Writing the South African Treason Trial

The Treason Trial (1956-61) was the longest and most complex political trial of the century in South Africa. Beginning with 156 accused, it ended with the acquittal of every one. As much as the trial was a triumph in legal terms for the defence team, it was also a triumph of narrative. With an initial script written by the prosecution, the task of the defence was to rewrite the trial while it was under way. This they did with tremendous clarity, combining design and improvisation. They rewrote the frame and the plot of the trial; they succeeded in characterising key figures, including witnesses for the prosecution and defence, and even the judges themselves. They established the trial's hermeneutic codes, and became its secret authors, inverting the normal juridical hierarchy. Ultimately character, plot and theme all became of a piece until the trial could reach what appeared to be its only possible denouement.