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- 1976 - (Creation)
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cases where the bulk of the accused are black men and women charged with offences involving the security of the state. We thought that advocate Rosenberg, in spite of his ability and prestige, was unaware of this danger. Even with the defence team I have listed occasions did arise when the accused and some of the members of the defence team did not see eye to eye on how to conduct the defence. Fortunately none of the subsequent difficulties were insurmountable and we were always able to overcome them through discussion. What is more we have never had cause to regret appointing the team we did to lead our defence. They performed their task with courage, determination and formidable skill.
As usual we took the initiative at the trial and fired the first shots by applying for the recusal of both Ludorf and Rumpff. That was not an easy decision for us to take for although we regarded both of them as members or supporters of the Nationalist Party, they were not the worst judges in the country and by having them removed we were running the risk of getting an even worse court. We thought carefully about the matter and finally decided to take the plunge. The basis of the application against Rumpff was that he had already adjudicated on certain aspects which formed subject matter of the present indictment and that it was not in the interests of justice that he should try the case. In the case of Ludorf the basis was that he had actied as advocate for the police when Harold Wolpe had sought a court interdict to eject the police from a meeting of the Congress of the People held in the Trades Hall, Johannesburg. Ludorf excepted the argument and withdrew, but Rumpff decided to be a witness in his own case, refused to recuse himself and gave the assurance that his judgement in the Defiance Case, the facts of which were covered in the present indictment,