The Treason Trial

[Bob Molloy]

After reading the following piece I thought of George Santayana and his famous quote: "Those who forget their past are doomed to repeat it."


4 April 2011
Business Day
Page 9
Ben Trisk

NO SURPRISE THAT TODAY'S GANG HAVE FORGOTTEN THE TREASON TRIAL

HUBRIS waits for us all! It is tempting these days to think that we are a society formed by the imaginings of the poet: "Here I am an old man in a dry month, being read to by a boy."

In no order of importance: the chief of police signs a suspect and illegal lease deal, his predecessor is found guilty of corruption, the head of crime intelligence is arrested on a charge of murder, the minister of public works cannot meet a 30-day injunction to respond to the public protector, our president escapes corruption charges through an astounding piece of evasive chicanery by his cohorts, one of the president's sons has the effrontery to have us believe that he arrives at riches beyond imagining through his own intellect and acumen, his foreign accomplices are aggrieved that we can think less of him and them because he is the
president's son and they are his friends, the government spokesman appears to be a racist, the judge- president of the Western Cape may yet be impeached, policemen dance with thugs and those in power will dance with anyone, a stream of racist filth comes from the mouth of a drunken judge with the arrogance to claim that tea is his beverage, and another legal eagle (this time an advocate) resorts to the language of Gatiepie to insult a judge.

We could continue but you get my drift.

It was not always so. We once had men and women of integrity in public life, people of probity and character. Their political credentials were unimpeachable. They were prepared to die for what they believed in.
They are all but forgotten. They represented no one formally — they were not allowed to. But they spoke for millions. They were hounded for their views, sometimes detained without trial, torture was almost mandatory, they were subject to the harshest sentences: they withstood
much in pursuit of ideals so tarnished now by a bunch of gangsters, thieves and politicians (barely distinguishable from one another ) that it is hardly surprising that their greatest legal victory is forgotten. They lost mothers, fathers, children and friends — but they never lost themselves.

March 29 has little resonance today with South Africans white, black or oversupplied. I remember March 29 — it was last week.

I cannot recall what I had for dinner that day. But I do know what happened 50 years ago to the day in a Pretoria synagogue converted to a court. In that court, on that day, Justice Frans Rumpff, unquestionably a creature of apartheid, gave the verdict.

Helen Joseph described the moment in her own memoir of the treason trial: "If This Be Treason." Justice Rumpff is speaking now, in a low voice, but very clearly, leaning forward a little: "You are found not guilty and discharged and you may go."

At the end of the trial, 30 accused remained to be acquitted. Their numbers had diminished over the years since the arrest of 156 people in December 1956. There was first a preparatory examination, charges were dropped against some and 92 stood trial on an indictment that was quashed in October 1958. However, this was simply a device to give the
apartheid state some breathing space to reformulate the charges of treason.
Accordingly, in January 1959 a second indictment was served on 30 of the 92 accused in the first indictment. The idea being that the other 62 would be charged at some later date. Again they were charged with treason — the intention to overthrow the state by violence.

The defence team briefed for the trial was as close to the legal system's All Stars as you might get. Isie Maisels QC led an outstanding group that included the legendary Rex Welsh (who assisted with HC Nicholas on some difficult matters of law), (Sir) Sydney Kentridge, Bram Fischer, Chris Plewman, David Osborne and John Coaker. They were briefed by a
remarkable attorney, Michael Parkington. Maisels described him in his memoirs, A Life At Law, as "the real captain, planner and organiser of the defence".

Those appearing for the prosecution (then the Crown) were led by Oswald Pirow QC, a man suspected of having Nazi sympathies and who had opposed SA's entry into the Second World War — much as Julius Malema might do today if history had played out differently. It was Pirow, reflecting more about the fascist state than he might have supposed, who relied on an old appellate decision that "no middle ground exists between the ballot box and treason".

Does that not ring a bell today when we hear some of the denunciations coming from different members of the League of Morons? The mere facts of the Treason Trial do it little justice. It was soap opera with great purpose and moral rectitude. Justice Rumpff sat with two others,
Justice Ludorf and Justice Kennedy. The defence applied unsuccessfully for the recusal of Judge Rumpff.

Maisels changed the nature of the legal argument from that followed in the preparatory examination. "Although the trial was clearly a political one (he wrote), we had decided to fight the case on the facts and law applicable." On this Maisels would brook no opposition.
Maisels's cross-examination of the prosecution's star witness on communism (Prof Andrew Murray) was devastating.
An application for postponement of the trial during the state of emergency that followed Sharpeville in March 1960 was also refused. From April 1960 to August of that year the accused led their own defence. In August 1960 the state of emergency ended and the defence team returned.

In some brief recent correspondence between Stephen Clingman (Bram Fischer's biographer) and me, he referred to Maisels's defence as "a legal masterpiece". To anyone who has read the verbatim transcript of the trial, that praise extends equally to every one of the great lawyers who appeared for the defence. They worked for much less than their standard fees.

Their research and argument was immaculate, their clients were some of the great sons and daughters of the continent: Helen Joseph, Ahmed Kathrada, Nelson Mandela, Lilian Ngoyi, John Nkadimeng, Duma Nokwe and Walter Sisulu were among them.

History sets down markers and we return to those markers to refresh our memory. The collective memory is powerful. It is both prescient and capable of reflection. Our public life needs to celebrate what is meaningful: the Treason Trial and its verdict must perforce be
remembered because it is a triumph of the law over politics — and therein, perhaps, is the reason that this government and the ANC would rather forget it.

March 29 has come and gone without a murmur. We should not be surprised.

[SandyB]

Mmm yes indeed Bob  .. I  try to think what  Eddie  has to say , but then he does not say much ,, he as  one of those that appealed against the rot setting in  had  become more ignored over time .. I  do think it sticks in his craw ,,,  all the sacrifice to see  what is happening  ....