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Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela - facts about Nelson Mandela's Life, A Chronology or Timeline 1950 to 1964 Treason Trial

Nelson Mandela the boxer and frequent encounters with the police

Nelson Mandela Winnie Mandela Release from prison

1950

Mandela trains at the Orlando (Soweto) Gym to explore his love of boxing.

The Youth League opposes the one-day stay-away called by the Communist Party and the Indian Congress and supported by Dr Moroka, in protest against the banning of Dr Dadoo, Moses Kotane and JB Marks. The stay-away is a great success and subsequently the Communist Party is banned.

Mandela's second son, Makgatho, is born. A turning point occurs for Mandela during a May Day stay-away when he witnesses police brutality, and across Soweto, 18 black people are killed. He hides in a nurses dormitory overnight where he shelters from bullets.

1951

The Youth League throws in its lot with the Indian Congress and together they organise a national work stoppage on 26 June. Walter Sisulu and Yusuf Cachalia are appointed joint secretaries of the Planning Council. The response is significant in Durban and the Eastern Cape. Mandela is elected president of the Youth League.

He drives to Natal in a battered VW with ANCYL colleagues Joe Matthews and Diliza Mji. Extremely formative discussions are had en route as Mandela argues for closer ties with SACP.

Drives to Natal in battered VW with ANCYL colleagues Joe Matthews and Diliza Mji. Extremely formative discussions en route as Mandela argues for closer ties with SACP.

1952

The ANC and the Indian Congress organise a Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign. Mandela is appointed volunteer-in-chief with Maulvi Cachalia as his deputy. Mandela is arrested while canvassing recruits and serves his first brief term of imprisonment; Evelyn Mandela leaves for Durban to study midwifery; Mandela is elected president of the Transvaal ANC to replace the banned J B Marks. Moroka and Sisulu are charged under the Suppression of Communism Act. Moroka appoints his own separate defence and falls out of favour with the ANC. Chief Albert Luthuli is elected president-general of the ANC.

Riots break out in New Brighton (Eastern Cape), resulting in eleven deaths including four Whites. Riots spread to Port Elizabeth and Kimberley and twenty-five Africans are killed. In East London enraged Blacks kill two Whites, including a nun. The government bans fifty-two persons including Nelson Mandela and the newly-elected president -general of the ANC, Chief Luthuli. The Defiance Campaign comes to a halt after 8 577 volunteers, mostly from the Eastern Cape, had courted imprisonment.

Mandela is arrested late at night after a meeting at the Garment Workers Hall in Johannesburg. He spends 2 nights in jail.

1952 30 July

Mandela arrested on violation of the Suppression of Communism Act.

1952 December

Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo open the first Black legal partnership in South Africa.

1953

Mandela's first banning order expires. He throws himself into the campaign against removals from Sophiatown, and the Western Areas and is banned for the second time. The Congress of Democrats is established following a meeting addressed by Tambo and Yusuf Cachalia

A clandestine cell network and contact mechanism, the M-Plan, is devised by Mandela to deal with the impending banning of the ANC.

1954

The Transvaal Law Society petitions the Supreme Court to strike Mandela off the roll because of his involvement in the Defiance Campaign. Walter Pollock QC, head of the Johannesburg Bar Council successfully defends him, pro amico; Mandela revives the ANC organisational structures and introduces the M (Mandela) Plan based on small, street cells. Makaziwe, Nelson's eldest surviving daughter is born. The ANC, the South African Indian Congress, the Congress of Democrats, the Congress of Trade Unions and the Coloured Peoples Organization constitute the Congress Alliance and plan to establish the Congress of the People

1955

The Congress of the People is convened in Kliptown. 3000 delegates, including 320 Indians, 230 Coloured and 112 Whites, adopt the Freedom Charter. Mandela and his wife Evelyn separate. Mandela meets Winnie Madikizela.

The government intensifies its bannings, by the end of 1955 forty-eight ANC leaders are banned, including Mandela

1956

The pass laws are extended to include women. The Federation of South African Women is founded and women take centre stage in the resistance movement.
Mandela briefly returns to the Transkei with Sisulu to buy land in Umtata near his birthplace, honouring a promise to himself.

1956 13 April

Mandela writes to Minister of Justice asking why he had been served a banning order.

1956 5 December

In the early hours of the morning, police search Mandela's house and arrest him on a charge of High Treason. Over the next 10 days, 155 leaders of all races are arrested for the same reason. Mandela and his 155 co-accused are quickly brought to trial for treason.

1958

The Congress Alliance calls for a national strike 'stayaway'. Tension erupts within the ANC when an 'Africanist' faction within the Orlando branch of the organisation challenges the leadership for deviating from the 1949 'Plan of Action', handing over initiative to non-Africans and participating in the Advisory Board elections. Leaders such as Potlako Leballo, Zeph Mothopeng, Peter Raboroko and Josias Madzunya spearhead the formation of the Pan African Congress and elect Robert Sobukwe as their leader.

1958

Nelson Mandela marries Nomzamo Winnie Madikizela in Bizana

1959

ANC and PAC organise separate anti-pass campaigns. Mandela and Winnie's first child Zenani is born

1960s

Sometimes called the 10th Xhosa war, the political campaigns of the popular Black resistance in the 1960s were proof that the British conquest (upon which the White minority state was built) was not viewed as irreversible.

1960 21 March

The PAC mounts its anti-pass campaign. Police at Sharpeville open fire on peaceful protesters killing sixty-nine and injuring 180. In the Western Cape, police open fire and kill two people. The PAC retaliates by calling a work stoppage that lasts for two weeks. Ninety five percent of the workforce goes on strike. PAC youth take control of the Cape Town townships of Langa and Nyanga, setting up roadblocks and distributing food. 30 000 residents of Black townships of Cape Town march on Caledon Square, led by Philip Kgosana, but the march is thwarted when Kgosana is tricked into calling it off on the promise of top level negotiators. The state calls in the military and the marines, the townships are cordoned off and the situation is brought under Nationalist control. A state of emergency is declared, thousands are arrested throughout the country and the ANC and PAC are declared banned organisations. Mandela is among those imprisoned.

1961

The ANC and the PAC establish religious and welfare front organisations. ANC and SACP members set up the armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. There is a strict undertaking that life will not be endangered, only installations will be attacked. A central high command, with regional commands are set up under the direction of Mandela. The first explosion occurs on 16 December in Durban, followed by explosions in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The president general of the ANC, Chief Albert Luthuli is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a week before the first explosion.

Zindziswa is born to Nelson and Winnie Mandela.

1961 June 26

While underground, Nelson Mandela writes a letter in which he states the famous words: "The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days."

1962

There are Poqo uprisings in the Cape resulting in vicious killings, particularly of Whites.

1962 January

Mandela is smuggled out of the country. He attends the Pan-African Freedom Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which is hosted by Tambo, and addresses the Pan African Emperor Haile Selassie. Mandela canvasses support in north and west African countries, meets Col. Boumedienne of Algeria, commander in chief of the army of National Liberation, and undergoes training in demolition and mortar firing and attends army lectures. He meets Nyerere and Kaunda who later head their states, and Oginga Odinga, the opposition leader in Kenya. He flies to Britain where he meets Hugh Gaitskell and Jo Grimond, Labour and Liberal Party leaders. Winnie Mandela is banned for two years. Mandela returns to South Africa, and is met at the border and driven to Johannesburg. The Congress of Democrats is banned. Mandela visits Luthuli on his return to Johannesburg, disguised as a chauffeur.

1962 August 5

Mandela is arrested, seventeen months after going underground, near Howick by police tipped off by informers

1962 November 7

Mandela is sentenced to five years imprisonment for incitement to strike and leaving the country without a passport. He is held for six months in Pretoria prison and then transferred to Robben Island

1963 January

Police raid Lilliesleaf farm in Rivonia outside Johannesburg and arrest the nucleus of MK leadership. Albertina Sisulu and Caroline Motsoaledi are detained; Zwelakhe Sisulu, not yet sixteen is arrested for not possessing a pass. 1963 October 9

Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Rusty Bernstein, Dennis Goldberg, James Kantor, Andrew Mlangeni, Elias Motsoaledi and Raymond Mhlaba (The Rivonia Trialist) are charged with sabotage and attempting to overthrow the state violently. In the Cape members of a breakaway group from the Non-European Unity Movement, Neville Alexander, Don Davis, Marcus Solomons, Elizabeth van der Heyden, Fikile Bam, Ian Leslie van den Heyden, Lionel Davis, Dorothy Alexander, Dulcie September, Doris van der Heyden and Gordon Hendricks are brought to trial in Cape Town.

1964 April

Winnie is given permission to attend the Rivonia Trial on condition she does not dress or behave in a manner to cause "incidents".

1964 June 12

This timeline and facts about the Great Nelson Mandela's life supplied with permission from South African History Online: www.sahistory.org.za