Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial

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People Vernon Berrangé P. W. Botha Steve Biko Mangosuthu Buthelezi F. W. de Klerk Ruth First Bram Fischer Arthur Goldreich Chris Hani Bantu Holomisa Joel Joffe Ahmed Kathrada Albert Luthuli Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Mac Maharaj D. F. Malan Nelson Mandela Govan Mbeki Thabo Mbeki Raymond Mhlaba Benjamin Moloise Albertina Sisulu Walter Sisulu J. G. Strijdom Joe Slovo Robert Sobukwe Helen Suzman Adelaide Tambo Oliver Tambo Eugène Terre'Blanche Desmond Tutu H. F. Verwoerd B. J. Vorster Jacob Zuma
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The Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial was heard in the Supreme Court of South Africa from 21 October 1985 to 23 June 1986. In the largest political trial since the Rivonia Trial, the apartheid state pursued charges of high treason against 16 leaders of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and four affiliated organisations. State v Ramgobin and Others was generally regarded as a failure in both legal and political terms: the charges against 12 defendants were dropped in December 1985 and the remaining four were freed in June 1986, while the South African state received international criticism for having instituted the charges in the first place.

The 16 defendants were leaders of the UDF, the Natal Indian Congress, the Transvaal Indian Congress, the Release Mandela Committee, and the South African Allied Workers' Union. Among them were both co-presidents of the UDF, Albertina Sisulu and Archie Gumede. Also among them were five of the so-called Durban Six, who made international news in September 1984 for evading arrest by taking refuge in the British consulate in Durban. Each of the 16 was arrested in Natal or the Transvaal between August 1984 and February 1985 during the period of heightened state repression that followed UDF-led boycotts of the 1984 general election and new Tricameral Parliament.

In a 587-page indictment finally delivered in April 1985, the state alleged that the accused had, through ostensibly non-violent political acts, sought to further "a revolutionary alliance" whose aim was to incite a revolt and overthrow the government. In particular, the state sought to argue that the UDF and its affiliates were co-conspirators of the illegal African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, and South African Congress of Trade Unions. Represented by Ismail Mahomed, the defendants pled not guilty to all charges. In December 1985, following damaging cross-examination of the state's star expert witness, the state announced that it would withdraw the charges against all but four of the defendants; the trial resumed in February 1986 with only the four trade unionists in the dock. The charges against them were dropped in June 1986 after Judge President John Milne ruled that key evidence was inadmissible.

Upon the conclusion of the trial, the UDF declared itself and its methods vindicated. In addition to the embarrassments suffered by the prosecution in the courtroom, the trial had been condemned by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 560 and had attracted international attention to apartheid security legislation, particularly the Internal Security Act, the law in terms of which the defendants had been arrested and charged.