The Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial was heard in the Supreme Court of South Africa from 21 October 1985 to 23 June 1986. In the largest political trial since the Rivonia Trial, the apartheid state pursued charges of high treason against 16 leaders of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and four affiliated organisations. State v Ramgobin and Others was generally regarded as a failure in both legal and political terms: the charges against 12 defendants were dropped in December 1985 and the remaining four were freed in June 1986, while the South African state received international criticism for having instituted the charges in the first place.
The 16 defendants were leaders of the UDF, the Natal Indian Congress, the Transvaal Indian Congress, the Release Mandela Committee, and the South African Allied Workers' Union. Among them were both co-presidents of the UDF, Albertina Sisulu and Archie Gumede. Also among them were five of the so-called Durban Six, who made international news in September 1984 for evading arrest by taking refuge in the British consulate in Durban. Each of the 16 was arrested in Natal or the Transvaal between August 1984 and February 1985 during the period of heightened state repression that followed UDF-led boycotts of the 1984 general election and new Tricameral Parliament.
In a 587-page indictment finally delivered in April 1985, the state alleged that the accused had, through ostensibly non-violent political acts, sought to further "a revolutionary alliance" whose aim was to incite a revolt and overthrow the government. In particular, the state sought to argue that the UDF and its affiliates were co-conspirators of the illegal African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, and South African Congress of Trade Unions. Represented by Ismail Mahomed, the defendants pled not guilty to all charges. In December 1985, following damaging cross-examination of the state's star expert witness, the state announced that it would withdraw the charges against all but four of the defendants; the trial resumed in February 1986 with only the four trade unionists in the dock. The charges against them were dropped in June 1986 after Judge President John Milne ruled that key evidence was inadmissible.
Upon the conclusion of the trial, the UDF declared itself and its methods vindicated. In addition to the embarrassments suffered by the prosecution in the courtroom, the trial had been condemned by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 560 and had attracted international attention to apartheid security legislation, particularly the Internal Security Act, the law in terms of which the defendants had been arrested and charged.
Background
The United Democratic Front (UDF) was launched in August 1983 as a popular front of the anti-apartheid movement. At that time, the African National Congress (ANC) had been banned by the apartheid government since 1960, and the Black Consciousness movement had been severely repressed in the aftermath of the Soweto uprising. The UDF therefore quickly became the largest extra-parliamentary opposition group in the country. Generally – though not exclusively – its affiliates were aligned, formally or informally, to the ANC and to the Freedom Charter. Though its affiliates included hundreds of youth, civic, labour, and other organisations, three in particular were targeted in the Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial: the Natal Indian Congress (NIC), the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC), the Release Mandela Committee (RMC), and the South African Allied Workers' Union (SAAWU). It was not uncommon for prominent officials of these affiliates to also hold leadership positions in the UDF.
During its first year, the UDF's primary project was a campaign of opposition to the new 1983 Constitution and the Tricameral Parliament it created; alongside the all-white House of Assembly, the new Parliament included two new junior chambers to provide for the nominal political representation of Coloureds and Indians respectively. The UDF and its affiliates were involved in organising large-scale, and largely successful, boycotts of the 1984 general election as well as demonstrations against the new system. The demonstrations turned into or coincided with an unprecedented period of confrontation and revolt in the country's townships and rural areas, for which the state held the UDF largely responsible.
On the eve of the election in August 1984, the South African Police made hundreds of arrests across the country, empowered by the extremely broad powers given to them by the Internal Security Act, including the power to detain individuals on "preventative grounds", without trial, and indefinitely. The UDF's leaders, including those who became the defendants in the Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial, were particular targets. Among those arrested in the same period as the Pietermaritzburg defendants were other UDF leaders charged in the Delmas Treason Trial, which overlapped with the Pietermaritzburg trial but was particularly concerned with events in the Southern Transvaal. Moreover, while the Pietermaritzburg trial was ongoing, President P. W. Botha initiated a series of states of emergency, which gave authorities extraordinary powers to detain and interrogate activists and otherwise to circumscribe political activity. Indeed, the Pietermaritzburg defendants were 16 of a total of 56 people arraigned on treason charges, in eight separate trials, in 1985.
Defendants The following is a list of all 16 defendants in the Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial.
Mewa Ramgobin (NIC) George Sewpersadh (NIC) M. J. Naidoo (NIC) Essop Jassat (TIC) Aubrey Mokoena (RMC) Curtis Nkondo (UDF) Archie Gumede (UDF) Paul David (RMC) Albertina Sisulu (UDF) Frank Chikane (UDF) Cassim Saloojee (UDF) Ismail Mohamed (TIC) Thozi Gqweta (SAAWU) Sisa Njikelana (SAAWU) Sam Kikine (SAAWU) Isaac Ngcobo (SAAWU)
Arrests: 1984–1985
The Durban Six: Spring 1984 Five of the defendants in the trial were arrested in extraordinary circumstances: on the pavement outside the British consulate in Durban, where they had taken refuge for several weeks in what became a significant diplomatic incident. There were six fugitives, known as the Durban Six: they were Archie Gumede, the co-president of the UDF; Billy Nair of the UDF executive; Mewa Ramgobin, George Sewpershad, and M. J. Naidoo of the NIC executive; and Paul David of the RMC. David had evaded arrested in the August crackdown, while the five others – alongside Kader Hassim, chairman of the African Peoples' Democratic Union of Southern Africa, and Sam Kikine, general secretary of SAAWU – had been released from detention on 7 September. They had been released after an order by the Supreme Court, which found that their detention was not justified by Law and Order Minister Louis le Grange's contention that they had been trying to "create a revolutionary climate". Le Grange had signed fresh detention orders soon after the court ruling and they were wanted by the police.
The Durban Six walked into the British consulate mid-morning on 13 September, requested British protection, and were reluctantly granted leave by consular staff to remain overnight in the three-room office. They ultimately remained on the premises for several weeks, demanding negotiations with South African authorities about their detention or the conditions thereof. While the British refused to intercede on their behalf, and openly encouraged the fugitives to leave, they also refused South African requests to deliver the fugitives into police custody. In retaliation, on 24 September, South Africa revoked a former promise to extradite the Coventry Four, who were wanted in Britain on arms smuggling charges. The British indicated that they were considering withdrawing their ambassador from Pretoria and expelling the South African ambassador from London.
During their time in the consulate, the six fugitives unsuccessfully challenged the new detention orders in the Supreme Court and extended unsuccessful requests for sanctuary in the embassies of the United States, France, the Netherlands, and the Federal Republic of Germany. On 6 October, three of the fugitives – Sewpershad, Naidoo, and Ramgobin of the NIC – voluntarily left the consulate and were immediately re-arrested on the pavement in front of the consulate. Gumede, Nair, and David remained inside the consulate.
Initial charges: December 1984
On 10 December, the government lifted the prevailing detention orders against all of the Durban Six, but immediately lodged treason charges against the three in their custody. Charged at the same time were three other activists who had been detained without trial since August: Essop Jassat, president of the TIC; Curtis Nkondo of the UDF executive; and Aubrey Mokoena of the RMC executive.
The South African Police promised that, because there were no charges pending against Gumede, Nair, and David, any one of them could leave the British consulate at any time and "walk out a free man"; the British Foreign Office said that it expected the trio to "leave at once" because "the situation has now changed fundamentally". The trio – then on their 89th day in British sanctuary – hesitated, fearing that they would also be arrested on new charges if they left the consulate, and indeed Gumede and David were promptly charged with treason when they left the consulate several days later. Billy Nair was the only one of the Durban Six who was not re-arrested.
Further arrests: February 1985 On the night of 18 February 1985, the police carried out further raids on UDF offices in major cities and arrested six other leaders in Durban and Johannesburg. The six were Sam Kikine (who had been released with five of the Durban Six in September 1984) and his SAAWU colleague Isaac Ngcobo; Albertina Sisulu, who with Gumede was co-president of the UDF; Frank Chikane and Cassim Saloojee of the UDF executive; and Ismail Jacob Mohamed of the TIC executive. The police said that their arrests emanated from the same investigation that had led to the prior eight treason charges. They were soon added to the treason trial as co-accused, which, with the addition of Thozi Gqweta and Sisa Njikelana of the SAAWU executive later in February, made for a trial of 16 defendants.
Indictment: 1985 The trial attracted international attention as the largest and most significant political trial in South Africa since the Rivonia Trial, which had ended in 1964 with the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and seven others, as well as the largest and most significant treason trial in the country since the 1956 Treason Trial. It was also the first political trial that targeted the UDF. It was heard in Pietermaritzburg, Natal under John Milne, Judge President of the Natal Division of the Supreme Court, who was generally regarded as one of South Africa's most independent-minded senior judges. N. C. Gey van Pittius was the chief prosecutor. Chief counsel for the defence was Ismail Mahomed, whose reputation as a leading advocate was cemented by the trial. Priscilla Jana was instructing attorney, and also on the defence team were Victoria Mxenge, until she was assassinated in August 1985, and Yunus Mohamed, until he was arrested during the trial for his own political activities.
Indictment and bail: May 1985 On 25 April 1985, prosecutors delivered an indictment – running to 587 pages across three volumes – which confirmed the charge of treason against the 16 defendants. Exercising powers granted to him by the Internal Security Act, the Attorney General ordered the court to deny bail to the defendants. The order was struck down on appeal and Judge Milne said that he had reached an agreement with the state that bail should not be challenged further; he also criticised the relevant provisions of the Internal Security Act as "old fashioned" and called for their repeal.