FREEDOM TRIAL IN PRETORIA
South Africa 16th December 1961. The opening paragraph from the leaflets issued by the Command of Umkhonto We Sizwe Spear of the Nation… stated that units of the “Umkhonto We Sizwe” today carried out planned attacks against government installations particularly those connected with the policy of Apartheid and race discrimination.
July 4, 1962
The newspaper headlines, spoke for themselves on that cold winter morning in July 1962. “Kantor to face sabotage act trial.” The Sabotage Act… along with nine other people…The other nine men were Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Dennis Goldberg, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Lionel Bernstein, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motaoaledi, and Andrew Mlangeni.
They were arrested at Dennis Goldberg’s home in Rivonia, all nine faced charges of “Treason.” The world was shocked. If convicted, the South African Apartheid Government could weld out execution by firing squad.
The indictments alleged all nine men had embarked on a campaign of sabotage.
Charge No. 1. Contravening the Suppression of the Communism Act
Charge No. 2. Contravening the General Law
Charge No. 3. Contravening the overthrow of the South Africa Government by revolution Law
Charge No. 4 Contravening the airlifting of an invasion force to South Africa by foreign troops.
Charge No 5. Contravening to use laundered communist money into the ANC. (African National Congress.)
Jack H. Cooper a lawyer from Benjamin Joseph law firm was appointed councilor for the accused Mr. Kantor. One of the allegations was Kantor’s office was used to launder communist money into the banned ANC organization. The claim was not unfounded–money was going through Mr. Kantor’s trust account to the ANC. But the crucial question was, to what extend was Mr. Kantor involved and to what extend did he have knowledge of this?”
December 23, 1962
The headlines again told the story five months later on a warm December morning. “KANTOR’S CONFINEMENT OVER.” The newspaper wrote, James Kantor, the Johannesburg attorney one of the ten accused in the Rivonia Trial was acquitted in Pretoria yesterday.
Jack Cooper had done his job well. He was the only lawyer that managed to prove his clients’ innocence in the so called “1964 Freedom Trial.” He had saved his good friend from prison, and at same time became a legendary hero. Neither one of them realized they were making history.
November 2, 1964 The lengthy political trial had continued for two more long years. Finally, on a sunny autumn Pretoria afternoon in 1964, all of the other eight accused were found guilty by a unanimous vote of the jury. One of eight men, Nelson Mandela, a young attorney, delivered his famous, “I am prepared to die” speech from the dock. This speech would haunt many South Africans for the rest of their lives. Nelson Mandela the antiapartheid icon delivered that speech so fervently, so desperately, trying to convey to the world one last time, before he would be sentenced, perhaps to death, of the injustices that his people had suffered under the South Africa Apartheid Regime. He told the packed court room, “That the African National Congress organization never wanted to cause a civil war; all they wanted was to be free, and live and work in their country of birth like the white man did.”
No one, not even the most visionary of those present on that day could have imagined what the future held. November 1994, exactly thirty years later, capped off by a wrenching imprisonment, Nelson Mandela walked off Robben Island into the South Africa President’s office, and became the first black president of a new liberated South Africa.
Jack and Jim’s friendship continued. Jack Cooper had studied law at the Witwatersrand University in Scotland, before moving to South Africa. He never claimed that it was his enormously illustrious lawyer skills that gave his client the distinction of being the only one acquitted at the Infamous Rivonia Trial. He said, “He had merely had to prove that his friend wasn’t aware of the money going through his office. I did just that, but It did not come easy. I worked day and night on the trial sparing neither energy nor imagination. Afterwards James hugged me and we had a party. I felt very elated – a feeling of accomplishment. After all at the end of the day when you are in a trial, it’s you against them. It’s a game.”
James Kantor (1927-1975) was the first of the nine to go to trial. Neither he nor Jack fully comprehended just how fortunate Jim really was for the next two years. It was published in the South African Journal that the other eight men got life in prison. During his short period of detention, Jimmy Kantor suffered what appeared to some folks to be a nervous breakdown and his law practice deteriorated while he was in confinement and thus, after his release he relocated to Scotland; thence lived a lawyer’s life in Swain Valleys, Scotland.
Jack and Jim knew Nelson. All the defense lawyers in Johannesburg knew one and the other. Mandela was a colleague. They handled cases, sometimes the same cases with different accused. They were criminal lawyers. Lawyers who take these political cases were shunned, but they took the cases. Serious business. That was how they made their living, Jack, Jim, Tambo and the other guys.
At that period of time living in South Africa was good, but after the trial the law practice couldn’t support Jack and his family, and he moved to Los Angles, four children, wife and “Crybaby” the family dog, named after his x-wife. His six grandchildren live in Texas. Jack became a Real Estate Broker.
Jack said, “I don’t think I would go back to live in South Africa. Thirty years is a long time. We’ve got our roots here. Our friends are here and our children and grandchildren. Most of my friends here in L.A. are South Africans. A lot of them went to school with me. South Africans are in my heart where ever they are… a very special people. There’s that warmth and the camaraderie. However, whenever I visit South Africa now, I feel like a lonely needless person. It’s a generation gap thing I suppose. “
Jack was 76 years old when he fell down his basement stairs and fractured his hip. Soon afterward he died. He was buried on a Sunday, August 8th 2003 at the Trails End Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Jack was survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.His first born son, Howard Cooper, speaking at the funeral said, ‘I remember one bit of wisdom my dad gave me that seems appropriate for today. He said, Americans need to be constantly on guard for any sign of muted government mischief, because a hard core of truth is as history has shown over and over when you ask a government to handle everything, it will handle nothing well.”
The Irish Government provided Jimmy’s transportation to the funeral from the Dover Ireland Air Force Base. In his suit case was a carefully folded South African flag. Sometime after midnight the following evening, Jimmy walked down the accordion stairs from a civilian 747 plane that Irish Command military had chartered, onto the L.A. airport tarmac.
Jimmy an honorary pallbearer kneeled in front of Jack’s relatives at the grave site. They heard him weeping as he placed on the casket a South African flag alongside the American flag. The silver casket was then lowered automatically down into the plastic grass cover hole into a cement vault.
A Catholic Bishop standing at the head of Jacks grave read the urology. “By the grace of Almighty God, his voice resonant as the gray skies above suddenly opened and rain cascaded from the clouds like tears, so fitting to this emotional moment. “The hour of your redemption is here a Child of God who for whatever reason has been taken into Gods graces. A Christian who for all his mortal life lived Christ’s teachings. May his indomitable spirit live on?
Jimmy said, "It's been emotional for everyone who's has been involved with Apartheid through the many years, but the fighting has finally stopped in South Africa, and my best friend is now in heaven. He is at peace. He, he, looked like he was sleeping. Who prepared him, set him at peace; he looked like Jack at peace. It looks like him, just not moving, just laying there. He had to wait a long time to find peace. We all did.”
The Chinook helicopter nearby started it engines idling. Rarely before had the Irish Government helicopter crew chosen to remain at a funeral until the family was ready to leave the grave site. James and his family along with the military escorts spent the night in a down town hotel and so arrived at the Dover airport two days later. Jim and his wife were saluted by a row of Republican Irish Guard at a waiting military van.
“That had to be the longest ride in my life. What do you say? What do you talk about? Jimmy said to his wife, “There is something I’ll need to do first thing tomorrow, when I get to my office is to begin preparation for a suit against the “South African Government Trust Fund for the pain and anguish it caused those nine black human beings. And as an afterthought he added, “Living the rest of my life’s journey before I meet my best friend won’t be trouble free.
Author Karl Wallace
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