February 2014 Special Feature Life and times of Nelson Mandela the attorney The late Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela will not only be remembered for his outstanding contribution in liberating South Africa but also for his involvement in shaping our legal jurisprudence. His interest in the legal field was influenced by cases that came before the Chief's Courts and the fact that his father was the principal councillor to the Acting Paramount Chief of Thembuland. During 1951, after Mandela completed his articles of clerkship as a candidate attorney at Witkin, Sidelsky and Eidelman and though he was not yet a fully-fledged attorney he was able to draw court pleadings, and consult with clients. He was determined to become a lawyer. He passed his attorney's admission examination and was subsequently conferred the relevant certificate during February 1952, which was constituted under the then provisions of sub-section (1) of s23 of Act 12 of 1916. On March 27 1952, within the jurisdiction of the then Transvaal Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa (now high court) and before Justice Steyn, Mr Mandela was admit- ted as an attorney and his name was accordingly enrolled as such. He proceeded to work for the law firm Terblanche & Briggish. Mandela often visited his close friend Oliver Tambo during his lunch hour at a law firm called Kovalsky and Tuch, and made a point of sitting in a “white's only chair" in the “whites' only waiting room." Apart from their political involvement in the ranks of student politics at Fort Hare University, Mandela was inspired by the art of legal philosophy as well as the jurisprudential knowledge that Tambo possessed. Mandela convinced Tambo to open a practice with him and “Mandela & Tambo Attorneys at Law" were the words affixed to their office door in Chancellor House, a small building across the street from the marble statues of justice, almost adjacent to the Magistrate's Court in central Johannesburg. From the beginning, Mandela and Tambo Attorneys were inundated with clients. Mandela and Tambo were not the only African lawyers in the country but they were the only firm of African lawyers. For Africans, they were the firm of first choice and last resort. As a practising attorney one of the impediments Mandela faced on a daily basis in order for him to carry out his clients' instructions and represent them at various courts outside the magisterial District of Johannesburg was that he had to make an application to the Minister of Justice. A Notice in terms of Section 1(12) of the Riotous Assemblies and Criminal Law Amendment Act (27 of 1914) prohibited Mandela from being in any place except the magisterial District of Johannesburg. His intentions to represent clients elsewhere had to be communicated to the Commissioner of the South African Police before his application to the Minister of Justice could be considered. On March 5 1954 Mandela filed a notice in terms of the Act to the Minister of Justice notifying him of his intentions to appear on behalf of Chief Kegakilwe J. Letlhogile of Genesa Native Reserve, Vryburg, at an inquiry being held against the chief by the Native Commissioner of Vryburg, in terms of the Regulations framed under s2(7) of Act 38 of 1927. In the notice Mandela submitted that the chief was facing 19 charges and that the inquiry might lead to his removal from chieftaincy if the charges were substantiated. In what appears to have been Mandela's busiest two months during August and September 1954, he made more than seven applications to represent and appear on behalf of various clients. This stringent “red tape" compliance did not deter him from seeking justice for the community, even outside Johannesburg. One of the cases he dealt with (number 6/01 1954) was the matter of A.P MDA vs STEYN SENOAMALI, NATIVE COMMISSIONER'S COURT Sterkspruit, Herschel which was enrolled for September 16 1954. What stands out starkly is that only on the December 23, three months after Mr Mandela's intended appearance in court, did the Commissioner of the South African Police in a letter bearing reference number S.4/907, reply to the minister that his department had no objections to Mandela being allowed to proceed to Sterkspruit in order to appear in the Native Commissioner's Court on behalf of his client A.P MDA. During 1951, after Mandela completed his articles of clerkship as a candidate attorney at Witkin, Sidelsky and Eidelman and though he was not yet a fully-fledged attorney he was able to draw court pleadings, and consult with clients. He was determined to become a lawyer. Mandela was more focused on politics and anti-apartheid struggles than the law and dedicated much of his time to seeking freedom for the nation. His passion for politics and the liberation for African people increasingly took him time out office and in 1960 the firm ultimately closed down. In 1962 he left the country illegally for military training and was arrested for illegal exit from the country and incitement to strike. Later in his quest for a transformed judicial legal system he elected to conduct his own defence; he was courageous enough to apply for the recusal of the magistrate, on the grounds that a judiciary controlled entirely by whites could not be impartial. During October 1977 the African Business Publication published the following article: “Government's move this month to oust black attorneys from white trading areas has shocked the business and professional sectors. Coming at a time of the government's publicised new initiative on alleviating restrictions, the banning notices served on black attorneys in terms of the Group Area Act, has left a sour taste. And the belated offer to deal with each case on merit from the Secretary for Bantu Administration has done little to cool the anger of black attorneys" Black attorneys closely associated with Mandela and Tambo established the Black Lawyers Discussion Group. Spearheading the birth of the group was practising Johannesburg attorney, Godfrey M. Pitje, who had been a candidate attorney at Mandela Tammbo Attorneys, He was elected as the first chairman of the group in 1977. ThegrouplaterculminatedintheformationofbothBlackLawyersAssociation (BLA) as well as National Association for Democratic Lawyers (NADEL). Mandela, at the time incarcerated on Robben Island, was made an honorary member but a suggestion to make him patron was rejected as the organisation intended to remain non-sectarian. Madiba, who led the fight against apartheid with extraordinary vigour and resilience after spending nearly three decades in prison, will forever be remembered as a man who sacrificed his life for his people. And it is only befitting that this country, and the world as a whole, celebrate all that he has fought for, has not been in vain. The ongoing interest in the legacy of one of the world's greatest icons is illustrated by a legal action filed on January 8 at federal court in Washington by Ryan Shapiro, a PhD student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after the CIA failed to comply with his Freedom of Information requests submitted to the agency regarding Mandela's arrest. His intention is to secure documents that, it is alleged, show the Intelligence Agency was complicit in Nelson Mandela's arrest. The Agency's records could help solve a decades-old mystery was the CIA involved in Mandela's arrest after an informant tipped off apartheid security forces as to his whereabouts? Maodi is an attorney and Seefane a candidate attorney at Maponya. The article was verified by Okkie Blom, a director. Article by WILLIAM MAODI AND LETTAH SEEFANE.