rivoniaunmasked

4 THE TRIAL BEGINS
THIRD December, 1963.
Although it was still early morning, Pretoria's Church Square was already basking in the glare of
the summer sun. A historic square, this, dominated by the massive statue of President Kruger in the
centre, and flanked by venerable buildings. On the south side rises the Old Raadsaal, relic of a bygone
era. The dignified bulk of weathered graying-brown stone opposite, on the north side and to the left of
the Kruger statue, is the Palace of Justice, the seat of the Transvaal Provincial Division of the Supreme
Court of South Africa.
That morning the Square presented a scene of unusual activity. People were converging on it from
all directions, singly or in groups, talking and gesturing excitedly and looking, with more than casual
interest, towards the high steps of the Palace of Justice, where a number of armed policemen were
standing guard.
As the crowd in the square continued to grow, some of the policemen came down from the steps
and moved about among the people, keen-eyed and alert for any sign of trouble.
The crowd was composed of Whites as well as non-Whites, the latter being in the majority. A
Bantu woman in tribal dress– colourful blanket, bead ornaments and jingling copper bangles round her
wrists and ankles– jostled her way forward through the crowd. Press cameras clicked.
Up to then the crowd had been orderly enough, but the patroling policemen did not relax their
vigilance. One sensed a mounting tension in the throng. Suddenly a woman's voice rose shrilly above
the babble of talk: "Amandla Ngawethu !"-"Ours is the strength!" The cry, one of the slogans of the
African National Congress, was taken up by a group of some fifteen or twenty Bantu women standing
near the steps. "Amandla Ngawethu!" Clenched fists were raised in the ANC salute. Television
cameras whirred even more enthusiastically as overseas newspapermen pressed forward to shoot this
scene. This would look good on TV.
Suddenly the crowd surged forward as the massive wooden doors of the Palace of Justice swing
slowly open. People pushed and jostled and elbowed their way up the steps and crowded into the
courtroom until every available seat was occupied. Several people had to be turned back from the
doors.
The benches reserved for the press were also rapidly filling up. There was a shuffling and a
fluttering of papers as the newshounds delved for notebooks and pencils.
The eyes of the world were on the trial which was about to commence.
The trial actually opened nearly two months before, on October 9th, but the hearing was twice
adjourned on technical grounds, after a defence request for the squashing of the original indictment had
been granted by the Court.
Of the persons arrested at the time of the Rivonia raid or immediately afterwards, several had been
released, Mrs Goldreich among others. In the end eleven were indicted: Nelson Mandela, Walter
Sisulu, Dennis Goldberg, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada, Lionel Bernstein, Raymond
Mhlaba, James Kantor, Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni, and Bob Hepple. Hepple, having
expressed a desire to turn State witness, was released on October 29th, and absconded soon after so
that only ten accused remained.
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