1956 Treason Trial
That grim pre-dawn raid, deliberately calculated to strike terror into hesitant minds and impress upon the entire nation the determination of the governing clique to stifle all opposition, made one hundred and fifty-six of us, belonging to all the races of our land, into a group of accused facing one of the most serious charges in any legal system.
[1]On 5 December 1956, the South African Police's Security Branch raided and arrested 140 people from around the country on the charge of treason as they enforced the Suppression of Communism Act.
[2]: 12 On 19 December 1956, 153 prisoners were driven to the Johannesburg Drill Hall for a preliminary hearing to examine the state's evidence.
Deputy Police Commissioner Colonel Piet Grobler was able to get his men to stop shooting and order was restored.
[5]: 1, 9 The trial examination would continue on 21 December 1956 and the prosecutor presented his case by stating that the defendants were subversive, having attended the recent Congress of the People gathering at Kliptown where speeches had promoted Communism, the creation of the Freedom Charter, the need to seek help abroad and in other evidence, and the need to raise money to buy firearms.
[6]: 4 Rioting broke out at the end of the day's proceedings when police charged a group of 400 black South African protesters.
[6]: 4 On resumption of the preliminary hearing and an examination of the state's evidence on 9 January 1957, three more defendants were added to the charges bringing the number to 156 persons.
[12]: 4 The trial saw 57 blacks, 16 whites, 16 Indians, and two coloureds charged with attempting to overthrow the South African government between 1952 and 1956 with the intention to replace it with a communist system.
[12]: 4 When the trial resumed on 12 August 1958, chief defence lawyer Israel A. Maisels continued to challenge the indictment referring to the masses of documentary evidence which he claimed was impossible to read in less than two years, and was an abuse of the court process and that the prosecution did not know what its case was about.
[14]: 8 On 22 November 1958, 30 of the 91 were re-indicted with the charge now been narrowed down to a conspiracy to endanger and overthrow the state based on the 1955 Congress of the People gathering and the adoption of the Freedom Charter.
[16]: 8 The trial resumed on 2 February 1959, with the venue change request squashed and the defence lawyers continuing their argument against the new indictments.
[19]: 1 Judge Rumpff concluded that the prosecution could not show that the African National Congress (ANC) had become a communist organisation and therefore no treason could be proven nor that any act of violence was to be used to overthrow the state.
[19]: 5 In December 1956, many key members of the Congress Alliance were arrested and charged with treason, including almost the entire executive committee of the ANC, as well as the SACP, the SAIC, and the COD.
This was one of the first examples of foreign intervention against apartheid in South Africa and proved very successful with over £75,000 being raised towards defending those accused.
In many ways, the trial and prolonged periods in detention strengthened and solidified the relationships between members of the multi-racial Congress Alliance.
Rusty Bernstein wrote:Inter-racial trust and co-operation is a difficult plant to cultivate in the poisoned soil outside.
