Table Of ContentOperationM ayibuye
RILCDEVI LLINS
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RIVQNIA
OPERATION HAYIBV YE
A review of the Rivonia trial
by the Honourable
H. H. IV. DE VILLIERS
Judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa 1945-1955.
Judge of the Appeal Court 1955-1957.
Judge President of the Fmtvrn Cape Division of the
Supreme Court 195v ' .J2.
Chairman of The Prem Board of Reference of the News.
pape~ . sess Union of South Africa.
with a Foreword by
The Honourable FRANCIS NAPIER BROOSIE
retired Judge President of the Natal Provincial
Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa.
Afrihaanse Pere-Boekhandel Johannesburg
COVER DESIGN AND TYPGSRAPRY: NIIRC ACRLEITNER. PAINTING
AND SINDING EY RAYNE AND GIBSON, JORANNESSUEG, SOUTH
APEICA
TRIS SOON IS SET IN • Pt ROYAL
ONIA — OPERATION 51ATIBUYE
Foreword
Preface
CHAPTER I: Eleventh July, 1983 1- 9
CHAPTER 8: Goldreich and Wotpe Escape 10 21
CHAPTER IH: The Charges 22- 30
CHAPTERIV: Eleventh June, 1984 31- 51
CHAPTERV: Reactions . 52. 80
CHAPTER VI: Operation bfaylbuye 61- 81
CHAPTER VIH: Rivonla and the African
States 82- 88
CHAPTERVIB: Rivonia and the Communists 89.102
CHAPTERIX: Our Tough Problem 1%-113
X: After Rivonia 114 118
Appendix 11%120
ForeworiI
1 welcome the appearance of this book, so sum
after the events tchick it describes. While we in
South Africa do not fear the fmal verdict of history,
the interests of fairness, truth and jushce require
that there shall be available at once this authoritative
o»d graphic account of fhe Rivonia tiraL The author-
ship guarantees its factual accuracy and the weighti-
ness of the commenL
No fewer than nine members ot the de Villiers
elan have sat on the Supreme Court Bench in South
Africa. Of these two have been Chief Justices of
South Africa and two pre-union Chief Justices (one
Colonial and one Republican): three have been
Judges of Appeal and three Judge Presidents. The
earliest of these, Baron de ViNers, was a judge for
4I years, taking time off to preside over the National
Convention which led to the Unum of South Africa,
whose first Chief Justice he became. Fleinrich, the
author, was leader of the Pretoria Bar before becom-
ing successively a puisne Judge, a Judge of Appeal
and Judge President of the Eastern Cape. Fle retired
in 1961.
The opinions which the author expresses are of
course his ourn. 1 do not necessarily share them. But
whether 1 share them or not, 1 commend them to
the reader as the opinions of one whose background,
professional qualifications and personal mtegrity
entitle him to speak with authority.
Two recent overseas comments on the Rivonia triat
indicate the need for a book such as this. Both
related to the sentence of imprisonment imposed by
the presiding Judge instead of senuntce of death.
One comment ascribed the Judge's letdency to gov-
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Preface
RIVONIA: OPERATION AFRIKA MAYIBUYE.
Article IV of the Vnited Nations (1958) draft
International Code o( Ethics for journalists reads:
"It is the duty of those who describe and com-
ment upon events relating to a foreign country
to acquire the necessary knowledge of such country
which will enable them to report accurately and
fairly thereon."
This article, in my view, could with benefit have
had added to it after the words "such country" the
words "and of the circumstances surrounding the
eventsd escribed or commented upon."
Judged by this standard journalists and other
reporters whether by the written word or in picture
form fall sadly by the wayside, where South Africa
is concerned.
Some of the distortions of events and conditions
in South Africa that have been published abroad
are so flagrant, that it is difficult to avoid the con-
clusion that the principle contained in article IV
of the Draft Code was deliberately ignored, and that
there was a deliberate failure to report "accurately
and fairly".
tlutte recently the Government of South Africa was
compelled to remonstrate with the Secretary General
of the United Nations for ignoring tbe salutary
admonition contained in that article read with the
logical corollary suggested above.
This book on the Rivonia trial, in so far as it deals
with the facts, ls intended to remove all excuse
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CHAPTER I
SevenO JuIy, 1963
About ten miles north of Johannesburg, but well
within its outskirts, there is a peri-urban area of
somewhat exclusive small-holdings known as Rivonia.
In a secluded, wooded holiow of this Rivonia area
lies a farm by the name of "Lilliesleaf", an extensive
farm, as small-holdings go, of some twentywight
acres of some of the most productive land in the
Transvaal.
This was a well equipped and developed farm with
a large, modern, high stungleroofed main building
such as a well.todo retired bus)ness-man might put
up in a semi-rural area for his privacy and retire-
ment. This was no runoff.the-mill farm house, but
a residence redolent of financial resources and ex-
clusiveness such as might be seen in the pattern of
the quieter and more select outskirts of Africa's
most prosperous city.
Behind the main building was a considerable
number of outbuildings as might be used for the
housing of servants, workrooms, storerooms, fuel-
sbeds and the like. Amongst these outbuildings was
a rather commodious and imposing thatch-roofed
cottage which, as events proved, housed most of the
dramatis personae who figured in the South African
cause celebre to become internationally known as the
Rivonia Trial.
Although within the lindts of South Africa's most
heavily populated area, the farm "Lilttesleaf' some-
how remained off the beaten track and away from
the routes which Johannesburg motorlsts taking
customary Sunday afternoon drives would traverse,
As was revealed later,e laborate steps had been taken
to ensure the complete isolation of the farm "LiUies-
leaf". Tradesmen and other people, casual visitors,
were not encouraged. The Bantu servants on the
farm, of whom seven were found there on the 11th
July, 1963, namely six Bantu men and one Bantu
woman, peremptorilyo rdered away each and everyone
whom they found encroaching on the environs of
this property, whether by way of the dirt road
leading to the farmhouse, or across the veld.
On the afternoon of the 11th July, 1963, things
were quiet at the Rivonia homestead as tbe farm
"Lilliesleaf" came to be known; even the field
labourers who gave "Lilliesleaf" its verisimilitude of
a farm minding its own business as a farm were not
in evidence. July is midwinter on the Transvaal high.
veld where Rivonia is situated, and it was a bleak
and chilly afternoon, with bleak surroundings, dry
yegow grass, and most of the trees leafless.
From somewhere off tbe main tarred road to
Johannesburg, a van bearing the name of a well.
known Johannesburg laundry firm nosed its way
along the Rivonia farmroads on the apparently
innocent mission of picking up and delivering laundry
and perhaps finding a new customer or two in that
select area.
The laundry van meandered around several turn.
ings and finally turned into the road which brought
it, unchallenged, to tbe "Lilliesleaf" homestead. Here
the driver of the van was stopped by a Bantu
employee who peremptorily ordered him to turn
back.T he European driver of the van, appropriately
dressed in a white dustcoat, as was his companion
