Special Report Transcript Episode 58, Section 4, Time 16:15

Bram Fischer was born in 1908 on a farm near Bloemfontein. He came from a well known legal family. His father, Peter Ulrich Fischer was Judge President of the Free State and his grandfather Abram Fischer had been a Cabinet Minister in the Union of South Africa. Bram went to Grey College and then onto University of the Free State to study law. A highlight of his career was playing in a team against the All Blacks in 1929 and he was also the first Nationalist president of the student parliament. He seemed a model Afrikaner. But when did his ideas change, setting him on a path far removed from that of his fellow Afrikaners? In the 1930s he went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, he travelled Europe and visited Russia. He came back to South Africa in 1937 and opened his first practice. He married Marley Krige and had three children. He moved fast in the Communist Party and by 1946 was Chairman of the Central Committee. The nationalist government came into power in 1948 and the Party was banned in 1951 and Marley and Bram were both served with banning orders. But he was constantly at work for the Party, this time as an underground organisation. When the Congress of the People, the forerunner of the ANC, adopted the Freedom Charter at Kliptown in 1955 Bram and Marley watched from a koppie in the distance. This led to the Treason Trial. It was the first big political trial that Bram defended, 56 people were accused but were all acquitted. Bram continued with both his commercial work and his political life. And then in July 1963 Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia was raided and it was just by chance that Bram missed that arrest. He was asked to defend what became known as the Rivonia Trialists. He didn’t want to defend them but was persuaded, because he was an Afrikaner and could argue on the basis of someone who understood … President Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and Achmed Kathrada were amongst the eight sentenced to life imprisonment. Many people had expected the death sentence. In September 1964 Fischer was arrested and charged under the Suppression of Communism Act. After handling a case in London he returned to South Africa and then skipped bail. He then went underground as Douglas Black and during this time was struck off the Advocate’s Roll. He was only captured when a colleague was severely tortured and gave away his whereabouts; then he was charged on fifteen counts. These ranged from sabotage to fraud to contravening the Suppression of Communism Act. It was during his trial on March the 28th 1966 that Bram Fischer made a three and a half hour speech from the dock in the Pretoria Supreme Court. In it he said: // But when the laws themselves become immoral and require the citizen to take part in an organised system of oppression – if only by his silence or apathy – then I believe that a higher duty arises. This compels one to refuse to recognize such laws. // He was sentenced to life imprisonment. This past week, his daughters Ilse and Ruth testified before the Commission on his treatment in prison.

Notes: Photos: Father and mother, Grandfather Abram Fischer.; SA rugby team, 1929, student parliament; Bram and Marley, wedding day; with children; at CP meeting; Kliptown, 1955 (film footage) ; Treason Trial (film footage); Photo: Lilliesleaf; Rivonia trialists

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