Rivonia trial summary

Ms Neame was sentenced to four years two years to run concurrently. She was released from prison in and went into exile. After he was released from prison she gave the signed copy of the speech to Mr Kathrada who donated it to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory. Adv Fischer, who led the defence team in the Rivonia Trial, skipped bail during the trial with Ms Neame and others and was convicted in absentia.

He was rearrested in and sentenced to life imprisonment. Where did the trial take place? The whole world was watching when the three major sabotage trials started in Pretoria, Cape Town and Maritzburg. What did Nelson Mandela say in his 3-hour speech from the defendant's dock? I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, my Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. What was the result of the trial? The defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage. Nelson Mandela was released from prison 11 February after over 27 years of unbroken incarceration.

There is enough evidence to hang you. The remaining Rivonia Trialists, until the unfortunate passing of Mr. In one case, witness Cyril Davids , an attendee at a MK training camp, testified incredibly, in the defense view that defendant Denis Goldberg ended virtually every training lecture, whether on the use of duplicating machines or instruction in judo, by specifically telling them that their new skill would be used for guerrilla warfare.

Another witness, the owner of a private taxi service, testified that he drove several saboteurs to an electricity sub-station and, after dropping them off, saw a flash and heard an explosion. While the defense conceded the taxi driver's testimony was largely accurate, it said that he wrongly placed defendant Raymond Mhlaba a defendant for whom the state had little other incriminating evidence in the back seat of his taxi.

In fact, as the evidence would later show, Mhlaba wasn't even in the country at the time the sub-station was sabotaged. For some defendants, including Mandela, Sisulu , Mbeki, and Goldberg, the prosecution's evidence of guilt was strong or overwhelming.

In the case of Goldberg, for example, several manufacturers and merchants testified that Goldberg had visited their factories and shops making inquiries about orders of large quantities of parts, such as castings, that had application only in weapon construction.

For Goven Mbeki , thirteen separate documents directly implicated him in sabotage planning. For defendants Motsoaledi and Mlangeni, the evidence of guilt was less compelling, but likely to be sufficient given the political circumstances of the trial. Witnesses identified both men as involved either in the training of recruits or the transportation of recruits to receive training.

For the other four defendants, the prosecution's cases ranged from weak to virtually non-existent. As mentioned above, the evidence connecting Mhlaba to sabotage of a sub-station was questionable at best. Ahmed Kathrada , the lone Indian among the defendants, was captured at Rivonia and said by a witness to have drafted a couple of pamphlets and taped a broadcast for ANC radio.

Essentially the only evidence of Rusty Bernstein's guilt came from a witness who claimed to have seen Bernstein on the roof of a Rivonia building helping to erect a radio antenna. And for attorney James Kantor, the most incriminating--if it can be called that--evidence was that his office at the law firm might have been used by other persons in a manner that violated communication bans that they were subject to.

Justice de Wet found the evidence against Kantor so convincing that, at the conclusion of the prosecution case, he dismissed all charges against him. The Defense Case. After the state rested its case, the defense had five weeks to prepare for its presentation of evidence.

When court convened on April 23, , Bram Fischer delivered an opening statement. Fischer admitted that seven of the ten remaining defendants all except Bernstein, Kathrada, and Goldberg were members of the National High Command of Umkhonto we Sizwe, but denied that the High Command had made a decision to embark on a course of guerrilla warfare.

Operation Mayibuye, Fischer said, "had not been adopted, and Mandela chose to give a statement from the dock, even though forgoing cross-examination meant his testimony would be given little weight, because, in his words "I did not want to be limited" to the question-answer format in explaining why he and others found it necessary to undertake a campaign of sabotage against the South African government. Joel Joffe said the defense team recognized that the usual form of testimony would mean Mandela's arguments would lose power as they "came out in a jumble of bits and pieces.

The decision to not put Mandela on the stand caught Percy Yutar by surprise. He jumped up from the prosecutor's table to cry, "My Lord! My Lord, I think you should warn the accused that what he says from the dock has far less weight than if he submitted himself to cross-examination. Yutar, that the counsel for the defense have sufficient experience to advise their clients without your assistance.

Mandela began speaking in a quiet, even voice. He continue reading for the next four hours. At the beginning of June , after a long and anxious assessment of the South African situation, I, and some colleagues, came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be unrealistic and wrong for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the Government met our peaceful demands with force.

This conclusion was not easily arrived at. It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle, and to form Umkhonto we Sizwe.

Mandela concluded his speech by announcing he was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for his cause:. During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.

It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. Mandela sat down. In his autobiography, he describes the scene in the Pretoria courtroom. But in fact it lasted probably no more than thirty seconds, and then from the gallery I heard what sounded like a great sigh, a deep, collective 'ummmm,' followed by the cries of women. Justice de Wet turned to Bram and announced in a gentle voice, "You may call your next witness.

Sisulu testified that Operation Mayibuye was the brain child of Arthur Goldreich, a member of the High Command and a former member of the Israeli underground movement. Sisulu said that the plan had not been adopted, in part because more time was needed "to condition the masses.

He testified that he agreed sabotage was necessary, but insisted that "the choice of targets makes the position perfectly clear that the intention was not to injure anybody at all.

In five days of cross-examination, Yutar tried to link the ANC and Umkhonto to the Communist Party and pushed Sisulu to identify others who played key roles in underground organizations. Despite warnings from the bench, Sisulu refused to name names. Over the course of the next week, each of the other seven defendants would take the stand, with five Kathrada, Mhlaba, Bernstein, Mbeki, and Goldberg subjecting themselves to cross-examination and two Motsoaledi and Mlangeni offering, like Mandela, prepared statements.

For the several defendants for whom conviction was all but certain their time on the stand was an opportunity to explain to the nation why they did what they did. Elias Motsoaledi's brief statement provided one of the more moving moments of the trial. Thinking about the Judgment and Sentence Life After the Rivonia Trial But the support he and his fellow activists in the African National Congress received during his trial not only saved his life, but also enabled him to save his country.

Broun recreates the trial-called the "Rivonia" Trial after the Johannesburg suburb where police seized Mandela. Based upon interviews with many of the case's primary figures and portions of the trial transcript, Broun situates readers inside the courtroom at the imposing Palace of Justice in Pretoria.

Here, the trial unfolds through a dramatic narrative that captures the courage of the accused and their defense team, as well as the personal prejudices that colored the entire trial. The Rivonia trial had no jury and only a superficial aura of due process, combined with heavy security that symbolized the apartheid government's system of repression. Broun shows how outstanding advocacy, combined with widespread public support, in fact backfired on apartheid leaders, who sealed their own fate.

Despite his year incarceration, Mandela's ultimate release helped move his country from the racial tyranny of apartheid toward democracy. As documented in this inspirational book, the Rivonia trial was a critical milestone that helped chart the end of Apartheid and the future of a new South Africa.

Rivonia Trial, Pretoria, South Africa, Bibliographic information.