Little Rivonia Trialists

On 5 January 1965, three members of the African National Congress (ANC) and Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Mac Maharaj, Laloo Chiba and Andrew Masondo, including an unknown Raymond Nyanda, arrived at Robben Island. The two, Maharaj and Chiba, were part of the Little Rivonia Trialists, with Wilton Mkwayi and others.

With the MK National High Command in tatters, the political leadership had thrust the responsibility of reconstituting it on the shoulders of Wilton Mkwayi. In November 1963, Chiba was invited by Mkwayi to serve on the MK’s 2nd National High Command, together with David Kitson and Lionel Gay.

Once the Rivonia Trialists were sentenced, the 2nd National High Command carried out various acts of sabotage with pipe bombs on railway lines in Pimville, Nancefield, New Canada, Mlamlamkunzi, Phomolong and Mzimhlope, and on the Vrededorp Post Office. In mid-1964, the Congress Movement suffered yet another setback when Chiba, Kitson and Gay, and later Mkwayi, were arrested.

The Little Rivonia Trial was an apartheid-era court case in which several members of MK’s 2nd National High Command faced charges of sabotage. The accused were: Maharaj, Chiba, Dave Kitson, John Matthews and Wilton Mkwayi. Lionel Gay, turned state witness, and in return, the prosecution dropped the charges against him. All the accused were found guilty in a trial that occurred from November to December 1964.

Mkwayi received a life sentence; Kitson twenty years; Chiba eighteen years; Matthews fifteen years and Maharaj twelve years. Kitson and Matthews (both white) were imprisoned in Pretoria Central Prison and joined Rivonia Trialist, Denis Goldberg. Mkwayi, Maharaj and Chiba were all taken to B Section, where their leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, and other prominent ANC members were being kept after the Rivonia Trial.

There were suspicions by Maharaj and the leadership of the ANC that the unknown Raymond Nyanda was sent to prison as a planted spy. When Maharaj and Chiba were moved by prison truck to Leeuwkop Prison on 3 January 1965, they were joined by this third prisoner, Nyanda, who was well dressed, with jacket, jersey and shoes, as compared to them, in khaki shorts, short-sleeved shirts and barefooted.

Nyanda claimed to be a political prisoner, a journalist who was working for the Sunday Times. When the four reached Robben Island, being joined by another MK operative and mathematician, Andrew Masondo, they were all taken to the “segregation” section of the prison. This was where the Rivonia Trialists were kept after the trial.

The suspicions about Raymond Nyanda grew after he was found with a packet of cigarettes, whereas he did not smoke, and smoking was a punishable offence in prison. He also offered one of the political prisoners a Parker ballpoint pen as a present.

After undergoing scrutiny for about five months by other political prisoners, Nyanda received news that he had ‘won’ his case on appeal and that his sentence was shortened. He was removed from Robben Island and a few months later committed suicide.

At Robben Island, political prisoners were put to work breaking stones in the quarry, which sometimes had a blinding effect, as part of the hard labour that was included in the sentence.

When Andrew Masondo arrived at the Island, he and his group refused to obey orders of the quarry, and they were often punished at the prison yard, by picking heavy boulders which they had to run and throw at the foundations that were dug for the new prison buildings. Prison warders used to run behind them, beating them with batons on their heads and backs, so as to make it clear to all prisoners that they knew their place.

In 1976, Mac Maharaj and Andrew Masondo were released after serving 12 and 13 years respectively in the Robben Island prison. In 1979, John Matthews, was released after serving his 15 year sentence at Pretoria Central Prison. In 1982, Laloo Chiba was released after serving 18 years but he was rearrested in 1985 to 1986 without a trial. In 1984, Dave Kitson, who served in the High Command of MK, was also released after being in prison since 1964 and moved back to his native home of London, England.

On 15 October 1989, Wilton Mkwayi was released after spending 25 years in Robben Island and Pollsmoor Prison; and his release which also included five Rivonia Trialists: Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Andrew Mlangeni, Elias Motsoaledi and Walter Sisulu after spending 26 years each, Oscar Mpetha after spending more than 6 years, and the co-founder and former leader of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) Jafta Masemola, after he also spent 27 years in prison.

Castro Khwela
Good day fellow Compatriots!