From A Farm At Rivonia, Freedom Marched To Pretoria

BLACKS ARE preparing to vote in South Africa for the first time ever, and it appears apartheid is nearing its end. That could not have been imagined 30 years ago when police raided a farm hideout and arrested leaders of the African National Congress. ------------------------------

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Sunlight filtered through the tree branches as Walter Sisulu and Ahmed Kathrada peered into the hut where, three decades earlier, they lost their freedom.

This was the farm hideout at Rivonia that became synonymous with South Africa's most sensational political trial.

"It's something we thought of in prison - if we come out, we'd like to see Rivonia," says Sisulu, now 81.

Headlines today blare the imminent end of apartheid, with blacks preparing to vote for the first time ever and take part in running the government.

The news was different in 1963. The African National Congress was banned, Nelson Mandela had been jailed and Sisulu went underground to avoid security laws intended to crush the group.

Police thought they had done just that on July 11 when they nabbed Sisulu, Kathrada and other leaders at the isolated lair in Johannesburg's lush northern suburbs.

Mandela, Sisulu, Kathrada, Govan Mbeki and others were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life in prison. Government officials declared the ANC demolished.

But instead of burying the ANC leaders, Rivonia made them legends at home and helped to forge world opinion against apartheid. The United Nations urged their release, and they became symbols of fighting oppression.

Their story was finally told.

Walking nonchalantly along a downtown street in early 1963, Walter Sisulu carried out a normal mission for a banned activist.

With Nelson Mandela serving a five-year prison term and Oliver Tambo in exile, Sisulu was the highest-ranking ANC official able to operate in South Africa.

On this day, he was transporting a document on overseas training for ANC militants. Both the document and Sisulu's possession of it were illegal. He was arrested, convicted and sentenced to six years in jail. Granted bail, Sisulu was immediately placed under 24-hour house arrest. He decided to go underground, which meant Rivonia.

The Communist Party, banned years earlier, had bought the small farm as a front for its operations. It let its ANC allies hide there, and leaders of the groups worked together on plans to topple the government.

Anti-Communist suppression was at its peak, as the government feared Marxists would exploit the black majority to revolt.

After the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 - when police killed 69 demonstrators and wounded hundreds - the government banned the ANC, which went underground and launched a sabotage campaign. But its lack of organization, weak military wing and the security crackdown rendered it ineffective.

Within three years, Mandela was in jail and police pried information from suspects under a new law allowing detention without trial for 90 days.

At Rivonia, Sisulu worked with Mbeki and white Communists such as Arthur Goldreich and Dennis Goldberg on Operation Mayibuye, a Xhosa word meaning "return." It called for a sabotage campaign to destabilize the country and attract supporters, followed by armed insurgency.

Fearing their activities would draw attention, the hunted men began seeking a new hideout but planned a major meeting at Rivonia on July 11.

According to police, a black informant brought Lt. Willem van Wyk to the farm on the night of July 10. Police raided the hideout the next day, not knowing of the planned meeting.

Sisulu, Kathrada, Mbeki, black activist Raymond Mhlaba and two white Communists, Bob Hepple and Lionel "Rusty" Bernstein were arrested.

Of the more than 20 people arrested in connection with the Rivonia raid, 10 stood trial. Goldreich and lawyer Harold Wolpe, another white Communist, escaped from prison and fled the country, while Hepple offered to turn state's witness, then also fled. Others were released.

Documents seized by police, including a copy of Mayibuye, implicated Mandela, who was charged with sabotage along with Sisulu, Kathrada, Mbeki, Mhlaba, Bernstein, Goldberg, black activists Elias Matsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni, and white lawyer James Kantor. Charges against Kantor were later dismissed.

Because the ANC was banned, its leaders had been prohibited for years from making public statements or being quoted. They decided to make the trial a political forum.

When asked to plead, each defendant replied: "Not guilty. It is the members of the government, not we, who should stand indicted here."

The state based its case on Operation Mayibuye, charging that a small cabal of white Communists was using the ANC to stage a revolution.

When the eight-month case wrapped up, speculation focused only on the sentences. The main defendants had admitted their guilt and expected the death penalty.

They received life imprisonment except for Bernstein, who was acquitted and immediately detained again for his Communist Party activities.

In the ensuing decade, the ANC was virtually stilled at home, though Tambo and others worked overseas to raise money and its profile. When labor unrest started in 1974, followed by a student uprising two years later, the still-banned ANC gained prominence, due in part to the Rivonia legacy.

All the Rivonia defendants were freed by 1989, 25 years after their sentencing, except for Mandela, who came out in 1990. The releases were part of President F.W. de Klerk's reforms to end apartheid.

Now Mandela heads the ANC as it negotiates with de Klerk for equal rights and political power. Sisulu, Kathrada and most of the others work for the group or remain associated with it.

----------- KEY FIGURES ----------- Key figures in the Rivonia raid and trial that put African National Congress leaders in jail and sparked international condemnation of apartheid:

-- NELSON MANDELA - Leader of the ANC's military wing, Mandela already was serving a five-year prison sentence but stood trial with the others arrested at Rivonia. He received a life sentence and was freed in 1990. Mandela, who turned 75 on July 18, became president of the African National Congress in 1991. -- WALTER SISULU - A founding member of the ANC Youth League with Mandela, Sisulu took over the internal leadership when Mandela was arrested in 1962. He received a life sentence at the Rivonia trial and was freed in 1989. Sisulu, 81, became deputy president of the ANC in 1991. -- AHMED KATHRADA - Longtime member of the Communist Party and the ANC, he received a life sentence and was freed in 1989. Kathrada, 63, is the ANC's director of publicity. -- GOVAN MBEKI - Mbeki helped lead the ANC military wing until his arrest at Rivonia. He received a life sentence and was freed in 1987. Mbeki, who turned 83 on July 8, remains a member of the ANC and Communist Party. -- DENNIS GOLDBERG - A white engineer turned bomb-maker for the ANC, Goldberg received a life sentence at the Rivonia trial and was deported 21 years later, in 1985. He lives in England and still supports the anti-apartheid struggle. -- RAYMOND MHLABA, ELIAS MATSOALEDI and ANDREW MLANGENI - All three were ANC and/or Communist Party members arrested at Rivonia and sentenced to life in prison, then released in 1989.