THE LILLIESLEAF RAID AND THE RIVONIA TRIAL (part 1)

Solitary Confinement And A Final Word On “He Who Alleges Must Prove”

By 1961 South Africa was firmly in the grip of apartheid. The African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan African Congress, the two main organisations that represented black South Africans, had been banned. Meetings, public speeches and protests had been banned. At a time when capitalism and communism were at fierce loggerheads in large parts of the world, the South African Communist Party SACP) had been banned in South Africa for eleven years by then. The SACP and the ANC still operated in South Africa, albeit underground, in secrecy and at great personal risk to their leaders.

It was in this context that the ANC and the SACP decided to resort to “armed struggle” in their fight against apartheid. Thus was born that secretive armed force, Umkhonto we Sizwe, “the spear of the nation” (MK). MK was initially established as a joint operation between the ANC and the SACP, with Nelson Mandela as its first commander-in-chief.

The MK of those early years was very different from the MK of the 1980s and 1990s. The 1960s’ MK had to be almost entirely self-reliant as far as its armaments and operations were concerned. At the time South Africa was surrounded by white controlled Rhodesia, Portuguese colony Mozambique, South African controlled South West Africa and Portuguese colony Angola. All of whom supported South Africa’s white minority government and would not assist MK. If MK was going to fight an armed struggle, it would have to produce its own means with which to do so. (When Angola and Mozambique became independent in 1974 and white minority rule in Rhodesia ended in 1980, that position changed 180 degrees.)

The second way in which the MK of the 1960s differed fundamentally from the MK of the 1980s and 1990s was in its approach to the armed struggle. The 1960s MK fought its armed struggle by way of sabotage. It bombed venues and infrastructure of symbolic or strategic value. But it followed two very strict rules: No one should be killed in its bombing campaigns and its operatives should not carry any firearms when planting the bombs. (The MK of the 1980s and 1990s adopted a very different policy – it still planted bombs but now did so with the deliberate intention of killing people.)

The 1960s MK had to operate underground, with very limited support from outside South Africa. It was in that context that the SACP, through a front company, bought a farm called “Lilliesleaf” outside Johannesburg. The farm was a secret meeting place for MK’s National High Command from 1961 to 1963. MK’s early bombing campaigns were planned and co-ordinated from Lilliesleaf.

Arthur Goldreich, a member of the SACP, and his family lived in the main farmhouse on Lilliesleaf. It really was nothing more than a pretence of a white family living in the country side. In reality, Lilliesleaf was the main meeting place of MK’s National High Command. The members of that command did not meet in the main, luxurious farm house. They met in a humble, small thatched cottage some fifty metres away from the farmhouse, so as not to arouse suspicion by having visible inter-racial meetings.

On 11 July 1963 the MK National High Command once again met at Lilliesleaf. It was supposed to be the last time that they would meet there – they had serious concerns that the safety of the farm as a meeting venue had been compromised. The topic for discussion on that fateful day was the blue print for a general uprising by black South Africans that was supposed to result in the overthrow of white minority rule. The proposal was called Operation Mayibye (the Return) and was outlined in a six page document.

MK’s High command was split straight down the middle on whether or not to implement the proposed uprising. SACP members Joe Slovo and Govan Mbeki were ardent supporters of the proposed mass uprising. Fellow SACP members Walter Sisulu and Lionel Bernstein thought that the proposal was “an exercise in sheer fantasy” and were fiercely opposed to it.

While MK’s High Command members were debating the proposal in the thatched cottage on that fateful day, sixteen South African Security Policemen (and a dog named Cheetah) raided Lilliesleaf farm. Their timing was incredibly fortuitous for them – they hoped to find Walter Sisulu on the farm. They never anticipated catching the entire MK High Command and finding incredibly incriminating documents as well.

Lionel Bernstein, Bob Hepple and Raymond Mhlaba were arrested in the thatched cottage. It did not take the police long to find the hastily hidden Project Mayibue discussion documents. Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki an Ahmed Kathrada had jumped out of the thatched cottage’s window but did not get very far before they were arrested. Also arrested that day was a young civil engineer, Denis Goldberg, MK’s demolition expert. Goldberg was arrested in the main farmhouse, where he was reading a (not incriminating) book.

What followed became known as the “Rivonia Trial”. The persons arrested at Lilliesleaf, together with Nelson Mandela and others, were placed on trial. Literally for their lives, since some of the charges brought against them carried the death penalty.

Which brings us to two legal mysteries.

Firstly, how is it that Lionel Bernstein, who was apparently caught red handed in the thatched cottage was acquitted (found not guilty) in the Rivonia Trial? While Denis Goldberg, who was innocently reading a book in the main farmhouse at the time of the raid, was convicted (found guilty) in the Rivonia Trial?

Secondly, how is it that James Kantor, a completely innocent lawyer who had never been to Lilliesleaf until after the police raid, was arrested, kept in solitary confinement for ninety days and charged with the other accused in the Rivonia Trial?

In the next article we will see how these apparently contradictory legal results came about.

Francois Terblanche

PS. As always, the views expressed in this article are my own and are not necessarily shared by any firm that I am involved in or in alliance with.

Lilliesleaf Farm. The thatched cottage is on the left. The main farmhouse is on the right.