Identity area
Reference code
ZA COM NMAP 2010/9
Title
Judge Thumba Pillay Collection
Date(s)
- 1959-01-01 - 1979-12-31 (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent and medium
7 files contained in 2 archival boxes
Context area
Name of creator
Name of creator
Biographical history
Name of creator
(08 August 1929 - 28 March 2017)
Biographical history
Anti-apartheid activist, politician, political prisoner and MP. Leading member of the ANC and of the SACP. Founding member of the Transvaal Indian Volunteer Corps and its successor, the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress. Imprisoned for one month in 1946 for his participation in the SAIC’s Passive Resistance Campaign against the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act. Convicted for his participation in the 1952 Defiance Campaign. Banned in 1954. Co-organiser of the Congress of the People and a member of the Congress Alliance General Purpose Committee. Detained during the 1960 State of Emergency. One of the last twenty-eight accused in the Treason Trial acquitted in 1961. Placed under house arrest in 1962. Arrested at Liliesleaf Farm in July 1963 and charged with sabotage in the Rivonia Trial. Imprisoned on Robben Island, 1964–82, then Pollsmoor Prison until his release on 15 October 1989. MP from 1994, after South Africa’s first democratic elections, and served as political adviser to President Mandela.
Repository
Archival history
Judge Thumba Pillay has been politically active since the 1950s and has practiced as an attorney since 1962. He was contacted by Mac Maharaj in 1976/7 who handed him 2 handwritten manuscripts of letters addressed to his firm by Mandela and Ahmed Kathrada. Judge Thumba Pillay donated the two letters to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory in 2009 followed by a second donation in 2010 with records related to the subsequent court cases of Mandela vs Minister of Prisons. A memo from Judge Thumba Pillay detailing the events is stored with the accession form.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Judge Thumba Pillay
Content and structure area
Scope and content
This series consists of two letters smuggled out of Robben Island in 1977. Mac Maharaj gave them to Judge Thumba Pillay of legal firm of Pillay Seedat & Co. The letters are written by Nelson Mandela and Ahmed Kathrada, both of them wishing to appoint the firm to act on their behalf in legal proceedings against the Department of Prisons. Since the authorities refused contact with their attorneys, they had to use this "illegal" method to seek legal representation. The collection includes an envelope that Judge Pillay had posted addressed to his law firm. He did this in the event that the Security Police questioned him about how he received the letters, he would be able to prove that they were posted anonymously to him.
A second donation of Judge Thumba Pillay contains correspondence and documents (mainly copies) pertaining to the case of Mandela vs Minister of Prisons.
A second donation of Judge Thumba Pillay contains correspondence and documents (mainly copies) pertaining to the case of Mandela vs Minister of Prisons.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Access by permission of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory
Conditions governing reproduction
Copyright held by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Maharaj, Mac (Subject)
- Kathrada, Ahmed Mohamed (Kathy) (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
- English