Rivonia - Key characters by https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx Overview of key characters participating in Rivonia Trial 1963-4 en-us 2019-02-01 10:57:43 UTC 2025-12-04 23:06:52 UTC hello@padlet.com Dr Percy Yutar https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326653836 - Born 29th July 1911
- Died 13th July 2002
- Prosecutor
- He was South Africa’s first Jewish Attorney-General
- He wanted the death penalty for Mandela and the other defendants
- Many people believed he was indifferent to Apartheid
- He experienced a lot of anti-Semitism throughout his early life, originally coming from a family of Lithuanian immigrants
- Closing remark; "Because of the people who have lost their lives and suffered injury as a result of the activities of the accused it is apparent that this case is now one of murder and attempted murder as well."
- After Mandela's inauguration in November 1995, he invited Yutar to lunch, and agreed that he had only played a minor part in the conviction, and was doing his duty. Yutar then called Mandela a "saintly man"
- As some of the defendants were also Jewish, Yutar saw the trial as an opportunity to prove that "not all Jews were radicals hell-bent upon overthrowing the government"
- He portrayed the defendants as Communist-inspired terrorists and argued that they did not represent the majority of Africans in South Africa
- Later in life he claimed that he had actually saved the men by charging them with sabotage rather than high treason, even though both carried the death penalty 
]]> 2019-02-01 12:40:08 UTC https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326653836 Ahmed Kathrada https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326653865 - Born on 21 August 1929, to Indian immigrant parents in Schweizer Reneke, a small town in Western Transvaal
- He was one of the ANC party leaders.
- South African politician, political prisoner and anti-apartheid activist.
- Kathrada spent 26 years and three months in prison, 18 of which were on Robben Island.
- After Apartheid, he served from 1994-99 as parliamentary counsellor to President Mandela in the first African National Congress (ANC) government.
- Died: 28 March 2017, Johannesburg.
- Only found guilty on one charge, refused the other charges made against him.
- He authored a book, No Bread for Mandela – Memoirs of Ahmed Kathrada, Prisoner No. 468/64.
- Kathrada was a founding member of the Transvaal Indian Volunteer Corps and that of its successor, the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress.
- ]]> 2019-02-01 12:40:13 UTC https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326653865 Walter Sisulu https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326653868 - One of the Deputy leader's of the ANC
- One of the founding members of MK with Nelson Mandela
- Walter Susulu died on the 5th of May 2003 in Johannesburg
- Walter Sisulu was also one of the first members of the ANC
- Walter Sisula was imprisoned on Robin Island for 25 years
-Walter Sisulu was accused of treason in the 1956 Treason Trial and following his arrest for acts of sabotage committed as part of Umkhonto we Sizwe, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial. Released in 1989, Walter Sisulu remained active in politics until 1994.
-  Walter Ulyate Max Sisulu was born in the village of Qutubeni in the Engcobo district of the Transkei on 18 May 1912. Sisulu was born out of wedlock. His father was a Mr. Dickenson, a white assistant magistrate. He was raised by his grandmother and uncle and only moved in with his mother when he was six years old. He attended an Anglican missionary institute
- Walter Sisulu's wife was call Albertina Sisulu and he had 9 children.


]]> 2019-02-01 12:40:13 UTC https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326653868 Justice Quartus de Wet https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326654087 The trial judge, Judge President of the Transvaal. Was a judge before 1948 when the national party came to power. Son of a judge. Was 65 yrs old, and known to be experienced and a no nonsense judge. Found all apart from Kathrada and Bernstein guilty of all charges. Bernstein was set free only to be arrested by the time he left court. Kathrada was found guilty of two of the charges. Charged them of high treason, but decided not to give the death penalty and instead sentence life imprisonment. Said he was 'scrupulously fair' during trial, and in his final speech talked said 'we are a country of law but we are also a country of mercy', which was why he didn't pass the death sentence.However, the more probable reason was probably down to the government not wanting to make the men into martyrs. Born in March 1899, in Pretoria which was a very white Afrikaner area. Died 1980.]]> 2019-02-01 12:41:06 UTC https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326654087 Denis Goldberg https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326654090 - Born 11th April 1933
- He was Jewish
-First in his family to attend university, Graduated from Cape Town university with a bachelors in Engineering 
- Born in Cape Town
- A member of SCAP which led to him forming with the ANP, where he joined into the MK, Where he became chief of Operations 
- Executive member of the congress of democrats, which was allied with the AN
- Only white member of the MK to be arrested and sentenced in the Rivonia trial  
- Sentenced to Pretoria Central, as he was a white prisoner, Jailed for 22 years before release in 1984
- On the 23rd Jan 2019, he was honoured with the Isithwalandwe, the highest honor from the people of South Africa


]]> 2019-02-01 12:41:08 UTC https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326654090 Nelson Mandela https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326654405 - Leader of MK
- Trained as a Lawyer
- imprisoned for 27 years

'It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, My Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.'

- Charged on Four Accounts of sabotage
- Nelson played a key role in the Rivonia trial which is often referred to as "the trial that changed South Africa
- Made incredibly powerful speech...
The most profound moment in the trial was probably Mandela’s speech in the dock. He condemned the very court he was appearing in as illegitimate. He then proceeded to argue that the laws in place were equally draconian and that defiance of these laws was justified.




]]> 2019-02-01 12:42:22 UTC https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326654405 https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326654621 2019-02-01 12:43:13 UTC https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326654621 Bram Fischer https://padlet.com/ask8/mev4jx6osnsx/wish/326654752 - Born on 23 April 1908 in the Orange Free State
- Died on 8th May 1957
- He was born into a prominent Afrikaans family
- Bram was brought up in an Afrikaans and English-speaking home, regarded himself as an Afrikaner - a proud one
- 1942 Bram and his wife Molly had become members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA)
- He was widely admired as a brilliant man with the potential to possibly lead the country as Prime Minister, provided his political opinions became less unorthodox.
- Bram was "named" under the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950.
- Nevertheless, on 2 November the next year he was appointed a king's counsel (KC).
- He was a corporate lawyer
- and in 1952 Bram defended Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and eighteen other ANC leaders for participating in the Defiance Campaign.
- In 1953 Bram banned under the Suppression of Communism Act from most gatherings and from the Congress of Democrats.
- On 13 June 1964 Molly was killed in a tragic accident in a motorcar driven by Bram, who was overwhelmed by grief.
- 23 September 1964 Fischer was arrested for contravening the Suppression of Communism Act
- In 1974 Bram Fischer became seriously ill with cancer
- Liberal newspapers and political leaders mounted an intensive campaign for his release.
- They were successful and he was moved to his brother’s home in Bloemfontein a few weeks before his death.
- His ashes were impounded by the state lest they be used to create a shrine for the resistance movement.


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