Nelson Mandela Foundation

March 25, 2010 – The Nelson Mandela Foundation has launched an online Rivonia Trial database.

The Rivonia Trial, arguably the most significant political trial in South Africa’s history generated a vast archive of information, ranging from official court records, to media coverage.

Nelson Mandela and seven of his comrades were jailed for life on June 12, 1964, after being convicted of sabotage for their role in Operation Mayibuye, planned and executed by Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress. Denis Goldberg, the only white person sentenced and who was jailed in a “whites only” prison, was released in 1985. Govan Mbeki was released in 1987 and Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni and Raymond Mhlaba were freed in 1989. Mr Mandela walked free in 1990.

The online database documents the major accumulations of extant records relating to the trial. According to Verne Harris, Head of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Memory Programme, there was a need to document the fragmented and scattered archive, especially because the official records are not complete some were lost by the apartheid administration and others were stolen from its custody.

Work on this new database commenced in May 2009 and is overseen by the Memory Programme. Currently, the database documents 166 collections and 62 institutions worldwide.

The database describes a diverse array of records and collections, for example: personal notes passed between legal counsel and the accused, physical artefacts collected by the South African Police during the raid on Liliesleaf Farm and transcripts of discussions between Kathrada and Mr Mandela about the trial (recorded during the writing of Mr Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom).

Harris says: “The database, and the records audit on which it is built, constitute a first step towards generating a comprehensive archive of the Rivonia Trial.”

Click here to see the Rivonia Trial database.