Fitting final salute to Madiba the lawyer

By PRAVIN BOWRY

I am writing this column on Sunday, the 15th of December, 2013, a day I, with millions others, will remember and cherish for the rest of our lives. The images both in life and death of the greatest lawyer the world has ever seen — Nelson Rohihlalha Mandela — will be engraved in the annals of history forever.

I was not privileged to meet my hero and mentor. In 2003 I did, however, have an opportunity to visit the remote Robben Island with my father, my wife and my son. Standing in the tiny cell my departed hero spent those 18 years in forlorn confinement in the company of three generations was a revealing and solemn experience.

As one who visits prisons all over the country often, the feelings of an innocent soul languishing in that cell for that long then and today are difficult to apprehend or appreciate. And as a momento, I have in my possession the exact replica of the key to the cell of prisoner 466/64. I close my eyes and shudder, shudder at the courage, sacrifice, mental and philosophical strength of Madiba.

My desire is to pay homage to a courageous lawyer and visionary on behalf of the entire legal fraternity.

Madiba’s legal training and background stood him firm during his lifetime tribulations and was the basis of his phenomenal approach to life, politics and leadership.

His biographical details reveal that in 1939 he joined the University College of Hare, the only residential college of Higher Education for blacks in South Africa (akin to Oxford University or Harvard University for blacks!) and studied Roman Dutch Law with the hope of joining the cherished profession of a court clerk or interpreter. He was however suspended from the University in 1940 after his involvement in a boycott against the quality of food. And then to escape an arranged marriage he went to Johannesburg and worked as a guard and later a clerk.

In 1943 he obtained a Bachelors Degree by correspondence with University of South Africa and then enrolled at University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to study law as the only native African student.

A two year Diploma in law on top of his BA allowed him to practice law in 1952. Mandela was the first African man to open a legal practice in South Africa in 1952 - the firm of Mandela and Tambo.

As an articled clerk Mandela starkly faced discrimination and the plight of native litigants. Getting office space for their practice was an uphill task, since Africans were not allowed to occupy business premises within the city centre. The duo however managed to obtain a temporary permit but once it expired the government refused to renew it insisting they should leave the city.

Mandela’s performance as an accused person showed his legal acumen.

In 1952 he was chosen President of the Transvaal ANC, campaigning for civil disobedience of unjust laws. He and 19 others were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for their part in the campaign and sentenced to nine months imprisonment, and in mitigation contrived to get a suspended sentence for two years.

In the same year Mandela was given a 6 month ban from attending political meetings or talking to more than one individual at a time!

He was arrested again in 1956 together with 155 people and charged with high treason. He was later acquitted together with all the other people who had been arrested.

The Transvaal Law Society even requested the Supreme Court to strike Madiba’s name from the roll of South African Lawyers but this request was dismissed with the court stating he had not violated any rule of professional ethics.

In 1962 Mandela was arrested, charged and convicted for the offence of leaving the country without a valid passport and incitement to strike. Being the seasoned attorney he was Madiba chose to represent himself and his opening statement is one that will be remembered for years to come.

Soon after in 1963 Mandela was to face trial again, this time together with nine of his brothers from Umkhonto we Sizwe. The ten were charged with two counts of sabotage. All ten entered a plea of not guilty and eight out of the ten were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Pinnacle of ambition

As a final tribute to lawyer Madiba, a few ex tempo gems from his trials must be recollected.

At his trial in 1962 he stated:

“I am prepared to pay the penalty even though I know how bitter and desperate is the situation of an African in the prisons of this country. I have been in these prisons and I know how gross is the discrimination, even behind the prisons walls, against Africans, how much worse is the treatment meted out to African prisoners than that accorded to whites. Nevertheless, these considerations do not sway me from the path that I have taken, nor will they sway others like me. For men, freedom in their own land is the pinnacle of their ambitions, from which nothing can turn men of conviction aside.

“More powerful than my fear of the dreadful conditions to which I might be subjected to is my hatred for the dreadful conditions to which my people are subjected to outside prison throughout this country.”

The Magna Carta

Later in 1964 at his Rivona Trial, Mandela, a convicted man with unwavering resolve stated:

“The Magna Carta, the Petition of Rights and the Bill of Rights are documents which are held in veneration by democrats throughout the world.”

At the end of his statement he declared:

“During my life I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.

“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 which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Final salute then to Tata the epitome of courage, freedom, justice, humanity and humility personified.