Читать книгу Let Freedom Reign - Henry Russell - Страница 12

In 1955, the ANC, in alliance with radical whites, Coloureds, and Indians, issued a Freedom Charter for non-racial social democracy. At the end of the following year, in dawn raids throughout South Africa, police arrested nearly all the leaders of the most prominent anti-apartheid organizations. Among the 156 people detained were Mandela, ANC President Albert Luthuli (1898–1967) and Walter Sisulu (1912–2003). They were all charged with ‘Hoogverraad’ (high treason). Preliminary hearings began almost immediately but were not concluded until January 1958, when charges against 61 of the accused were dropped.

The remaining 95 men and women went on trial on 3 August 1958. The case against many of them was flimsy, and charges were later dropped against another 65. The last 30 accused were all ANC members. After 31 months, the judge interrupted the defence’s closing address to declare that, while he accepted the ANC was working to replace the government and had used illegal means of protest during the Defiance Campaign, the prosecution had failed to show that the ANC was using violence to overthrow the government. The accused were, therefore, not guilty of treason and all of the defendants were discharged.

During the trial, Mandela and Evelyn divorced after 13 years of marriage, during which she had borne him four children. The marriage was strained to breaking point by his frequent absences and his devotion to the ANC cause, while she had become a Jehovah’s Witness, a faith that proscribes political activism. In 1958, Mandela married Nomzamo Winifred (‘Winnie’) Madikizela.

Despite the acquittals, Nelson Mandela did not believe that this was the end of the state’s attempts to smash the ANC.

… [T]he result only made the state more bitter towards us. The lesson they took away was not that we had legitimate grievances but that they needed to be far more ruthless.

I did not regard the verdict as a vindication of the legal system or evidence that a black man could get a fair trial in a white man’s court. It was the right verdict and a just one, but it was largely as a result of a superior defence team and the fair-mindedness of these particular judges.