Liliesleaf Citichat 15 March 2002

CITICHAT 10/2002 15 March 2002


Liliesleaf

"The white state has thrown overboard every pretence of rule by democratic process. Armed to the teeth it has presented the people with only one choice and that is to overthrow by force and violence. It can now be said that very little, if any, scope exists for the smashing of white supremacy other than by means of mass revolutionary action, the main content of which is armed resistance leading to victory……"

The opening passage of a court submission entitled 'Operation Mayibuye' submitted as an exhibit in the case of "the State against Nelson Mandela and others." The original document was lying on a table in a small thatched cottage in Rivonia, about 20 kms north of the city of Johannesburg, on the 11th July 1963 when police burst in to arrest the group of men gathered around the table. A black and white aerial photograph of the area of that time shows the cottage with a cluster of outhouses close to a farmhouse set in large fields. This was the 20 acre Liliesleaf Farm, in '63 very much part of rural Johannesburg, today an upper market residential area a stones-throw from the Rivonia business strip, the countryside swallowed in urban sprawl. This was the area known as 'mink-and manure' where the Johannesburg wealthy kept their stables and horses for country riding. Not so this particular farm. With the banning of the ANC, Harold Wolpe had bought the farm in 1961 for the undercover headquarters of the ANC and its military wing, Umkonto we Sizwe. The place was ideal, it was north of the city well away from the 'townships' in the south, literally in the 'country', the farmhouse almost invisible from the road with dense bushes and clumps of trees and fields to be traversed before one could get to the house itself.

The farm had a constant stream of 'visitors' who had to 'duck and dive' to get to and from the farm.Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, James Kantor, Elias Motsoaledi, Rusty Bernstein, Andrew Mlangeni. Many ANC members on the run from the police used the farm as a hideout, Nelson Mandela amongst them masquerading as a gardener. But on the 11th July 1963, Nelson Mandela was already in jail serving a five year sentence when a laundry van and a bakery van burst onto the farm and sixteen police and two police dogs swarmed around the buildings arresting 'anyone or anything that moved.' The thatched cottage contained a radio transmitter (using one of the farmhouse lightning conductors as aerial) which was of course Radio Freedom, the outhouses contained the printing presses on which ANC pamphlets and papers were printed. The papers lying on the table of the thatched cottage were eventually joined by other incriminating documents once a safe in one of the farmhouse bedrooms was opened. In their eagerness to see what the locked safe contained, the police ran out of patience with the locksmith and blasted the safe open, the door today is without its handle and is pockmarked with bullet holes. Outside the kitchen in the coal bunker the police found more incriminating documents, including Nelson Mandela's diary. Seventeen people were arrested, later many more who were implicated through the evidence collected. Arthur Goldreich??? and harold Wolpe found themselves searated from the others and locked up in what was then known a s Marshall Square police headquarters from where they made a dramatic escape and finally got to Britain. The evidence collected was used to arrainge Nelson Mandela as the primary accused and for he and the apprehended ANC leadership to be sentenced to life imprisonment.

Twenty six years later, in 1989, a Durban businessman Helmut Schneider and his wife Veda moved to Johannesburg and bought what once was the farmhouse, the farm having been sub-divided and developed into residential accommodation. A couple of weeks after they moved into the house they saw an article in a local newspaper headlined " Mystery buyer snaps up plotter's hideout" and, for the first time were confronted with the fact that this was that Rivonia farmhouse. Little by little they pieced together the background, the thatched cottage and most of the outbuildings were still there, albeit now on sub-dividec property, the safe and the coal bunker, the tree where Nelson Mandela shot a dove and learnt a lesson in life. Then in 1991, a surprise visit from Madiba himself, come back to resurrect old memories and they learnt a lot more about the farm.

On Tuesday of this week, I was fortunate to have been invited by Eric Itzkin, Deputy Director Heritage, to join a group to visit Liliesleaf Farm. Our tour guide was Veda Schneider but before the tour, we were briefed by Eric and then Nicholas Wolpe, son of Harold Wolpe who had originally bought the farm in '61 with ANC funds and had escaped the country in '63. Nicholas told us of arranging a reunion of the remaining Rivonia trialists.It was at the reunion that the idea to reinstate Liliesleaf farm to its 1963 state as a natuional heritage site was born. Lilliesleaf stood for what the struggle was all about, and whilst other sites (all with a colonial background) such as the Drill Hall, Robben Island and the Fort have all subsequently become 'struggle icons', Liliesleaf was pivotal, standing for what the struggle was all about, it was at a crucuial stage as the ANC moved from their passive resistance to armed struggle. The aim is for the Liliesleaf trust to acquire all the buildings, restore thenm to wahart they were, and develop an interactive museum they have already recovered the Freedom Radio radio transmitter from the police (complete with ExhibitA tags) are searcjhuing for the printing presses . They have 2/3 fullscap hand wriitten biographies of every treason trialist, are hoping to obtain all Percy Yutar' sdocuments of the treasonm trial (Yutar was the state prosecutior) and the notes were purchased by harry oppenheimer and are currently in the Oppenheim,er Museum)

Nicholas is concerned that our society is losing what ther struggle was all about and Liliesleaf could become that symbol.Wheras Robben Island portrays the negative connotation of incarceratuion, loiesleaf stands for freedom and democracy and where we are going. Liliesleaf is to become a symbo;l of democracy, leadership, awareness and education personifying tolerance and understanding.