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 two years. It was published in the South African Journal the other eight men got life in prison. During his 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, by and by, 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.
KARL WALLACE
