Rivonia trialist Denis Goldberg dies at age 87

Rivonia trialist and leading political activist Denis Goldberg has died. According to his family and the Denis Goldberg Legacy Foundation Trust, the stalwart, who had been battling lung cancer and a heart condition, died at his Cape Town home in Hout Bay on Wednesday night.

“His family and the Denis Goldberg Legacy Foundation Trust are sad to announce that Denis Goldberg passed away just before midnight on Wednesday. His was a life well lived in the struggle for freedom in South Africa. We will miss him,” said the trust in a statement

Tributes have started pouring in on social media, with a number of individuals including University of Johannesburg Vice-Chancellor Tshilidzi Marwala taking to Twitter and passing his condolences.

“Rest in peace Seaparankwe Denis Goldberg. You have run your race. We have to pick up where you left off,” read Marwala’s tweet.

At the Rivonia Trial, Goldberg and his co-accused were charged with “campaigning to overthrow the government by violent revolution and for assisting an armed invasion of the country by foreign troops”.

All of the accused were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Goldberg was convicted alongside former president Nelson Mandela for treason and spent 22 years in a whites-only prison in Pretoria, and was the first of the Rivonia Trialists to be released.

Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni, Ahmed Kathrada and Denis Goldberg. They were sentenced to life in prison on June 12 1964

Last year, the ANC honoured the veteran by presenting him with the party’s highest award, Isitwalandwe.

At the time, Deputy President David Mabuza, who accepted the award on Goldberg’s behalf, said: “This award is a special award. We’re very happy about this man. This man stands for what the ANC was.”

Goldberg, who trained as an engineer and subsequently became politically active campaigning for the liberation of the South African people, was an executive member of the SA Congress of Democrats, which was a white organisation allied to the African National Congress and part of the multiracial Congress Alliance.

In the speeches they gave after being awarded the Freedom of Sedibeng award in 2016, Goldberg and fellow Rivonia Trialist Ahmed Kathrada spoke of how “disappointed and disturbed” they were that many thought they were sell-outs.

Read: Rivonia Trialists have strong words for the youth

Goldberg, who was 82 years old at the time, said: “We’ve come a long way and people have the right to their opinions, but I do not feel like my life has been wasted. I am still active in my community and have the right to be impatient with the current pace of things.”

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