The Rivonia Trial Fifty Years later Fifty years after the beginning of the Rivonia Trial, officially known as the State versus Mandela and others, we are able to look at what happened in the light of the literature that has been published since 1994, the dawn of South Africa’s democratic era. Context and Overview: The Rise and Fall of Resistance The Rivonia Trial was an event that brought to a conclusion an intense period of resistance and agitation against apartheid that began with the resuscitation of the ANC after its radicalisation by the ANC Youth League. When Anton Lembede, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and their comrades formed the Youth League in the mid-1940s, they began to plan major campaigns against state oppression, drawing up the Programme of Action in 1949. Following the Indian Passive Resistance campaign against the Pegging and Ghetto Acts in 1946, aimed at limiting business and residence rights of Indians in South Africa, the ANC embarked on the Defiance Campaign in 1952. But the apartheid state cracked down on all forms of resistance, at first outlawing the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) in 1950. As the Defiance Campaign lost its momentum, ANC and Congress Alliance leaders were put on trial for treason in 1956, in what became known as the Treason Trial. The state failed to prove that the ANC was a communist organisation and was unsuccessful in its efforts to eliminate the ANC and its leaders, and they were set free in March 1962. Read the full article here: sahistory.org.za/topic/rivonia-trial-fifty-years-later
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 07:31:15 +0000
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