THE RIVONIA TRIAL

The 1960s period marked an important watershed in South Africa’s struggle against Apartheid. The aftermath of the Sharpeville Massacre and the declaration of the subsequent State of Emergency in March 1960 signalled the beginning of a brutal and intensive phase of state repression.

The intensification of repressive laws and the erosion of political rights by the Apartheid regime made the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) the first causalities in an era of banishment. Forced underground, the ANC, PAC and other liberation organisations had to consider new tactics. In 1958 and 1959 key ANC and South African Communist Party (SACP) leaders were talking seriously about a move to armed struggle, concluding that peaceful methods had proved fruitless. The ANC created an underground military wing, called Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) or the ‘Spear of the Nation’, which was launched on 16 December 1961.

As its manifesto declares, MK was formed ‘to be a fighting arm of the people against the government and its policies of race oppression’. As part of the programme of action envisaged in the manifesto, MK units undertook just over 200 operations. Using mainly home-made incendiary devices, their bomb attacks intended to damage public facilities.

In 1962 Nelson Mandela undertook trips to Algeria, Nigeria, Tunisia and Ethiopia in an attempt to drum up support for MK and to arrange military training for potential recruits. Thereafter the organisation dispatched more than 300 recruits abroad for military training. The underground movement and armed struggle was taking shape. In response the government doubled efforts to arrest the leadership and undermine the liberation struggle. Police efforts included the use of informants to infiltrate MK.

...Here, from underground, is Walter Sisulu to speak to you...

Sons and Daughters of Africa! I speak to you from somewhere in South Arica. I have not left the country. I do not plan to leave. Many of our leaders of the African National Congress have gone underground. This is to keep the organisation in action; to preserve the leadership; to keep the freedom fight going. The struggle must never waver. We of the ANC will lead with new methods of struggle. The African people know that their unity is vital. In the face of violence, many strugglers for freedom have had to meet violence with violence. How can it be otherwise in South Africa?

- Extract of the inaugural broadcast made by Radio Liberation, the ANC’s radio station, on 26 June 1963. Sisulu and other leaders were arrested during a raid at Liliesleaf farm less than a month later.


Aerial shot of Liliesleaf Farm showing the main house and out-houses. Source: South African National Archives
In the early 1960s the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the MK High Command purchased an isolated farm, called Liliesleaf, in Rivonia. It was agreed that Arthur Goldreich and his family would live in the main farmhouse, while the outhouses would be used as a meeting place for many of the luminaries of the struggle. It also proved perfect as a hide-out for banned activists from the ever-present and highly efficient police and security services.

A cting on information from an informant, the Special Forces raided Liliesleaf farmhouse on 11 July 1963.

When the police came through the door, they found a group of men studying ‘Operation Mayibuye’ – an MK proposal for guerrilla warfare, insurrection and revolution. Among the group were Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mahlaba, Ahmed Kathrada, Arthur Goldreich, Dennis Goldberg and Lionel Bernstein.

Hundreds of incriminating documents were found during the raid, and members of the group were immediately arrested. Bob Hepple was also found and arrested on the property, he in fact tried to burn documents related to Operation Mayibuye during the raid, but failed. Hepple later turned State witness.

The group was arrested with the police relying on the 90-day detention law to delay their appearance in court while investigations continued. During this time more arrests followed, including that of Harold Wolpe, a lawyer who had used SACP funds to buy the farm; James Kantor, who was not involved in MK or in politics but was a legal colleague and brother-in-law of Wolpe; and MK Cadres Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni, who were linked to the farm through their fingerprints. Goldreich and Wolpe would later bribe their prison guards and make a spectacular escape.

During this time – Nelson Mandela was added to the list of accused as evidence linking him to the farm was also found. Mandela was already serving a five-year sentence for his role in the campaigns of 1961 intended to disrupt Republic Day celebrations.

Comments by Sonny

It was so easy for the Crown to turn terrorists into freedom fighters.

Why was it not done in Northern Ireland?

They (The Catholics) are the real FREEDOM FIGHTERS!

DEMOCRACY is still a far-off-sound in South Africa!