Slučajevi

After a police raid on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, Johannesburg, in July 1963, leaders of the African National Congress and its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) were tried in Pretoria for sabotage and conspiring to overthrow the apartheid state. Nelson Mandela, already serving five years for leaving the country illegally and inciting a strike, was Accused No. 1. Instead of testifying, Mandela gave a four-hour statement from the dock on April 20, 1964, explaining that the ANC had pursued non-violent protest for decades, that peaceful options were banned and met with force (Sharpeville, 1960), and that MK turned to sabotage of infrastructure — deliberately planned to avoid loss of life — as the remaining alternative. He ended by saying democracy and equality were an ideal for which he was prepared to die. On June 12, 1964, eight accused — Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Mlangeni and Elias Motsoaledi — were sentenced to life; Mandela served 27 years before release in 1990 and became president in 1994. The legal question was never in much doubt — the accused admitted much of the sabotage. The enduring question is moral: when a state denies all lawful means of change, is armed resistance legitimate, and where is the line? Mandela remained on the US terrorism watch list until 2008, and the debate about violence in liberation movements continues.