Nelson Mandela's statement from the dock at the opening of the defence case in the Rivonia Tria,l Pretoria Supreme Court, 20 April 1964.

Our fight is against , and not imaginary, hardships or, to the language of the State Prosecutor, '-called hardships'. Basically, we fight against two which are the hallmarks of African in South Africa and which are by legislation which we seek to repealed. These features are poverty and of human dignity, and we do need communists or so-called 'agitators' to us about these things.
South Africa the richest country in Africa, and be one of the richest countries the world. But it is a of extremes and remarkable contrasts. The enjoy what may well be the standard of living in the world, Africans live in poverty and misery. per cent of the Africans live hopelessly overcrowded and, in some cases, -stricken Reserves, where soil erosion and the of the soil makes it impossible them to live properly off the . Thirty per cent are labourers, labour , and squatters on white farms and and live under conditions similar to of the serfs of the Middle . The other 30 per cent live towns where they have developed economic social habits which bring them closer many respects to white standards. Yet Africans, even in this group, are by low incomes and high cost living.
The highest-paid and the most section of urban African life is Johannesburg. Yet their actual position is . The latest figures were given on March 1964 by Mr. Carr, Manager the Johannesburg Non-European Affairs Department. The datum line for the average African in Johannesburg (according to Mr. Carr's ) is R42.84 per month. He showed the average monthly wage is R32.24 that 46 per cent of all families in Johannesburg do not earn to keep them going.
Poverty goes in hand with malnutrition and disease. incidence of malnutrition and deficiency diseases very high amongst Africans. Tuberculosis, pellagra, , gastro-enteritis, and scurvy bring death and of health. The incidence of infant is one of the highest in world. According to the Medical Officer Health for Pretoria, tuberculosis kills forty a day (almost all Africans), and 1961 there were 58,491 new cases . These diseases not only destroy the organs of the body, but they in retarded mental conditions and lack initiative, and reduce powers of concentration. secondary results of such conditions affect whole community and the standard of performed by African labourers.
The complaint Africans, however, is not only that are poor and the whites are , but that the laws which are by the whites are designed to this situation. There are two ways break out of poverty. The first by formal education, and the second by the worker acquiring a greater at his work and thus higher . As far as Africans are concerned, these avenues of advancement are deliberately by legislation.
The present Government has sought to hamper Africans in their for education. One of their early , after coming into power, was to subsidies for African school feeding. Many children who attended schools depended on supplement to their diet. This was cruel act.
There is compulsory education all white children at virtually no to their parents, be they rich poor. Similar facilities are not provided the African children, though there are who receive such assistance. African children, , generally have to pay more for schooling than whites. According to figures by the South African Institute of Relations in its 1963 journal, approximately per cent of African children in age group between seven to fourteen not attend school. For those who attend school, the standards are vastly from those afforded to white children. 1960-61 the per capita Government spending African students at State-aided schools was at R12.46. In the same years, per capita spending on white children the Cape Province (which are the figures available to me) was R144.57. there are no figures available to , it can be stated, without doubt, the white children on whom R144.57 head was being spent all came wealthier homes than African children on R12.46 per head was being spent.
quality of education is also different. to the Bantu Educational Journal, only ,660 African children in the whole of Africa passed their Junior Certificate in , and in that year only 362 matric. This is presumably consistent with policy of Bantu education about which present Prime Minister said, during the on the Bantu Education Bill in :
"When I have control of Native I will reform it so that will be taught from childhood to that equality with Europeans is not them . . . People who in equality are not desirable teachers Natives. When my Department controls Native it will know for what class higher education a Native is fitted, whether he will have a chance life to use his knowledge."
The main obstacle to the economic advancement the African is the industrial colour-bar which all the better jobs of are reserved for Whites only. Moreover, who do obtain employment in the and semi-skilled occupations which are open them are not allowed to form unions which have recognition under the Conciliation Act. This means that strikes African workers are illegal, and that are denied the right of collective which is permitted to the better-paid workers. The discrimination in the policy successive South African Governments towards African is demonstrated by the so-called 'civilized policy' under which sheltered, unskilled Government are found for those white workers cannot make the grade in industry, wages which far exceed the earnings the average African employee in industry.
Government often answers its critics by that Africans in South Africa are better off than the inhabitants of other countries in Africa. I do know whether this statement is true doubt whether any comparison can be without having regard to the cost-of-living in such countries. But even if is true, as far as the people are concerned it is irrelevant. complaint is not that we are by comparison with people in other , but that we are poor by with the white people in our country, and that we are prevented legislation from altering this imbalance.
The of human dignity experienced by Africans the direct result of the policy white supremacy. White supremacy implies black . Legislation designed to preserve white supremacy this notion. Menial tasks in South are invariably performed by Africans. When has to be carried or cleaned white man will look around for African to do it for him, the African is employed by him not. Because of this sort of , whites tend to regard Africans as separate breed. They do not look them as people with families of own; they do not realize that have emotions - that they fall love like white people do; that want to be with their wives children like white people want to with theirs; that they want to enough money to support their families , to feed and clothe them and them to school. And what 'house-boy' 'garden-boy' or labourer can ever hope do this?
Pass laws, which to Africans are among the most hated of legislation in South Africa, render African liable to police surveillance at time. I doubt whether there is single African male in South Africa has not at some stage had brush with the police over his . Hundreds and thousands of Africans are into jail each year under pass . Even worse than this is the that pass laws keep husband and apart and lead to the breakdown family life.
Poverty and the breakdown family life have secondary effects. Children about the streets of the townships they have no schools to go , or no money to enable them go to school, or no parents home to see that they go school, because both parents (if there two) have to work to keep family alive. This leads to a in moral standards, to an alarming in illegitimacy, and to growing violence erupts not only politically, but everywhere. in the townships is dangerous. There not a day that goes by somebody being stabbed or assaulted. And is carried out of the townships the white living areas. People are to walk alone in the streets dark. Housebreakings and robberies are increasing, the fact that the death sentence now be imposed for such offences. sentences cannot cure the festering sore.
want to be paid a living . Africans want to perform work which are capable of doing, and not which the Government declares them to capable o Africans want to be to live where they obtain work, not be endorsed out of an because they were not born there. want to be allowed to own in places where they work, and to be obliged to live in houses which they can never call own. Africans want to be part the general population, and not confined living in their own ghettoes. African want to have their wives and to live with them where they , and not be forced into an existence in men's hostels. African women to be with their menfolk and be left permanently widowed in the . Africans want to be allowed out eleven o'clock at night and not be confined to their rooms like children. Africans want to be allowed travel in their own country and seek work where they want to not where the Labour Bureau tells to. Africans want a just share the whole of South Africa; they security and a stake in society.
all, we want equal political rights, without them our disabilities will be . I know this sounds revolutionary to whites in this country, because the of voters will be Africans. This the white man fear democracy.
But fear cannot be allowed to stand the way of the only solution will guarantee racial harmony and freedom all. It is not true that enfranchisement of all will result in domination. Political division, based on colour, entirely artificial and, when it disappears, will the domination of one colour by another. The ANC has spent a century fighting against racialism. When triumphs it will not change that .
This then is what the ANC fighting. Their struggle is a truly one. It is a struggle of African people, inspired by their own and their own experience. It is struggle for the right to live.
my lifetime I have dedicated myself this struggle of the African people. have fought against white domination, and have fought against black domination. I cherished the ideal of a democratic free society in which all persons together in harmony and with equal . It is an ideal which I to live for and to achieve. if needs be, it is an for which I am prepared to .