by the sheer vindictiveness of the State’s case and the repressive and systematic erasure of freedom by government that no one in any position of power was listening to the results of, or the evidence in, the Treason Trial. Even our defence team was not unscathed; Bram Fischer went underground and Maisels, disgusted by the Nationalists’ obdurate refusal to recognise the rights of black people, accepted, for a brief period of time, an appointment to the Bench of what was then Southern Rhodesia.
Helen Joseph’s diary of the Treason Trial is not the last word on the trial. It is not a classic legal exposition of the many complex and, at times, boring procedures that took place throughout that long period from December 1956 until March 1961, when we were all found not guilty. Helen’s diary works on another level, that of the human condition and it is something that should be read by everyone who wants to know what it was like at that time, how we survived and who defended us. Much can be learned by the simple and forthright way in which she kept a diary of her days under the whip of one of the most vicious of regimes.
January 1998
Foreword
CHIEF ALBERT LUTHULI
‘What are Kingdoms without Justice but large robber bands?’ St Augustine
Helen Joseph has made an important contribution to the literature of the liberatory movement in South Africa.
The Treason Trial must occupy a special place in South African history. That grim pre-dawn raid, deliberately calculated to strike terror into hesitant minds and impress upon the entire nation the determination of the governing clique to stifle all opposition, made 156 of us, belonging to all races of our land, into a group of accused facing one of the most serious charges in any legal system.
When I used to sit with my co-accused during the dreary, soul-searing proceedings of the Preparatory Examination, my mind would insistently go back to the great similarity of techniques and methods that marked the nightmare of Hitlerism from which we thought we had emerged barely a decade ago.
The dictatorial minority which ruled South Africa made a desperate gamble when it decided to indict a large section of its opponents for treason. The reason and intention are obvious. In most parts of the world, law and order are still supposed to be the supreme good. Whatever is, is supposed to be right by some strange logic. The universal prevalence of this view shows to what extent humanity is still under the thraldom of mere habit. Innovators and initiators of progressive change are always suspect, and all the more to be dreaded and put out of the way if they are addicted to irresponsible violence or, nowadays, if they are merely suspected of keeping company with Communism. Nationalist logic was naively simple, almost to the point of stupidity. They would convict us of being Communists, of not only having dark designs to overthrow the State, the established order, by violence, but of actually plotting the means to this end. They would also drive terror into would-be opponents, showing them the high cost of opposition, in the way of disrupted families, insecurity, loss of employment and the host of difficulties which attend such lengthy trials. The Treason Trial would be notice to the world, especially to ‘Communism-haunted’ people of the Western world, that the minority white government of South Africa is indeed a bastion of Western civilisation (whatever that may mean), and a foremost ally in the struggle against Communism.
In its pathetic progress, the trial degenerated into a crude attempt to brand us and our organisations as Communist. But, indeed, as it so often happens, “the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft a-gley”. This supposed master-move of the then Minister of Justice, this trial to end all trials, ended in foredoomed, miserable failure – a failure which may well mark the beginning of the end for this ugly interlude of Nationalist rule over our fair land. For at the time the pre-dawn raids were carried out and the trial began, Nationalism was rampant, in full cry, and the Jericho Walls of White rule in South Africa were still without a breach, while the ugly form of apartheid was spreading its shadow over the land in greater volume and ampler sweep. At the end of the trial, the granite walls still remain, but they certainly reveal a few very significant cracks. Victory is certainly not in sight, nor near, but at least the forces of progress have been vindicated.
And not only that! The trial has been an inestimable blessing because it forged together diverse men and women of goodwill of all races who rallied to the support of the Treason Trial Fund and to keep up the morale of the accused. What would have been the plight of the accused without our Bishop Reeves, Alan Paton, Dr Hellman, Canon Collins, Alex Hepple, Christian Action, Archbishop de Blank, Archbishop Hurley and all the other loyal men and women without whose help and co-operation chaos would have prevailed in our ranks? We shudder to think even of the prospect of how we would have fared if they had not come forward. In all humility, I can say that if there is one thing which helped push our movement along non-racial lines away from narrow, separative racialism, it is the Treason Trial, which showed the depth of the sincerity and devotion to a noble cause on the white side of the colour line, ranging from those already mentioned to the brilliant team of legal men who defended us so magnificently for so little financial reward. To all these gallant helpers, I should like to say on behalf of all the accused that our future course of conduct will justify your help, for in all things we shall be motivated by the noble urge of human unity rather than division and separativeness.
Author’s Note
The dramatic story of the mass arrests of 156 people on a charge of high treason has already been told in South African Treason Trial by Lionel Forman, one of the accused, with ES Sachs as co-author. This brilliant young journalist and barrister described the drama and comedy of the long drawn-out Preparatory Examination, and his book came to us on the very day that we were committed for trial. We sat in the cells under the magistrate’s court waiting for our new bail to be arranged and autographing each other’s copies.
Then after many months we came to Pretoria, to the Special Criminal Court, to face the Treason Trial itself. Lionel was still with us when we first came and I watched him making his notes. I used to wonder how and when his second book, on the trial itself, would be written.
In October 1959, we heard that he was dead. He was not with us in court at that time, because he was among the 61 whose indictment had been withdrawn. They were not discharged, however, but were awaiting the outcome of our trial. Lionel was in Cape Town and we knew of the serious condition of his heart; knew too, that instead of living a lesser life on account of his illness, his days were crammed with activity and work. His adult years had been filled with an unfaltering dedication to the ideal that all men and women should be able to live complete, healthy and happy lives unmarred by poverty, degradation and ignorance.
His death was sudden. He had taken the chance offered by a heart operation to add “at least seven years to his life”, as the doctors had said. The risk was very great and so was his indomitable courage. But he did not survive the operation.
Months later, I was asked by Mr Sachs to complete the task which Lionel had barely begun. I know that this book is not – could not be – as he would have written it. But Lionel wanted the story of our trial to be told. This is not the full story of the Treason Trial. It is neither a legal nor a political analysis. It is primarily our story of the last dramatic year of the trial, from 29 March 1960, the day when we were arrested under the Emergency regulations which were declared after Sharpeville, to 29 March 1961, the day when we were at last acquitted of the charge of high treason.
I want to express my sincere thanks to Advocate Sydney Kentridge for reading the manuscript and for his most valuable advice, to Miss Diana Athill who has helped me so tremendously in the final stages of preparation, to “Solly” Sachs, but for whom the book would never have been written, and last but not least, to Farid Adams, Accused Number One, who has so willingly given up countless hours during the past years to the typing of this MS and of my weekly summaries of the actual trial proceedings.
I should like this book to be a tribute to my fellow treason trialists, who were called upon to endure so much more hardship than ever I had to face; to the Treason Trial Defence and all its thousands of supporters, who provided funds for our very survival; to our incomparable legal defence; and to all those who carry on the struggle “side by side, throughout our lives,