Chronology
Famous Trials

The Nelson Mandela
(Rivonia) Trial

1963-64

Images
Maps
Indictment
The Rivonia
Accused
     
      Crowd outside the Palace of Justice in Pretoria as the Rivonia trial opens. (Bailey African History Archives) 
"Operation
Mayibuye"
Trial
Excerpts
Mandela's Trial
Speech
Prosecution
Exhibits
The Nelson Mandela Trial: An Account
by  Douglas Linder  (c) 2010  
It's "the trial that changed South Africa."  In the fall of 1963, Nelson Mandela and ten other leading opponents of South Africa's apartheid regime went on trial for their lives. The charges (in what is often called "the Rivonia trial" for the Johannesburg suburb that was the location of the hideout for a militant wing of the African National Congress) were sabotage and conspiracy, and there was little doubt that but that Mandela and most of the other defendants would be found guilty.  Desperate times had dictated desperate measures. Standing in the dock at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria, Mandela announced that "the ideal of a democratic and free society" is one "for which I am prepared to die." [CONTINUED]
.
  Famous Trials Homepage
Behind
 the Scenes
 Justice de Wet's
Sentence
  Links &
Bibliography