Some of the UDF leaders (front row (from l to r) -George Sewpersadh, M J Naidoo, Archie Gumede, Mewa Ramgobin, and standing (third from right) Paul David who were charged with High Treason in 1985)
By Subry
Govender
On October 6 next month (2020), it would be 36 years since leaders of
the United Democratic Front (UDF), Natal Indian Congress (NIC), Release
Mandela Committee (RMC) and other progressive organisations were arrested and charged with High Treason.
Those in
the dock were Archie Gumede, Isaac Ngcobo, Mewa Ramgobin, Curtis Nkondo, Sisa
Njikelana, Aubrey Mokoena, Sam Kikine, M J Naidoo, Mrs Albertina Sisulu, Essop
Jassat, Cassim Salojee, George Sewpersadh, Paul David, Frank Chikane and
Thozamile Gqweta. A month earlier on September 13 1984, six of them - Mr Archie
Gumede, who was president of the UDF, Mewa Ramgobin, Paul David, George
Sewpersadh, M J Naidoo, Billy Nair, and Sam Kikine – sought refuge at the
British Consulate, which was situated in a building at the corner of the former
Smith and Field streets in Durban at that time. When they left the Consulate
after a month, Gumede, Ramgobin, Paul David, George Sewpersadh and M J Naidoo
were re-arrested on October 6 1984 on charges of High Treason. Defended by
Ismail Mahomed, who later became the Chief Justice of South Africa after the
dawn of freedom in 1994, the 16 treason trialists were acquitted on December 15
1985. In January 1985 before the treason trial began at the High Court in the
city of Pietermaritzburg, the Press Trust of SA Independent Third World News
Agency published an article about the actions of the Pretoria regime and
submitted it to India and other parts of the world. The article, published under
the headline “South African regime girds its loins for marathon treason trial”,
drew comparisons between the Treason Trial in 1956-1961 when Nelson Mandela and
155 other freedom fighters were charged with high treason and the 1984-1985
treason trial. The article highlighted the repression suffered by Mandela and
his fellow colleagues and analysed that just as Mandela and his final 29
comrades were found not guilty and acquitted, the same situation would prevail
with Archie Gumede, Mewa Ramgobin and their 14 other treason trialists.
SOUTH
AFRICAN REGIME GIRDS ITS LOINS FOR MARATHON TREASON TRIAL
When the president of
the United Democratic Front, Archie Gumede, appears in a South African court on
charges of High Treason, bitter memories of the marathon 1956-1961 treason trial
will come flooding back to him. For in 1956 he and 155 others faced similar
charges – all because they campaigned for the abolition of apartheid. Five years
later, after considerable disruption of their family and work lives, all were
set free.
Now it seems as if the wheel has turned a full circle and Pretoria is
at it again. Many leading anti-apartheid campaigners believe the government is
now resorting to the same tactics it used in 1956 to stifle opposition – tactics
which failed miserably.
They feel the latest attempt by the Government to remove
Mr Gumede and seven other UDF officials from the community is a move designed to
crush all opposition to its apartheid policies. The observers claim that this is
a fundamental error of judgement on the part of the white Pretoria regime. They
are of the view that not only does the state have a slim chance of convicting
the UDF leaders but their removal from active political life will not put a
damper on the campaign to destroy apartheid.
(Nelson Mandela)
The foundations for the 1956-1961
treason trial, like the upcoming treason trial, must be traced to the increasing
opposition to white rule. In the 1950s resistance to white minority National
Party (NP) rule heightened when the oppressed black majority saw that the white
rulers had no intention of granting them meaningful participation in the
political and economic life of the country. From 1950 onwards their protests
continually grew in strength.
The “Defiance Campaign” in 1952 enjoyed massive
support from people of all racial groups. But the thousands who flagrantly
courted arrest by disobeying apartheid laws eventually called off the campaign
when Pretoria used violent tactics to quell their protests. While using naked
repression to suppress discontent, the Pretoria regime at the same time laid the
legal foundations to harass the leaders of the liberation movement. Laws such as
the Suppression of Communist Act and the Riotous Assemblies Act all placed
restrictions on the freedom of movement and association of many of the country’s
progressive leaders.
(Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo in Johannesburg in the early 1990s)
The laws were aimed at making the liberation movement tread
the fine line between legality and illegality. But neither these legal
impediments nor state violence could guarantee that the white rulers would
remain in power. It soon became clear to the Pretoria regime that the dynamic
leadership of the Congress Alliance – comprising the African National Congress
(ANC), the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), the South African
Indian Congress (SAIC), the South African Coloured Peoples’ Congress (SACPO) and
the South African Congress of Democrats (COD) – was ultimately responsible for
mobilising into action the frustrations of the black majority. It soon realised
that something had to be done about them.
(Ahmed Kathrada)
The country’s burgeoning security
police were called in. Their brief? To monitor the activities of leading
officials of the Congress Alliance. Members of the security police attended
numerous meetings of the Congress Alliance, taking notes, photographs and the
names and addresses of those who attended them. Then, during September 1955,
Pretoria acted. Detectives raided the offices of the Congress as well as the
houses of individuals. The security police had warrants authorising them to
search for evidence “as to the commission of the offences of High Treason or
sedition”.
(Dr Yusuf Dadoo, leader of the South African Indian Congress, with Walter Sisulu (left) and another leader of the Congress Alliance)
Thousands of documents were confiscated during the raids. Before dawn
on December 5 1956 security police, bearing warrants authorising them to arrest
the people accused of high treason charges, once again swooped on the homes of
over 140 activists – a total of 156 leaders and activists were arrested. Among
the leaders taken into custody were Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Ahmed
Kathrada (all presently serving life sentences on Robben Island and other
prisons); Oliver Tambo (ANC president in exile); Albert Luthuli (the then
president-general of the ANC and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate); and Billy Nair
(recently released after serving 20 years on Robben Island and one of the six
leaders involved in the sit-in at the British consulate offices in Durban in
1984).
(Dr Monty Naicker, leader of the Natal Indian Congress, addressing a protest meeting during the heightened period of struggle against apartheid in the 1960s)
All the accused were then transported to Johannesburg. At the first
session of the preparatory examination, arguments for bail began. But even then,
apartheid laws dominated the proceedings. The State asked for 1 000 pounds bail
for whites and 500 pounds for blacks. However, the magistrate fixed the bail,
after protracted legal argument, at 250 pounds for whites, 100 pounds for
Indians and fifty pounds for “coloureds” and Africans.
Their release on bail was
subject to certain conditions, which were:
• That all had to surrender their
passports,
• All had to report to the police at a set time twice a week,
• All
had to undertake not to communicate with state witnesses, and
• None would
address any political gatherings.
(Thousands of people attending a protest meeting in Johannesburg in the 1950s)
While the defence and the state argued of
bail, large demonstrations outside the makeshift court erupted into violence
when the police opened fire on the protestors. In the clashes more than 20
people were wounded by gunshots. In the preparatory examinations, the state
prosecutor revealed that the authorities intended to prove that the 156 accused
had conspired to use violent means to overthrow the South African Government and
replace it with a “Marxist-Leninist” state.
The defence team argued it intended
to show the trial had been fabricated by the State so that “it could silence the
ideas held by the accused and the thousands whom they represented – ideas which
sought equal opportunity for all and freedom of thought”. The Defence team then
went onto show that the State had instituted the case in order to see how far it
could go to stifle “legitimate” criticism of the government. During the
nine-month preparatory hearing the State dropped the charges against 61 of the
accused – 95 remained in the dock.
When the State formally laid charges, it was
clear to all why the white rulers had introduced repressive anti-communist
legislation in the early 1950s. The main charge was High Treason – the State
alleged the accused “had joined in the conspiracy to disturb and impair the
existence or the security of the government by committing hostile acts and
encouraging others to do so.” The State viewed the “Congress of the People” and
the “Freedom Charter” drawn up in 1955 as hostile acts.
The prosecutor alleged
the accused intended to overthrow the government by a campaign of “hindering,
harassing and obstructing the government until it could no longer function”. Two
alternative charges under the Suppression of Communism Act were also levelled
against Mandela and his co-accused. However, when the trial proper opened in
Pretoria in August 1958 the defence team managed to quash the alternative
charges.
By April 1959 the defence team secured the withdrawal of all charges
against a further 65 people – 30 remained. Despite the absence of some of the
country’s most able political leaders, opposition to apartheid intensified. In
March 1960, 69 peaceful demonstrators were mowed down by the police in the
African township of Sharpeville. The protest was organised by the Pan Africanist
Congress (PAC). In order to deal with the rising tide of resistance, the
apartheid regime declared a state of emergency and banned the ANC and the PAC.
During the state of emergency, the remaining 30 accused were detained by the
security police and were only freed on bail four months later in August 1960.
The trial finally ended on March 29 1961 when the 30 leaders were acquitted and
discharged. The presiding judge, Mr Justice Rumpff, said the State had failed to
prove the accused were communists or that they supported the violent overthrow
of the government. For five years the people’s leaders vegetated – they were
virtually forced to give up their jobs, their normal family lives came to an end
and they dropped out of political activism. And for what? To be eventually found
not guilty.
(Billy Nair)
Now the spectre of another lengthy – and possibly vindictive treason
trial – is looming ahead. However, all the accused – all members of the UDF, the
Natal Indian Congress (NIC), the Release Mandela Committee (RMC) and other
progressive organisations – are certain to be comforted by the presence of
Archie Gumede with them in the dock. He will tell them not to worry. He will
tell them that their working lives and their family lives may be temporarily
affected. But he will also point out that the State failed to convict 156 other
freedom fighters in 1956- 1961 and the trumped up charges against them will also
be finally dropped and they will be acquitted. Ends – Press Trust of SA
Independent Third World News Agency (January 31 1985
Some of the UDF leaders (front row (from l to r) -George Sewpersadh, M J Naidoo, Archie Gumede, Mewa Ramgobin, and standing (third from right) Paul David who were charged with High Treason in 1985)
(Dr Yusuf Dadoo, leader of the South African Indian Congress, with Walter Sisulu (left) and another leader of the Congress Alliance)
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