| 1948 |
The institution of Grand Apartheid by the National Party |
| 1950s |
The 1950s were punctuated by bouts of rising conflict. The NP went to great lengths to distance South Africa from colonial British rule. Part of this campaign, included mobilizing certain (nationalist and patriotic) historical sentiments and ideologies to assert SA’s independence from Britain. |
| 1950 |
Suppression of Communism Act passed |
| 1952 |
Defiance Campaign |
| 1955 |
Demolition of Sophiatown begins in January
Freedom Charter adopted in Kliptown on June 26
SACTU- South African Congress of Trade Unions formed |
| 1956 |
Federation of South African women leads women’s campaign against the pass laws: Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa lead a deputation the office of the Prime Minister. 20 000 women march to Pretoria
156 members of the Congress Alliance arrested and charged with treason |
| 1958 |
Hendrik Verwoerd appointed Prime Minister, headlining his separate development policy. |
| 1959 |
Women’s protests throughout KwaZulu-Natal cause waves of instability.
05 December: Pan African Congress (PAC) formed as a result of anti-congressional sentiments, mistrust at what was considered white domination of Congressional politics (The alliance between the ANC and the SACP). |
| 1960 |
The beginning of the “Silent Sixties” – the ANC had been forced underground
21 March: The Sharpeville Massacre, which began as an anti-pass law protest – police injure more than 180 people and kill sixty-nine demonstrators, including 8 women and 10 children. It becomes the catalyst that shifts the ANC philosophy of passive resistance into one of armed struggle.
28 March: National stay away in protest of the Sharpeville shootings.
30 March: State of Emergency declared: 18000 people detained.
08 April: The Unlawful Organisations Act (1960) bans the ANC and PAC. Key leaders are imprisoned or escape into exile.
October: A referendum, in which only whites could vote, held to decide whether South African should become a Republic and withdraw from the Commonwealth. |
| 1961 |
South Africa is declared a republic. Government changes the Constitution without consulting the black majority.
June: Decision taken to form Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation).
August: Liliesleaf purchased by the SACP, through a front company, under the name Mr. V Ezra.
16 December: Umkhonto we Sizwe launches its first armed attack against the state. |
| 1962 |
05 August: Nelson Mandela arrested in Howick on his return from the PAN-African Freedom Movement for Central, East and Southern Africa in Addis Ababa. He sends a message to Liliesleaf that his papers should be destroyed. A meeting is held in which they are deemed too historically importance to destroy, so they are buried in a coal shed on the property.
November: Nelson Mandela sentenced to five years imprisonment for arranging the stay away of May 1961 and for leaving the country without a passport. |
| 1963 |
All ANC and Communist Party activists placed under banning orders.
April - June: PAC’s planned uprising suppressed.
26 June: Freedom Radio broadcast (Walter Sisulu).
11 July: Police raid the ANC’s Rivonia headquarters, Liliesleaf, seeking Walter Sisulu who had gone into hiding. Members of the National High Command of Umkhonto we Sizwe held under 90-day arrest and confinement- no charge. Eighteen people taken into police custody. The cache of Nelson Mandela materials in the coal shed at Liliesleaf is discovered.
11 August: Goldreich, Wolpe, Moolla and Jassat escape detention fleeing to Swaziland, Botswana and Tanzania. After Harold Wolpe’s escape from detention, his brother-in-law, James Kantor is arrested, making him the eighth co-accused in the trial.
The United Nations General Assembly holds a referendum in criticism of South African political trial conduct. The verdict is 106:1 with only South Africa in opposition. Despite this, America, Great Britain, France and Australia abstain to call for an end to the Rivonia Trial.
8 October: Nelson Mandela officially brought into the Rivonia Trial as a result of the evidence collected at Liliesleaf. |
| 1964 |
June: Eight ANC leaders sentenced to life imprisonment; two acquitted (Rusty Bernstein and James Kantor); one escapes trial by turning State’s Witness and then fleeing the country.
The alleged Offenses:
1.Recruiting persons for training in the preparation and use of explosives and in guerilla warfare for the purpose of violent revolution and committing acts of sabotage.
2.Conspiring to commit the aforementioned acts and to aid foreign military units when they invaded the Republic.
3.Acting in these ways to further the objects of Communism.
4.Soliciting and receiving money for these purposes from sympathisers in Algeria, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Liberia, Nigeria and elsewhere. |
1918 –
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1912 – 2003
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1933 –
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1910 – 2001
 |
#1 Nelson Mandela:
Found Guilty.
Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Served 27 years |
#2 Walter Sisulu:
Found Guilty.
Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Served 26 years |
#3 Denis Goldberg:
Found Guilty.
Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Served 22 years |
#4 Govan Mbeki:
Found Guilty.
Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Served 24 years |
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1929 –
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1920 – 2002
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1920 – 2005
 |
1927 – 1974
 |
#5 Ahmed Kathrada:
Found Guilty.
Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Served 26 years |
#6 Lionel ‘Rusty’ Bernstein:
Found Not Guilty.
Later rearrested, and then fled the country when released on bail. |
#7 Raymond Mhlaba:
Found Guilty.
Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Served 26 years |
#8 James Kantor:
Released.
Arrested after the escape of his brother-in-law, Harold Wolpe, but later discharged from the case. |
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1924 – 1994
 |
1926 –
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1926 – 1996
 |
1929 –
 |
#9 Elias Motsoaledi:
Found Guilty.
Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Served 26 years. |
#10 Andrew Mlangeni:
Found Guilty.
Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Served 26 years |
Harold Wolpe:
Never Tried.
Escaped from Marshall Square with Arthur Goldreich and went into exile in the United Kingdom. |
Arthur Goldreich:
Never Tried.
Escaped from Marshall Square with Harold Wolpe, went into exile in Israel. |
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