THE FREEDOM TRIAL
December 16, 1961.
Pretoria, South Africa. The opening paragraph from the leaflets 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 discrimation.
July 4, 1962. The
newspaper headlines, spoke for themselves on that cold winter morning in July
1962. “James Kantor to face sabotage trial,” along with nine other people. The
other nine men were Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisal, Dennis Goldberg, Gavan Mbeki,
Ahmed Kithara, Lionel Bernstein, Raymond Malabar, Elias Motaoaledi, and Andrew
Mlangeni. They were arrested at Dennis Goldberg’s home in Rivonia. 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 of 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. James 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 Five months later on a warm December morning the headlines again told the story.“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 “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 continued for two 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 the 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, “The
African National Congress organization never wanted to cause a civil war; all
they wanted was to be free, 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 Rubén Island into the South
Africa President’s office, and became the first black president of a new
liberated South Africa.
Jack Kantor and
James friendship continued. Jack 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
James 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 serious game.”
James was the
first of the nine to go to trial.
Neither he nor Jack Kantor fully comprehended just how fortunate he was
during the next two years, until it was published in the South African Journal
that the other eight men got life in prison.
During his short period of detention, James suffered what appeared to
some folks to be a nervous breakdown. His law practice deteriorated while he
was in confinement and thus, after his release he relocated to Scotland lived a
lawyer’s life in Swain Valleys, Scotland.
Jack Kantor and
James knew Nelson. All the defense
lawyers in Johannesburg knew one another. 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. That was how they made their living, James, Jack, Tambo and the other
six guys.
At that period
of time living in South Africa was good, but after the trial the law practice
couldn’t support Jim and his family, and so he moved to Los Angles, four
children, wife and “Crybaby” the family dog, named after Jim’s x-wife. Jim’s
six grandchildren live in Texas. Jim became a Real Estate Broker.
Jim recently
said, “I don’t think I would go back to live in South Africa. Thirty years is a
long time to be away. We’ve got our roots here. Our friends are here, our
children and grandchildren. Most of my
friends 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 the warmth and the camaraderie.
However, whenever I visit South Africa, I feel like a lonely needless
person. It’s a generation gap thing I
suppose. “
Jim 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. Jim was survived by his four children and eight
grandchildren. His first born son, Howard, 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 James 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, James walked down the
stairs from a civilian 747 plane that Irish Command military had chartered, and
onto the L.A. airport tarmac.
Jack, an
honorary pallbearer kneeled in front of Jim’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 covered hole into a cement vault.
A Catholic
Bishop standing at the head of Jack’s 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, fitting to this emotional moment. “The hour of your redemption is here a child
of God who for whatever reason has been taken into God’s graces. A Christian
who for all his mortal life lived Christ’s teachings. May his indomitable
spirit live on forever?
James 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 Jim at peace. It looks like him, just not moving, just
lying there. He had to wait a long time to find peace. We all did.”
The Chinook
helicopter nearby started its engines idling. Never before had the Irish
Government helicopter crew chosen to be at a grave site until the family was
ready to leave. James and his family along with the military escorts spent the
night in a down town hotel, arriving at the Dover airport two days later. James
and his wife were saluted by a row of Republican Irish Guards waiting beside a
military limousine.
“That had to be
the longest trip in my life. What do you
say? What do you talk about?” James ask his wife. “There is something I’ll
need to do first thing tomorrow, when I get to my office. Begin the preparation
for a suit against the “South African Government Trust Fund for the pain and
anguish it caused those eight black human beings.” An afterthought was added,” living the rest
of my life while my best friend is waiting for me will not be easy either.”
Author Karl Wallace
The trial was
condemned by the United Nations Security Council and nations around the world,
leading to international sanctions against the South African government. The Rivonia Trial was a trial that took place
in South Africa between 1963 and 1964, in which ten leaders of the African
National Congress were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to overthrow the
apartheid system.
