Rivonia, Operation Mayibuye: A Review of the Rivonia Trial PDF
Preview Rivonia, Operation Mayibuye: A Review of the Rivonia Trial
OperationM ayibuye RILCDEVI LLINS $r 40c RIVQNIA OPERATION HAYIBV YE A review of the Rivonia trial by the Honourable H. H. IV. DE VILLIERS Judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa 1945-1955. Judge of the Appeal Court 1955-1957. Judge President of the Fmtvrn Cape Division of the Supreme Court 195v ' .J2. Chairman of The Prem Board of Reference of the News. pape~ . sess Union of South Africa. with a Foreword by The Honourable FRANCIS NAPIER BROOSIE retired Judge President of the Natal Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa. Afrihaanse Pere-Boekhandel Johannesburg COVER DESIGN AND TYPGSRAPRY: NIIRC ACRLEITNER. PAINTING AND SINDING EY RAYNE AND GIBSON, JORANNESSUEG, SOUTH APEICA TRIS SOON IS SET IN • Pt ROYAL ONIA — OPERATION 51ATIBUYE Foreword Preface CHAPTER I: Eleventh July, 1983 1- 9 CHAPTER 8: Goldreich and Wotpe Escape 10 21 CHAPTER IH: The Charges 22- 30 CHAPTERIV: Eleventh June, 1984 31- 51 CHAPTERV: Reactions . 52. 80 CHAPTER VI: Operation bfaylbuye 61- 81 CHAPTER VIH: Rivonla and the African States 82- 88 CHAPTERVIB: Rivonia and the Communists 89.102 CHAPTERIX: Our Tough Problem 1%-113 X: After Rivonia 114 118 Appendix 11%120 ForeworiI 1 welcome the appearance of this book, so sum after the events tchick it describes. While we in South Africa do not fear the fmal verdict of history, the interests of fairness, truth and jushce require that there shall be available at once this authoritative o»d graphic account of fhe Rivonia tiraL The author- ship guarantees its factual accuracy and the weighti- ness of the commenL No fewer than nine members ot the de Villiers elan have sat on the Supreme Court Bench in South Africa. Of these two have been Chief Justices of South Africa and two pre-union Chief Justices (one Colonial and one Republican): three have been Judges of Appeal and three Judge Presidents. The earliest of these, Baron de ViNers, was a judge for 4I years, taking time off to preside over the National Convention which led to the Unum of South Africa, whose first Chief Justice he became. Fleinrich, the author, was leader of the Pretoria Bar before becom- ing successively a puisne Judge, a Judge of Appeal and Judge President of the Eastern Cape. Fle retired in 1961. The opinions which the author expresses are of course his ourn. 1 do not necessarily share them. But whether 1 share them or not, 1 commend them to the reader as the opinions of one whose background, professional qualifications and personal mtegrity entitle him to speak with authority. Two recent overseas comments on the Rivonia triat indicate the need for a book such as this. Both related to the sentence of imprisonment imposed by the presiding Judge instead of senuntce of death. One comment ascribed the Judge's letdency to gov- I I ' I ' I ' ' ' I I I I I I I I I ' I ' I ' I I I I ' I ' I I I ' I ' ' I I I I I ' I ' I 3I' I i ' • • ,I Preface RIVONIA: OPERATION AFRIKA MAYIBUYE. Article IV of the Vnited Nations (1958) draft International Code o( Ethics for journalists reads: "It is the duty of those who describe and com- ment upon events relating to a foreign country to acquire the necessary knowledge of such country which will enable them to report accurately and fairly thereon." This article, in my view, could with benefit have had added to it after the words "such country" the words "and of the circumstances surrounding the eventsd escribed or commented upon." Judged by this standard journalists and other reporters whether by the written word or in picture form fall sadly by the wayside, where South Africa is concerned. Some of the distortions of events and conditions in South Africa that have been published abroad are so flagrant, that it is difficult to avoid the con- clusion that the principle contained in article IV of the Draft Code was deliberately ignored, and that there was a deliberate failure to report "accurately and fairly". tlutte recently the Government of South Africa was compelled to remonstrate with the Secretary General of the United Nations for ignoring tbe salutary admonition contained in that article read with the logical corollary suggested above. This book on the Rivonia trial, in so far as it deals with the facts, ls intended to remove all excuse I I I ' l l f I \ . I I I ' I I I I I ' I I I f 1 t .I CHAPTER I SevenO JuIy, 1963 About ten miles north of Johannesburg, but well within its outskirts, there is a peri-urban area of somewhat exclusive small-holdings known as Rivonia. In a secluded, wooded holiow of this Rivonia area lies a farm by the name of "Lilliesleaf", an extensive farm, as small-holdings go, of some twentywight acres of some of the most productive land in the Transvaal. This was a well equipped and developed farm with a large, modern, high stungleroofed main building such as a well.todo retired bus)ness-man might put up in a semi-rural area for his privacy and retire- ment. This was no runoff.the-mill farm house, but a residence redolent of financial resources and ex- clusiveness such as might be seen in the pattern of the quieter and more select outskirts of Africa's most prosperous city. Behind the main building was a considerable number of outbuildings as might be used for the housing of servants, workrooms, storerooms, fuel- sbeds and the like. Amongst these outbuildings was a rather commodious and imposing thatch-roofed cottage which, as events proved, housed most of the dramatis personae who figured in the South African cause celebre to become internationally known as the Rivonia Trial. Although within the lindts of South Africa's most heavily populated area, the farm "Lilttesleaf' some- how remained off the beaten track and away from the routes which Johannesburg motorlsts taking customary Sunday afternoon drives would traverse, As was revealed later,e laborate steps had been taken to ensure the complete isolation of the farm "LiUies- leaf". Tradesmen and other people, casual visitors, were not encouraged. The Bantu servants on the farm, of whom seven were found there on the 11th July, 1963, namely six Bantu men and one Bantu woman, peremptorilyo rdered away each and everyone whom they found encroaching on the environs of this property, whether by way of the dirt road leading to the farmhouse, or across the veld. On the afternoon of the 11th July, 1963, things were quiet at the Rivonia homestead as tbe farm "Lilliesleaf" came to be known; even the field labourers who gave "Lilliesleaf" its verisimilitude of a farm minding its own business as a farm were not in evidence. July is midwinter on the Transvaal high. veld where Rivonia is situated, and it was a bleak and chilly afternoon, with bleak surroundings, dry yegow grass, and most of the trees leafless. From somewhere off tbe main tarred road to Johannesburg, a van bearing the name of a well. known Johannesburg laundry firm nosed its way along the Rivonia farmroads on the apparently innocent mission of picking up and delivering laundry and perhaps finding a new customer or two in that select area. The laundry van meandered around several turn. ings and finally turned into the road which brought it, unchallenged, to tbe "Lilliesleaf" homestead. Here the driver of the van was stopped by a Bantu employee who peremptorily ordered him to turn back.T he European driver of the van, appropriately dressed in a white dustcoat, as was his companion
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