Tower and Town, September 2018

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Meeting Joel Joffe

This article was written by Elton Madupe a member of a group of eight young South Africans who spent three months in Marlborough undertaking voluntary work. It describes an extraordinary and moving meeting between the young South Africans and the late (Lord) Joel Joffe, instructing solicitor to Nelson Mandela’s defence lawyers at the 1963 Rivonia Trial before Joel came to Britain where he founded Hambro Life in Swindon in 1965 which later became Allied Dunbar, was Chairman of Swindon Health Authority and Chairman of Oxfam. The meeting took place in a small room in No 1A London Road.

Elton Madupe writes:-

“In life, every man has twin obligations – obligations to his family, to his parents, to his wife and children, obligations to his people and also his community and country”. In a civil and human society, man is able to fulfil these obligations according to his ability and inclinations.

Unfortunately in South Africa, race and skin colour were used to determine who was human and who sub-human. For people like Nelson Mandela, Lillian Ngoyi, Bram Fischer, Joel Joffe and many others who fought for the emancipation of the oppressed and the equality of human rights, it was impossible to fulfil both obligations.

They were forced to live in the twilight of their existence in prison, underground and exile.

Meeting Joel Joffe, a former human rights lawyer from South Africa, in Marlborough on 25th June 1999, made me realise that I am from a very special nation. A nation of sung and unsung heroes and heroines, who would not allow the fear of death, torture, imprisonment, persecutions or the coldness of exile to obstruct them in their pursuit of justice for all.

All this and more dawned on me as Joel Joffe took us all through his life and the Rivonia Trial (the State vs Nelson Mandela, 1963-4) the trial that sent Nelson Mandela, and ten others accused, to 27 year long prison sentences. Bram Fischer, George Bizos, Arthur Chaskalson and Joel Joffe himself formed the defence team for this trial. This led Joel Joffe to introduce us to the political life of one of South Africa’s finest sons and lawyer, the late Bram Fischer.

The meeting with Joel Joffe formulated a belief within me. A belief that one’s race, gender, complexion of skin or historical origins does not even begin to define one’s South Africanism. A belief that one’s love and allegiance is but a mere start to the definition of what it really means to be part of the ‘Rainbow Nation’.

I owe the root of this belief to the great masses, both living and deceased, who would not tolerate oppression. Nor allow the unjust ways and actions of the minority to result in our country being branded a country of barbaric people.

Whatever darkness and sadness they went through, they endured. Therefore it’s through their triumph that I can exercise my right to formulate my own definition of what it means to be a South African.

As the end of our interesting meeting with Joel Joffe drew to a close, we found ourselves marvelling at our young democracy and its rainbow people. A democracy that frees both the oppressed from oppression and the oppressor from hate and fear.

As we parted, Joel Joffe’s Ubuntu “I am because you are” – his humility and humanity –which oozed out during our meeting, left me pondering, concluding in my own definition of what it means to be South African. A few answers came up, but the one that stood out the most was, “Yes, he is still, in every way, a South African”

Elton Madupe (1999)