FREEDOM
TRIAL IN PRETORIA SOUTH AFRICA
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 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 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 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 like a brother, and we had a party. We loved
each other the relation is as deep as the Sargasso Sea... The others lived
their life fueled by anger. The influence is as inevitable as it is profound. 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.”
KANTOR 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.
KANTOR’s 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. He got his law
degree at the Witwatersrand University in Scotland, before he moved to South
Africa.
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, with his four children, wife and
“Crybaby” the family dog, he had named after his 1st wife. Jim’s six
grandchildren presently live in Texas. Jack became a Real Estate Broker.
Jack 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 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 the warmth and the camaraderie, but 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.
THE FUNERAL
His oldest
son, Howard, said,
‘I remember one bit of wisdom my dad gave me
that seems appropriate for today. 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.”
Bishop
Archibald, 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 your graces. A
Christian who for all his mortal life lived Christ’s teachings. May his
indomitable spirit live on forever?”
The Irish Government
had provided JAMES transportation to the funeral from Dover Ireland Air Base. In JAMES suit case was a carefully folded
South African flag. The following
evening, JAMES walked down the stairs from a 747 plane that Irish Command
military onto the L.A. airport tarmac. JAMES, an honorary pallbearer kneed 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 down into the plastic grass covered hole into a cement vault.
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 JACK 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.”
A Chinook
helicopter nearby started its engines idling. Never before had an Irish
Government helicopter crew chosen to be at a grave site waiting until the
family was ready to leave. JAMES and his family along with the military escorts
arrived at the Dover airport the next day. James and his wife were saluted by a
row of Republican Irish Guard s 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 asks his wife, “There is something I’ll
need to do first thing tomorrow, is begin the preparation for a suit against
the “South African Government Trust Fund for the pain and anguish it caused
those nine black human beings. The rest of my life I’ll spend waiting to see my
best friend was an afterthought.
DR. Karl WALLACE D.D.S.
To read more about the trial go to: w.w.w. karlwallaceblog.blogspot.com
