The Treason Trial

The apartheid state viewed the campaign for the Congress of the People and the Freedom Charter an act of treason. Its response was to launch a massive crackdown on the Congress Alliance and its members immediately after the Kliptown meeting. On 5 December 1956 leading activists were arrested and 156 leaders were placed on trial. They were accused of being part of a 'country-wide conspiracy', inspired by communism, to overthrow the state through violence.

The Chief Prosecutor, Oswald Pirow, stated that 'the essence of the crime of high treason was hostile intent', and he said that such intent was evident in the Freedom Charter, as it would be necessary for the Congress Alliance to overthrow the South African state by violence in order to achieve the demands set out in the document.

Although the Treason Trial provided publicity for the liberation movement and an opportunity for leaders to confer, it absorbed political energies, disrupted the momentum of popular mobilisation and created a serious power vacuum. Over the next five years the apartheid state tried to prove its case, but eventually dropped charges against all the 156 activists ...read more

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