The Rivonia trial: six decades later

Mandela, Sisulu, Kathrada and others were sentenced to life in jail by this court.

- Brian Sokutu

PAINFUL PAST: YOUTH ENACT PARTS OF THE 1964 CASE

With Rivonia treason triallists no longer alive to recount paying a supreme sacrifice through long jail terms on Robben Island for South Africa to be free from apartheid, the country yesterday relived the 60th anniversary of the court case that shook the world.

In what went down as a historic marking of the treason trial, which ended in Judge Quartus de Wet, on 12 June, 1964, sentencing Nelson Mandela, Dennis Goldberg, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, James Kantor, Andrew Mlangeni, Elias Motsoaledi and Raymond Mhlaba to life imprisonment for sabotage, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation hosted a moving enactment of parts of the case.

While De Wet and chief prosecutor Percy Yutar did not live long enough to witness Mandela’s brave efforts which led to the birth of South Africa’s constitutional democracy, the famous Court C at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria’s Church Square was transformed into a history lesson on the country’s painful past.