How long did the treason trial last

April 27, The first democratic elections are held in South Africa. May 10, Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president. To Top. The ANC calls for an end to all racial discrimination. Nelson Mandela, and over other people, is arrested and charged with treason.

In Sharpville, South African police open fireon a crowd protesting pass laws, killing 69 demonstrators and wounding others. Mandela and the other defendants in the treason trial are found not guilty and discharged. Nelson Mandela goes underground to organize a general strike.

A newly military spin-off organization of the ANC, Umkhonto We Sizwe, launches a campaign of sabotage against South Africa's National Party government by lighting explosives at an electricity sub-station. Mandela leaves South Africa to raise funds and gain international support for the ANC and its objectives.

Nelson Mandela is arrested after returning to South Africa from an extended overseas trip. Mandela is convicted of leaving the country without a passport and inciting a strike. The South African government enacts a law that allows detention of persons suspected of political crimes for days without a warrant. Seven men are arrested at a farmhouse in the Johannesburg suburb of Rivonia.

Police arrest saboteur Bruno Mtolo, who will become the prosecution's star witness in the Rivonia trial. Two men the government hoped to charged with conspiracy and sabotage, Harold Wolpe and Arthur Goldreich, escape from a South African jail and within twelve days are out of the country. The Rivonia defendants appear at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria, as the trial opens.

Justice de Wet grants a defense motion to quash the indictment. The Rivonia defendants enter "not guilty" pleas to a redrawn indictment and prosecutor Percy Yuter presents the government's opening statement. The prosecution's star witness, Bruno Mtolo, takes the stand. Nelson Mandela offers a statement from the dock "I am Prepared to Die" as the defense opens its case. Closing statements begin in the Rivonia trial. Before the prosecution case was even completed, charges were withdrawn against 73 of the accused, however those 73 were still quoted in the indictment as 'co-conspirators'.

Of the ninety-one accused, fifteen had been members of the Communist Party and thirty were Whites or Indians, but only two of the Communists and five of the Whites and Indians were included among the final thirty accused. Only a few of the African accused were ANC leaders of importance. The alleged adherence of the thirty to the conspiracy covered a shorter period of time than that covered by the original indictment instead of October 1, , the period began on February 1, , running until December 13, , but the Prosecution's evidence against the thirty covered the longer period and included speeches and documents of the persons originally accused and the co-conspirators.

No particular conspiracy by the thirty was alleged. The official announcement in November that the trial would proceed against only thirty of the accused had stated that the remaining sixty-one would also be re-indicted on a charge of treason and that their trial would begin on April 20, , or afterwards. Presumably they were to be tried after the conclusion of the trial of the thirty.

However, on April 20, no later date having been set, the sixty-one appeared in court. They had been divided into two groups, each facing an indictment covering different periods of time that was essentially the same as that faced by the thirty in January, but totally lacking in particularity.

Because of this failure, the Court quickly and surprisingly granted the Defence motion to dismiss the indictment. The sixty-one still faced re-indictment. Let's talk. We think we should give you 60 seats. The African population to elect 60 Africans to represent them in Parliament. We will leave the matter over for five years and we will review it at the end of five years. I'd say we should accept it, but, of course, I would not abandon the demands for the extension of the universal franchise to all Africans.

That's how I see it, my lords. Then at the end of the five-year period we will have discussions and if the Government says, 'We will give you again 40 more seats', I might say that that is quite sufficient.

Let's accept it, and still demand that the franchise should be extended, but for the agreed period we should suspend civil disobedience, no stay-at-homes. In that way we would eventually be able to get everything that we want; we shall have our People's Democracy, my lords. That is the view I hold-whether that is Congress's view I don't know, but that is my view. BENCH: Mandela, assuming you were wrong in your beliefs, do you visualise any future action on behalf of the Government, by the Government?

Because I think the evidence suggests that you could not expect the Government to soften in its views. Have you any future plans in that event? I don't think that the Congress has ever believed that its policy of pressure would ultimately fail. The Congress, of course, does not expect that one single push to coerce the Government to change its policy will succeed; the Congress expects that over a period, as a result of a repetition of these pressures, together with world opinion, that the Government notwithstanding its attitude of ruling Africans with an iron hand, that notwithstanding that, the methods which we are using will bring about a realisation of our aspirations.

Mandela, whether or not there would be success ultimately, one thing is clear, is it not, and that is that the African National Congress held the view, and propagated the view, that in resisting pressure by the Congress Movement the ruling class, the Government, would not hesitate to retaliate-would not hesitate to use violence and armed force against the Congress Movement?

We did expect force to be used, as far as the Government is concerned, but as far as we are concerned we took the precautions to ensure that that violence will not come from our side.

MANDELA: Well, my lord, for example in when we launched the Defiance Campaign, and secondly, my lord, you will notice that we frequently use 'stay-at-home', not 'strike' in the ordinary sense. Now, my lord, in a strike what is usually done is to withdraw workers from a particular industry and then have pickets to prevent the people from working in those industries which are boycotted.

But the Congress theory was that to have pickets might attract police violence. We deliberately decided to use 'stay-at-home' where people are asked to remain in their houses.

BENCH: Now, the difference which I want to discuss with you, what would the reaction of White supremacy be if it was made to realise that the demands of the Congress alliance would result in its supremacy being terminated once and for all? But already political organisations are arising in this country which themselves are striving for the extension of the franchise to the African people. MANDELA: No, but, my lord, this is what I am coming to, that already since we applied these new methods of political action, this policy of exerting pressure, we have attained-we have achieved, we have won ground.

Political parties have now emerged which themselves put forward the demand of extending the franchise to the non-European people. Now, it is true that these parties, both the Liberal Party as well as the Progressive Party 2 are thinking in terms of some qualified franchise. But, if your lordship bears in mind the fact that when we initiated this policy, there were no political parties-none in the Union -which thought along these lines, then your lordship will realise the revolution that has taken place in European parties in this country today.

You are now having an organised body of opinion, quite apart from the Congress of Democrats, who themselves are a force, quite apart from them, you are having an organised body of opinion amongst Whites who put forward the view that some limited form of franchise should be extended to Africans. During the indictment period, did or did not-I think you said it was accepted by the Congress alliance that White supremacy would be hostile to this claim, one man one vote?

MANDELA: Yes, it is hostile, except to qualify of course that even during that period parties had already emerged which were putting forward this view, and therefore it was reasonable for us to believe that in spite of the hostility which we still encounter from the majority of the Whites, already our policy was succeeding.