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case the stakes were high and the Nats and Nats alone wished to run the whole show with the accused awed by the threat of a death sentence and the spectators passively waiting for the fatal moment.

In this regard the government badly miscalculated and at no time was the initiative to slip out of our hands. The ordinary proceedure prescribed for Supreme Court trials is first the holding of a preliminary investigation by a magistrate. If he thinks the State has proved a prima facie case he may commit the accused for trial by the Supreme Court. Although this lengthens the proceedings it gives the accused an opportunity to know the State case beforehand and more time to prepare for the defence. But in all cases of sabotage and in spite of the fact that under this Act there is provision for capital punishment the government abolished the preliminary examination. This means that in these cases the accused are obliged to fight the case as the proceedings unfold themselves. During the Treason Trial already the government had severely restricted the right to take exception to an indictment which was calculated to handicap an accused person in his defence.

The accused in the Rivonia trial were: Nelson Rohlihlala Mandela, Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu, Dennis Goldberg, Govan Archibald Mbeki, Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada, Lionel 'Rusty' Bernstein, Raymond Mhlaba, James Kantor, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni.

We appeared before Justice Q. De Wet, the Judge President of the Transvaal, and one of the last judges to be appointed by the United Party government (check was he related to Gen. De Wet of