were arrested on 11th July 1963 on premises described by the police as 'V revolutionary headquarters of the African National Congress.

The accused include NELSON MflNDKLA. who was one of the accused in the Treason Trial of the 15£ which lasted from December 1956 to March 1961, when all the accused were found not guilty and discharged. He was the African National Congress underground leader from i960 when the Congress was banned until his arrest and trial in 1962, when he was convicted of leaving South Africa without a passport and received the maximum sentence of two years imprisonment and, in addition, was sentenced to a further three years imprisonment for calling upon the African workers to stay at home during the celebrations when South Africa was declared a Republic in May I96I. He is a lawyer, bom in 1918, of the Tembu royal house in the Transkei.

WAITER SISULU, former Secretary General, of the African National Congress, was born in the Transkei in 1912. He first worked as a herd bey and later became a mine worker on the Rand. He too was one of the accused in the mass Treason Trial at&rted in 1956, and before the Rivonia"‘treason 'frial started he was sentenced to six years imprisonment for furthering the aims of a banned organization, namely the African National Congress.

AHMED KATHRADA is a member of the South African Indian Congress.

Lionel Bernstein is a European, a wellknown architect in Johannesburg, and DENNIS GOLDBERG, also European, is an engineer. Both were members of the Congress of Democrats.

GOVAN MBEKI. a former mentoer of the Cape Eastern Branch of the African National Congress, and RAYMOND MAHLABA. ELIAS Mft.TSOAI.EDE and ANDREW MLANGENI.

When the trial started the prosecution was anxious to give its side of the case the widest publicity and a microphone was installed in the court to broadcast the speech by Dr. Percy Yuta*/ the Prosecutor. On the application of Counsel for the Defence the judge ordered the removal of the microphone from court.

One of the Nationalist newspapers ’Die Vaderland’ published a report of the proceedings as i f the accused had already been found guilty. The editor of the paper was found guilty of contempt of court.

Practically all the evidence was obtained either from agents— provocateurs or from witnesses who had been subjected to torture. VwoWs>Ul> ^ The charges Ace-of, planning armed revolution, guerrilla -warfare and armed invasion. Seven of the accused are alleged to be members of a "Rational J&gh Command". The charges cany the death penalty.

The trial started at the end of October 1963 at Pretoria. On 30th October Mr. Justice de Wet, Judge President of the Transvaal, who is the sole judge in the case, quashed the indictment due to lack of particulars. A fresh indictment was framed and the trial started some weeks later. The prosecution has now completed calling evidence and Counsel for the Defence have asked for a postponement to enable them to prepare their case until the 20th April, when the trial will be resumed.

Chief Counsel for the Defence is Mr. A. Fischer QC, one of the most able and respected members of the South African Bar, and he is assisted by Mr. Vernon Berrange, a brilliant cross-examiner, and by several Junior counsel. Collection Number: AD1844 State vs Nelson Mandela and 9 Others (Rivonia Trial)

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