The Africa Bureau hive produced the text of a statement by Mary Benson before the ‘Special Committee on the policies of Apartheid of the Government of the Republic of South Africalas a pmphlet. We have cxtracted some of the more revealing passages but would recommend all our readers to got hold of this pamphlet and to help to got it distributed, It can be obtained . from the Africae Bureru, 65, Denison House, Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1l,
"An eminent lawyer from Britain, John Arnold Q.C., recently visited Southfifrica on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists to observe the trial of Nelson Mendela and others - the "Rivonia" Trial. Mr. Arnold told how these men are regarded as heroes in Seuth Africa and he asked, . what is the good of a fair trial, if under the bestial and brutas Act of Parliament which provides the framework of the trial, there is practical | possibility but conviction? He concluded: "The danger is that these men will hang,and hang they must not,”
Nelson Mandcla is on trial for his life. Yet he - a member of the royal family of the Tembu people - night easily have been one of those chiefs who are puppets of the Government, with a steady income, a shiny motorcar, and sycophantic followers. Or he might simply have romained a lawyer content to function within the franework of apartheid, living comfortably in a middle-class hore, and finding an cutlet for humiliation in sport or jazz or religon.
"Welter Sisulu..knows probably better than any other leader in South Africa just what it means to be a "native"...While only a boy of 16, brought up traditionally in the Transkei, he had to leave school to take on fanily responsibilities. He had a variety of the lowly jobs which by law are the only ones most Africans can hold. He was a miner, then a kitchen boy when in spare moments in his white employer's kitchen, he tried to supplement his meegre education by studying an knglish grammar, His first political lesson came in Johannesburg where, having picked up a snatering of trade union ideas. and working in a bakery at £2 a week, he led a strike, was quickly outwitted by the boss, and sacked. He was first iprisoned as a result of protesting when a white ticket-collector on a train bullied an African child; the ticket-collector assaulted Sisulu, who fought back, and was arrested.
"Two Europeans and an Indien are also accused in the Rivonia trial, lionel Rusty Bernstein is one of South Africa's best known architects, and inventor ofmathenatical ing trunents...He joined the Comrunist Party after becoming disillusioned with Labour Party, which was concerned only with white workers..oHe is typical of the small group of Hurepeans who because of their belicfs have suffered prejudice to their careers, increasing social isolation, and - above all - regular restriction and imprisonment... Anned Kathrada...has been persistenly active, imprisoned, restricted, persec= uted, but has carried on with a total dedication, evor since as a schoolboy ne went to prison wea.
"According to the South Africen Foundation, the average dividend in South Africa is 12.6% compared with 6.6% in Western Europe; while American companies are averaging profits of about 27% on capital invested in South Africa...and if anyone...doubts whether the beycotts have had any effect, they should read what it meant to the prisoners..when they heard that dockers in Trinidad had refused to handle South African goods..."