News
Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment 44 years ago
June 11, 2008 – Forty-four years ago, on June 12, 1964, Nelson Mandela and seven of his comrades were jailed for life in what became known as the Rivonia Trial.
Mr Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada, Walter Sisulu, Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba and Denis Goldberg were convicted of sabotage on June 11 by Judge Quartus de Wet.
Talking about what’s just …
May 29, 2008 – Verne Harris, head of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Memory Programme, recently presented a paper at an international conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His paper, titled “Ethics at the Endgame”, explored the concept of archives and justice in South African contexts.
Archives and the Ethics of Memory Construction, which brought together people from different disciplines to discuss issues related to archives, was the second international conference inspired by a colloquium hosted by the Foundation in 2005. The 2005 colloquium explored the concept of “Memory for Justice”, the slogan of the Memory Programme at the Foundation.
Bram Fischer: a hero born 100 years ago
April 23, 2008 – Abraham “Bram” Fischer, who was born on April 23, 1908 into the Afrikaner establishment, is remembered, 100 years later, as a hero in the struggle against apartheid.
He eschewed the privileges of the elite environment he grew up in and which guaranteed him a top position in the apartheid firmament. Instead, he turned his loyalty to the fight for democracy in South Africa.
Foundation receives 1962 Mandela photos
April 21, 2008 – At the conclusion of the Treason Trial in early 1961, the ANC decided that Nelson Mandela would go underground. About nine months later, on January 11, 1962, he left South Africa, without a passport, via what was then Bechuanaland, on his way to attend a meeting of the Pan-African Freedom Movement for East, Central and Southern Africa (PAFMECSA) in Ethiopia.
After five months of travelling and many meetings with African heads of state and others, Mr Mandela and his long-time comrade Oliver (OR) Tambo flew to London (on BOAC, as he notes in his diary) on Thursday, June 7, 1962.
A second reunion
Mar 13, 2008 – A group of former Treason Trialists visited the Old Fort Prison at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg today, reliving an extraordinary time when many of the top leaders in the Congress Alliance were held there over 50 years ago.
Legends of liberation struggle gather to honour Sisulus
March 12, 2008 – Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Archbishop Desmond Tutu gathered at the Nelson Mandela Foundation today to open an exhibition documenting the lives of Walter and Albertina Sisulu.