Putting apartheid on trial

This is the remarkable story of the advocacy of Sydney Kentridge in the South African courts over a period of some twenty odd years, in which he was involved in the defence of a number of anti-apartheid activists in prominent trials, culminating in the representation of the Biko family at the inquest into the murder of Steve Biko in 1977.??These trials included the Treason Trial of 1956 to 1960 in which he was part of the team that represented Nelson Mandela and the 155 other Treason Trialists, the enquiry into the Sharpeville Massacre, the defence of Bram Fischer, then Winnie Mandela in various trials from 1970-1986, the trial of the Very Rev. Gonville Ffrench-Beytagh, the Anglican Dean of Johannesburg from 1971-1972 and then the Biko Inquest of 1977.??This is the story of a remarkable lawyer, who chose not to become a judge in the South African courts because that would have meant enforcing the apartheid laws.???It is also beyond doubt that neither B.J. Vorster nor Jimmy Kruger, as the Ministers of Justice in the apartheid government would ever have appointed him to the bench.

That is the first thing that becomes clear in Thomas Grant’s account of Kentridge’s contribution in the courts to the ending of apartheid.??Much was made by the apologists for apartheid of the “independence” of the South African judiciary.??They were not independent; they enforced the law.??Those who found such a role repugnant, given that it meant enforcing apartheid laws, did not put themselves forward for such a role.??Moreover, the appointments to the judiciary were made by the Minister of Justice, and he (invariably a male) appointed people who were politically conformist to the ideology of the National Party, the ruling party throughout the life of apartheid government.

All of these trials, except perhaps that of the Dean of Johannesburg, are well known on the annals of the struggle against apartheid.?What Thomas Grant makes clear in the narrative is that Kentridge was both a formidable and forensic cross-examiner of witnesses, able to expose the inconsistencies and downright lies of the apartheid police.???The accounts quoted of the events at Sharpeville in 1960, which Kentridge established by cross-examination of the witnesses completely undermine the police allegation that the police station at the centre of Sharpeville was under attack.??The destruction of the evidence of the police witnesses at the Biko Inquest is a masterclass in cross-examination.??Kentridge is quite clearly a formidable opponent to face in a law court.?He was not always on the winning side but he always exposed the brutality of the apartheid regime.

In the 1970s, Kentridge to a decision to relocate his practice from Johannesburg to London, which was eminently sensible when the murders of lawyers such as Victoria and Griffiths Mxenge and others are taken into account.??It was after the Biko Inquest and before the imposition of the States of Emergency in the 1980s that he completed the transfer.??He found a Chambers in the Inner Temple from which he could launch his practice, and was appointed as a QC in 1984, and practised at the English Bar from 1977-2013. Then he retired.??Kentridge is now a centenarian, having made a formidable contribution to the rule of law in both South Africa and England.

I have one quibble with this book.?On several occasions, Thomas Grant refers to Jon Blair, who wrote the Biko Inquest in which Albert Finney played Kentridge, as John Blair.?This is incorrect and probably is the fault of the sub-editor.?I was at the LSE with Jon Blair.

This book, however, is a remarkable tribute to a remarkable man, and everyone interested in South African history or jurisprudence should read it.