THE TRIAL
December 6, 1961
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 discrimination.
July 4, 1962
The newspaper
headlines, spoke for themselves on that cold winter morning in July 1962.
“James Kantor to face sabotage act trial.”
The Sabotage Act… 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, 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 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
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 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, 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 Rubén Island into the South
Africa President’s office, and became the first black president of a new
liberated South Africa.
Jack 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 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; thence
lived a lawyer’s life in Swain Valleys, Scotland.
Jack 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.
DR. KARL WALLACE D.D.S.
