page 268 - Long Walk Original Manuscript [LWOM_268.jpg]

In the meantime the rest of Wilton's colleagues who attended court that day were arrested. The next day, 1st April, the government officially declared matial law, which it nicknamed the State of Emergency. The trial was to continue in the midst of the State of Emergency. But the Emergency brought about a radical change in the conduct of the trial. All the accused were thrown back in jail and consultation with our lawyers became practically impossible. The government used its enourmous powers to hamper us in our defence and to deny us a fair trial on a capital charge.

(Add to text here at a suitable place: During this period the government was busy coaxing Africans in the rural areas to accept Bantu Authorities. In some areas, and due to the circumstances of the particular community, it made some inroads. Witziedhoek in the Orange Free State was the first reserve to have a tribal authority. Then by June 1953 no less than three authorities were established in the Transvaal. Chief Frank Maserumule, who had never fully acknowledged the autority of the House of Sekhukhune, was one of the first chiefs in that province to accept the system.

But there were exceptions. The initial reaction of the chiefs was one of solid oppositon to the whole scheme. Verwoerd, Minister of Bantu Developmnet and Administration, summoned most Transvaal chiefs to Olifants River to discuss the introduction of the system. At the meeting the ANC distributed leaflets spelling out the implications of this scheme and the dangers of accepting it. Chief Sekwati, one of the senior chiefs at the meeting, spoke on behalf of them and put the matter bluntly: "Le re rekisetsa khome e na le moroto teng, re sa tsebe gore e gwaetser ke poo eve. Ka lebaka leo ga re tsebe gore a tla tswala na bjang." (You are selling us a cow which is already in