Rivonia Trial

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  • Trial between 1963 and 1964 in which ten leading members of the Congress Alliance were charged with sabotage and faced the death penalty. Named after the suburb of Rivonia, Johannesburg, where six members of the MK High Command were arrested at their hideout, Liliesleaf Farm, on 11 July 1963. Incriminating documents, including a proposal for a guerrilla insurgency named Operation Mayibuye, were seized. Mandela, who was already serving a sentence for incitement and leaving South Africa illegally, was implicated, and his notes on guerrilla warfare and his diary from his trip through Africa in 1962 were also seized. Rather than being cross-examined as a witness, Mandela made a statement from the dock on 20 April 1964. This became his famous ‘I am prepared to die’ speech. On 11 June 1964 eight of the accused were convicted by Justice Quartus de Wet at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria, and the next day were sentenced to life imprisonment.

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Criminal Court Case No. 253/1963 (State Versus N Mandela and Others)

Records of the Rivonia trial, State versus Nelson Mandela and nine others. The accused are Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Dennis Goldberg, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Lionel Bernstein, Raymond Mhlaba, James Kantor, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni.
The collection includes the indictment, opening address, statements and evidence by witnesses for the State and for the accused. Evaluation of evidence, exhibits including photographs. An important component of the collection includes material confiscated at Lilliesleaf farm in Rivonia, such as Mandela's 1962 diary and other documents in his handwriting, most of them relating to armed struggle. It also includes Mandela's statement from the dock, and the State's concluding address.
A significant part of the collection includes materials used to build up the State's case against the Rivonia Trialists.

The Treason Trial and other Trials

Rivonia Trial. The State versus Nelson Mandela and nine others, in the Supreme Court of South Africa Transvaal Provincial Division. The collection includes the Indictment; Annexure and Opening address; State's Concluding Address (part 1 to 4); and Judgment and Sentence.

Supreme Court of South Africa

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