491 Days
Page 27
1970
On 16 February charges are withdrawn, but she is immediately re-detained and charged. On 15 September she is acquitted and released. She applies for a permit to visit Nelson Mandela on Robben Island and is given 3 October 1970 as the date. On 30 September her banning order is renewed for five years. She is also placed under house arrest. She has to be at home from 6pm to 6am on week days and between 2pm and 6am on weekends and public holidays. She is forbidden from receiving visitors other than her children. The local magistrate refuses to allow her permission to leave Johannesburg to visit her husband. In October the police raid her home and find Peter Magubane, a banned person, her sister, Nonyaniso, and her brother-in-law. She is charged for breaking her banning order. Nonyaniso is arrested for being in Johannesburg ‘illegally’ and her brother-in-law is charged for not having a pass. She successfully applies to visit her husband. They have only 30 minutes together.
1971
Is sentenced to twelve months in prison suspended for three years for communicating with a banned person in her house. The conviction and sentenced are set aside on appeal.
1972
On 25 April she wins her appeal against her sentences for receiving visitors to her house in October 1970. One of the visitors was her brother-in-law, Marshall Xaba, who called at the house to collect a grocery list. Another was her sister, Nobantu Niki, and the third was another banned person, Peter Magubane. Her conviction and sentences of six months and twelve months are set aside on appeal.
1973
Is sentenced to twelve months suspended for three years for having lunch with her children in a vehicle in the presence of a banned person.
1974
Her sentence is reduced on appeal to six months, time that she serves in Kroonstad Prison.
1975
Her third banning order expires. In April 1975 she is released from Kroonstad Prison.
1976
Is detained without trial for four months after the Soweto uprising.
1977
Her banning order is renewed for five years. She only has ten months ‘freedom’ from banning in thirteen years. She is banished to Brandfort, a rural backwater in the Orange Free State province, where she knows no one and does not speak the local language. (In 1985 she defies the banning order and returns to Soweto.)
Sixteen Months in the Life of Winnie Mandela
12 MAY 1969 TO 14 SEPTEMBER 1970
12 May 1969
Is detained under the Terrorism Act of 1967, which allowed for indefinite detention as well as indefinite interrogation. Caleb Mayekiso, one of the detainees, dies in detention on 1 June 1969.234
26 May – 30 May 1969
Is interrogated continuously.
18 July 1969 (Her husband’s 51st birthday)
Police ask her, ‘Who is Thembi Mandela?’ When she answers that he is her stepson, they say, ‘He’s dead.’235
28 October 1969
Appears for the first time in court with 21 others. Their attorney Joel Carlson says, ‘When I first saw them they had not been able to have a bath or a shower for nearly two hundred days.’236 Maud Katzenellenbogen, who had befriended her after her husband Moosa Dinath met Nelson Mandela in prison, tries to arrange an attorney, Mendel Levin, to defend her. It transpires that he was a supporter of the ruling National Party. From prison, Nelson Mandela urges her to have Joel Carlson defend her.
1 December 1969 – the trial starts at the Old Synagogue, Pretoria
List of accused:
1. Sampson Ratshivande Ndou
2. David Motau
3. Nomzamo Winnie Mandela
4. Hlengani Jackson Mahlaule
5. Elliot Goldberg Shabangu
6. Joyce Nomala Sikhakhane
7. Manke Paulus Matshaba
8. Lawrence Ndzanga
9. Rita Anita Ndzanga
10. Joseph Zikalala
11. David Dalton Tsotetsi
12. Victor Emmanuel Mazitulela
13. George Mokwebo
14. Joseph Chamberlain Nobandla
15. Samuel Solomon Pholotho
16. Simon Mosikare
17. Douglas Ntshatshe Mvembe237
18. Venus Thokozile Mngoma
19. Martha Dlamini
20. Owen Msimelelo Vanqa
21. Livingstone Mancoko
22. Sexford Peter Magubane
Defence: Adv. David Soggot and Adv. George Bizos. Instructed by Joel Carlson
Prosecution: J.H. Liebenberg and D.W. Rothwell
Judge Bekker
They are charged under the Suppression of Communism Act and the Unlawful Organisations Act, including furthering the aims of the ANC and conspiring to commit sabotage. No acts of violence are alleged. All the accused plead not guilty and as this transcript from the court record shows:
Accused No. 3 wishes to address the court.
ACCUSED NO. 3: With due respect to you, My Lord, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that I have been under detention in the past six months in terms of Section 6(1) of the Terrorism Act, an Act which I regard as unjust, immoral, soul-corrosive and physically destructive. Twenty-four days after my detention I lost a colleague of mine who could not go through the trial we have already gone through behind bars and that was Caleb Mayekiso, a colleague of mine. My Lord, I find it difficult to enter any plea.
BY THE COURT: Well, then for the purpose of record I will enter a plea of not guilty. Is there anything else you wish to say?
ACCUSED NO. 3: I would just like to say, My Lord, I find it very difficult to enter a plea because I regard myself as already being found guilty.
BY THE COURT: I think you are wrong in that assumption. I will enter a plea of not guilty.
Accused No. 6 also indicates that she wishes to address the court in English.
ACCUSED NO. 6: My Lord, I feel the same as Accused No. 3.
BY THE COURT: Just tell me your name, please.
ACCUSED NO. 6: It is Joyce Nomafa Sikhakhane.
BY THE COURT: I forgot to ask No. 3 her name. What is your name?
ACCUSED NO. 3: Winnie Mandela.
ACCUSED NO. 6: My Lord, I feel the same as Accused No. 3, Winnie Mandela, but I am going to enter a plea of not guilty.
BY THE COURT: In your case, too, I will enter a plea of not guilty.
The 22 are also accused of arranging the funerals of two anti-apartheid activists and the illegal display of ANC flags.
Judge Simon Bekker, whom Nelson Mandela had encountered during the 1956 Treason Trial, presides. The prosecutor, J.H. Liebenberg, tries to prove that the ANC was an integral part of the Communist Party and that Mrs Mandela was in touch with the ANC in London.
The court hears twenty witnesses for the prosecution including Briton Phillip Golding who admits to having been tortured. Nonyaniso Madikizela, Winnie Mandela’s 18-year-old sister who had been threatened with long imprisonment if she did not testify, tells the court she had been tortured. Mohale Mahanyele, the assistant librarian at the United States Information Service in Johannesburg, testifies against the accused.
Detained activists Shanti Naidoo and Nondwe Mankahla refuse to testify and are sentenced to two months in prison. As Nelson Mandela is named as a co-conspirator, attorney Joel Joffe applies to see him on Robben Island. His application is refused so he applies to have him subpoenaed. The case is remanded until Monday, 16 February 1970.
16 February 1970
Attorney General Kenneth Donald McIntyre Moodie comes to court and announces he is withdrawing the charges.238 Judge Bekker tells the accused they have been acquitted and are free to go. Before they can leave, the police re-detain them. Advocates George Bizos and David Soggot fail in their attempt to prevent the security police from confiscating the group’s written statements. Attorney Joel Joffe unsuccessfully applies for a court injunction against torture.
12 May 1970
The Black Sash and university students protest to mark a year since the accused were detained. About 1 200 people marc
h through the streets of Johannesburg and 354 are arrested.
18 June 1970
Winnie Mandela and three others do not appear in court. She is in hospital. Manke Paulus Matshaba has suffered a mental breakdown and Victor Emmanuel Mazitulela and Livingstone Mancoko are released and then disappear. They are joined by Benjamin Ramotse.239
3 August 1970
The twenty accused are charged with 540 offences, which are almost identical to the 528 on the previous charge sheet. Nelson Mandela’s name no longer appears as a co-conspirator.
A new list of the accused:
1. Benjamin Sello Ramotse
2. Sampson Ratshivande Ndou
3. David Motau
4. Winnie Mandela
5. Jackson Mahlaule
6. Elliot Shabangu
7. Joyce Sikhakhane
8. Lawrence Ndzanga
9. Rita Ndzanga
10. Joseph Zikalala
11. David Dalton Tsotetsi
12. George Mokwebo
13. Joseph Chamberlain Nobandla
14. Samuel Solomon Pholotho
15. Simon Mosikare
16. Douglas Ntshatshe Mvembe
17. Venus Thokozile Mngoma
18. Martha Dlamini
19. Owen Vanqa
20. Sexford Peter Magubane
Defence: Adv. Sydney Kentridge, Adv. George Bizos, Adv. David Soggot and Adv. M. Kuper
Prosecution: J.H. Liebenberg and D.W. Rothwell
Judge Viljoen
24 August 1970
The defence enters a special plea that the court has no jurisdiction to try Ramotse because he had been kidnapped by the then Rhodesia Police and was handed over to the South African Police. In addition, the defence pleads against the duplication of charges for which the accused had already been acquitted.
14 September 1970
Viljoen decides the case against Ramotse should proceed but that the remaining nineteen are free to go. Police threaten to arrest the jubilant group so they go to Joel Carlson’s house to celebrate.
30 September 1970
Mrs Mandela’s banning order is renewed for five years and she is placed under house arrest. She is forbidden from leaving her house from 6pm and 6am during the week and from 2pm to 6am on weekends and public holidays and cannot receive visitors or engage in political activity.
7 November 1970
She is allowed to visit her husband on Robben Island. They have only 30 minutes to discuss all the events and issues of the last 23 months since they had last seen each other.
234. Caleb Mayekiso, who had been an accused in the 1956 Treason Trial, was detained on 13 May 1969 and died eighteen days later.
235. She clearly did not receive the letter from her husband telling her about his death.
236. Carlson, No Neutral Ground.
237. Douglas Mvembe, 73, was tortured for three days. He was hanged by handcuffs and rope to a window grating.
238. Relatives and friends immediately applied for an interdict against further assaults but it was not granted.
239. Benjamin Ramotse was injured in the 16 December 1961 explosion at the launch of MK, which killed fellow operative, Petrus Molefi. Ramotse was detained and charged with sabotage. He estreated his bail and left the country for military training.
Acknowledgements
Without Advocate David Soggot’s encouragement I would not have written this journal in prison, and without the efforts of his widow Greta Soggot to return it to me, this book would not have been published. I thank them both.
I am grateful to Ahmed Kathrada for writing the Foreword.
My granddaughter Swati Dlamini and Sahm Venter, of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, helped me to go through the journey of bringing to the fore this deeply buried part of my history.
I also thank the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory for safeguarding my journal and for providing letters from its archive for this book.
My thanks go to my publishers Terry Morris and Andrea Nattrass and their team at Pan Macmillan.
For their constant love and support I thank my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA lives in Soweto, South Africa. She continues her activism and political service, currently serving on the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress. On 26 September 2013 she celebrated her seventy-seventh birthday in the company of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
AHMED KATHRADA is a politician and former antiapartheid activist who was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 with Nelson Mandela and other members of the African National Congress and was not released until 1989. In the first democratic South African elections in 1994, Kathrada was elected as a member of parliament for the ANC and appointed political advisor to President Nelson Mandela.