Political Prisoners of South Africa Documentation Project
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RAYMOND MHLABA
Imprisoned for Life
(Original biographical information included with his bracelet in 1985)

            Raymond Mhlaba was tried in the Pretoria Supreme Court from October 1963 to June 1964 along with Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu and others in the ‘Rivonia Trial’.  He was charged under the Sabotage and Suppression of Communism Acts, with campaigning to overthrow the government by violent revolution, and by assisting the armed invasion of the country by foreign troops.  The charge sheet listed 193 acts of sabotage allegedly carried out by the military wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation).  Mhlaba was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment which he is serving on Robben Island.

            During the trial, Mhlaba denied that he was a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, but said he would have joined if he had been asked to and would have attacked any target which might have been selected.

            Mhlaba was born in the Fort Beaufort district in the Transkei.  He was educated at the Heraldtown Institute where he became involved in a student organization concerned with the disabilities suffered by Africans.  After leaving school he worked in the dry cleaning industry in Port Elizabeth and joined the Laundry Workers Union.  He became a member of the Communist Party in 1943 and of the ANC in 1947.  He was leader of the first group of volunteers in Port Elizabeth in the Campaign of Defiance Against Unjust Laws in 1952.  He was detained during the State of Emergency in 1960.

            Mhlaba has eight children.  His wife died while he was in prison.

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The source of this biographical information is International Defence and Aid Fund’s book, Prisoners of Apartheid, 1978.  We appreciate their permission to use this material.

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