It was an autumn day, on April 20, 1964, in South Africa when Mandela, from the dock of the Rivonia Trial, during the opening of the defence’s case, addressed the world.
The address was dubbed in the media as “(an Ideal for which) I am prepared to die”. Over time, some scholars and historians were to regard the speech as one of the greatest in the 20th century.
At the time, Mandela was also presented in the media, perhaps rightfully so, as the Black Pimpernel, for the symbol he had become in the Struggle against the system of white domination and apartheid policies by the whites-only regime. He was to occupy prominent positions and the spotlight since then and over the next decade or so, since the 1952 Defiance Campaign.
In the Defiance Campaign, a programme adopted and waged by the ANC and its allied formations, Mandela was the volunteer-in-chief. The campaign was a programme in which all apartheid’s discriminatory laws of segregation against black people were defied in what became the first militant resistance after the passive protests of the previous four decades (1912, since the formation of the ANC, till 1952).
With the campaign regarded as successful and popular, and having captured the imagination of the public and the attention of the world, there was an ever-raised question on what exactly did the ANC envision and desire. The need for an answer led to what ultimately became known as the Freedom Charter (FC), adopted at the Congress of the People (CoP) on June 26, 1955.
CoP culminated into a summit following widespread consultations with, and collections of demands and desires from, people from all walks of life in South Africa. The consultations were held in rural and urban areas and across all facets of life, such as education, health care, sports and culture, and other sectors and settings.
As a result of the CoP and the adopted FC, the apartheid regime laid charges of treason against 156 leading figures of the ANC and its allied formations in the congress alliance (which were the SA Indian Congress, the SA Coloured People’s Congress and the Congress of Democrats. The trial was the biggest and longest treason trial up until then and lasted four years, stretching from 1956 till 1959.
Mandela was accused number one, (or “Accused-in-Chief”), further raising his profile as the leading voice and visible face in the Struggle for liberation, even though Mandela was not the president of the ANC but the regional president of its Transvaal (an apartheid-era province) regional structure.
It must further be noted that in December 1961, following the decision by the ANC to adopt military means as a way of taking forward the armed resistance against the regime, Mandela became the commander-in-chief of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe.
The March 1960 Sharpeville massacre, in which 69 peaceful protesters were gunned down, and the brutal suppression of the stay-at-home campaign meant to protest against SA’s event to celebrate the British granted status as an independent Republic in May 1961, were the main triggers that led to the adoption of the military campaign.
This is a point I take further in my other opinion piece when arguing on the historic impact and turning-point nature of the Sharpeville massacre in the Struggle for liberation, including in placing SA in the international spotlight, attracting condemnation and strengthening the resolve by many in favour of the armed resistance in our country.
It was not surprising for the regime to place him as the accused-in-chief at the 1963-64 Rivonia Trial, having been one in the 1956-59 Treason Trial which emerged from the charges relating to the holding of the CoP at which the FC was adopted and unveiled to the public in June 1955.
At the closing of the defence’s argument, Mandela delivered a speech, I am Prepared to Die. Mandela told the world about the five decades of a patiently peaceful yet passionate struggle for freedom from white domination but only for the struggling people to be met by replies of vicious and savage attacks by the government.
The speech, considered one of the greatest in the 20th century, concluded with the powerful words: “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But my lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
The legal debates on how Mandela and his colleagues escaped the death sentence remain, ensuing as part of the literature and reference in legal studies. The point is that they were spared death by capital punishment and they were to serve as rallying point and sources of inspiration for the Struggle in the 1970s and 1980s.
The remainder of the decade of the 1960s, following the 1964 life sentence, gave rise to a lull in that there were no protest activities that took forward the resistance and there was little military action on the part of liberation armies. It took the formation of South African Students Organisation (Saso), in the late 1960s, to revive an organised resistance that was mounted from the early 1970s.
Having broken from the National Union of South African Students, the Black Consciousness (BC) philosophy-inspired Saso began taking up some campaigns, including those relating to political grievances in addition to those on campuses, in the early 1970s. The first was the 1972 campaign, after successfully helping to create the Black People’s Convection (as an “adult wing” involving those who believed in the BC philosophy over and beyond tertiary students), in which Saso protested against the expulsion of Onkgopotse Tiro. Tiro had delivered a scathing attack against Bantu Education policy at the graduation ceremony of Turfloop University (now University of the North).
A year later, and coincidentally, in 1973, there were mass uprisings by workers in Durban, Pietermaritzburg and surrounding areas, which later spread as far afield as Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and other parts of the country to varying degrees. The uprisings were to continue into the new year and, with some victories scored by workers in the workplaces, and was terminated in 1974.
In the same year, and in the light of the defeat of Portuguese colonisers in Mozambique, Saso held the pro-Frelimo (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) rallies in what was aimed at mobilising black people in South Africa on the ideals for liberation in South Africa. The success of this campaign led to the regime arresting and getting the Saso leaders sentenced to terms in prison.
In 1976, sparked in Soweto on June 16, there was another wave of uprisings, this time, by secondary and high school pupils. The use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction was a mere spark as the overall grievance was the poor state of education, including limited facilities and learner materials among other qualms. The uprisings continued until October 1977, some weeks after the murder of the BC movement founder, Steve Biko, in prison by apartheid security police in September.
With the protest actions and overall resistance activities, the lull was broken and apartheid was back in the spotlight. At that time, Mandela was an entrenched figure in the world, as the symbol of the Struggle against apartheid. His name and face was used as the basis to mobilise for increased and intensified international solidarity actions, including economic sanctions against and diplomatic and other isolations of apartheid South Africa.
It was to be in the 1980s; beginning with the 1980 student boycotts, the 1984 to 1986 period of heightened mass resistance in the townships, and the 1987-89 workers’ strike actions and stay-away campaigns; that the name of Mandela would be invoked and used for taking forward a programme of united action for the liberation of our country.
As stated in my other opinion piece, “My Father Says – Zindzi Mandela”, it was on the February 10, 1985 that Mandela provided the clearest position that he holds, as a person and as a leader of the ANC, on the political situation in the country and on the way forward towards a political settlement in South Africa.
He was released from prison on February 11, 1990 and, just over four years and three months later, on April 27, 1994, the first inclusive and all-enfranchised elections were held. A further 2 weeks later, on May 10, 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as the president of a free and democratic South Africa.
Indeed, as he said 30 years earlier, in April 1964, Mandela realised a South Africa for which he was prepared to die. An ideal for which he hoped to live for, while facing a possible death penalty by the court, and to see realised.
This month, April, marks 30 years of political freedom yet serves as a reminder that a lot has to be done to redress the legacy of the brutal past of colonialism and apartheid (systems of white domination).
To quote myself: “Lest we forget that ours, albeit political, was not freely handed over to us but was Freedom fought and sacrificed for by the multitudes over several generations (Katishi Masemola, 2019).”
That said, what should be the lessons from this great speech 60 years later and 30 years after the freedom Mandela was prepared to die for was achieved?
One, we should be prepared to die in defence of this freedom rather than allow it to be trampled on by anyone.
Two, we should get any elected government to deliver on promises to turn South Africa into the ideal country Mandela fought for. In doing so, to be selfless and avoid betraying (t)his ideal.
Last, and more importantly, we should learn not to take this freedom for granted. We should use the opportunities it provides to build and deepen the democracy we enjoy and teach the current and coming generations to jealously guard it without fear and favour, and be prepared to die for it.
Indeed, the future in the hands of this and the coming generations, to paraphrase one of Mandela’s speeches as a Free Man.
Katishi Masemola is the former general secretary of the Food and Allied Workers Union in the 2004 to 2019 period (15 years). He is a director and consultant at Semo Advisory, a Head of History & Heritage at Each One Teach One Foundation,, and an author of two books: Dear Mama (2023) and An Anti-Apartheid Activist (Made) in Me (2023) and plans to further publish two or three books in 2024.