Kholvad House | |
---|---|
General information | |
Status | Completed |
Type | Apartment Building |
Location | 27 Market Street, Johannesburg, South Africa |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Rusty Bernstein |
Website | |
http://www.kholvad.org.za |
Kholvad House, which includes Flat 13, is a Johannesburg, South Africa building and landmark known for its role in the South African struggle for civil rights. [1] Its Flat 13 was the home of Robben Island prisoner Ahmed Kathrada for more than 16 years, including 1952 when he planned the Defiance Campaign, and Nelson Mandela used the home to see clients in 1960 when his law firm was shut down. [1]
Nelson Mandela describes the building as a place where “the first seeds of non-racialism were sown and a wider concept of the nation came into being”. [2] The block of flats was designed by Lionel ‘Rusty’ Bernstein, a Communist Party leader and Hilton College old boy [3] In 1942, the flats were constructed by a group of Indians from the peasant community of Kholvad. The buildings would also be used to raise funds to educate poor children in Kholvad [4] and in South Africa. Dr. Yusuf Dadoo was one of the early Chairpersons of the Board of Trustees.
Flat 13 in Kholvad house earned a reputation for its ongoing contribution to the struggle. The flat acted as the headquarters for freedom fighters. [5] When Ahmed Kathrada took over Flat 13 it remained a hive of political activity. After Oliver Tambo left for exile in 1960, Mandela moved his legal practice to flat 13. In his book “Long Walk to Freedom’, Nelson Mandela writes:
At Wits I met and became friends with Ismail Meer, J. N. Singh, Ahmed Bhoola and Ramlal Bhoolia. The centre of this tight-knit community was Ismail’s apartment, Flat 13, Kholvad House. . . . . . There we studied, talked. . . . . . and it became a kind of headquarters for young freedom fighters . I sometimes slept here. . . . . . . . . . (Page 105, Long Walk to Freedom)
FLAT 13, is also the name of a documentary about Ahmed Kathrada. The film recounts the hopes and tales of anti apartheid activists, that used this flat as a sanctuary [6] Kholvad House [7] is another historical landmark in South Africa's liberation struggle. [8]
Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu was a South African anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress (ANC). Between terms as ANC Secretary-General (1949–1954) and ANC Deputy President (1991–1994), he was Accused No.2 in the Rivonia Trial and was incarcerated on Robben Island where he served more than 25 years' imprisonment for his anti-Apartheid revolutionary activism. He had a close partnership with Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela, with whom he played a key role in organising the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the establishment of the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was also on the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party.
The Rivonia Trial was a trial that took place in apartheid-era South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964, after a group of anti-apartheid activists were arrested on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia. The farm had been the secret location for meetings of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the newly-formed armed wing of the African National Congress. The trial took place in Pretoria at the Palace of Justice and the Old Synagogue and led to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Denis Goldberg, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni. Many were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life.
Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada OMSG, sometimes known by the nickname "Kathy", was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist.
The Treason Trial was a trial in Johannesburg in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956.
The following lists events that happened during 1963 in South Africa.
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Johannes "Joe" Modise was a South African political figure. He helped to found uMkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress, and was its longest serving Commander in Chief, deputised at different points in time by Joe Slovo and Chris Hani. Modise headed MK for a 25-year period, from 1965 to 1990. He served as South Africa's first black Minister of Defence from 1994 to 1999 and led the formation of the post-independence defence force.
Lionel "Rusty" Bernstein was a Jewish South African anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner. He played a key role in political organizations such as the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the African National Congress (ANC). He helped form the South African Congress of Democrats to bolster white participation in the ANC, and he brought its allies together to establish a Congress of the People, working closely with Nelson Mandela.
Hilda Bernstein OLG was a British-born author, artist, and an activist against apartheid and for women's rights.
Liliesleaf Farm, also spelt Lilliesleaf and also known simply as Liliesleaf, is a location in northern Johannesburg, South Africa, which is most noted for its use as a safe house for African National Congress (ANC) activists during the apartheid years in the 1960s. In 1963, the South African police raided the farm, arresting more than a dozen ANC leaders and activists, who were then tried and prosecuted during the Rivonia Trial.
The World that was Ours (1967) is Hilda Bernstein's personal account of life in Johannesburg under the oppressive surveillance of the apartheid regime. Hilda and her husband Rusty Bernstein were both detained, along with many others, in the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. Upon their release, Rusty was placed under house arrest, while Hilda's day-to-day activities were closely monitored by the Special Branch, if not altogether prohibited. Her memoir recalls these fraught years in the build-up to the landmark Rivonia Trial, the events and ordeals of the Trial itself, and finally the couple's reluctant decision to flee their beloved country in the wake of Rusty's acquittal.
Moosa Moolla OLS was an Indian South African activist and diplomat. A member of the African National Congress, Moolla was arrested and eventually found not guilty in the 1956 Treason Trial. In 1961, he was arrested and tried for incitement at the time of the May 1961 stay-at-home protest. In May 1963, he was arrested under the 90-day law. On 11 August 1963, Moolla and others escaped prison by bribing a young guard. He later served as the ANC representative to Asia while living in exile in India. Following independence, he became the first South African ambassador to Iran.
Vernon Celliers Berrangé SCOT "Defender of the People" was an eminent South African human rights advocate (QC)
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Ismail Ahmed Cachalia (1908-2003), popularly known as Moulvi, was a South African political activist and a leader of Transvaal Indian Congress and the African National Congress. He was one of the leaders of the Indian Passive Resistance Campaign of 1946 and the Defiance Campaign in 1952. The Government of India awarded the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1977.
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Ismail Chota Meer, sometimes spelled Ismael Meer, was a South African lawyer, writer, and anti-apartheid activist. He was the secretary of the Transvaal Indian Congress during the presidency of Yusuf Dadoo, and he later held leadership positions in the Natal Indian Congress and South African Indian Congress. After the end of apartheid, he represented the African National Congress in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature from May 1994 until his death in May 2000.