Visiting the Liliesleaf Heritage Site

I love my job!

I've been in Johannesburg for five weeks now and had been a bit down about not touring anywhere new. Thankfully, I had visited a number of places on my last visit so I figured the one place I hadn't toured was the Apartheid Museum. Thanks to my job, I got to go to the museum in Gold Reef City on Tuesday. Since I was working, I didn't get to tour the entire museum, which is why I have to go back. I'll share my experience much later.

I had never heard of the Liliesleaf Heritage Site until I accompanied the TV crew to interview officials on the day of the 49th anniversary of the Rivonia Trial verdict. If you haven't been there, it's a definite must-visit when you are in Johannesburg.

Liliesleaf farm, which was a secret safe house for many members of the Liberation Army and the African National Congress, who sought to fight against South Africa's racist apartheid rule, is in Rivonia in Johannesburg. It was at Liliesleaf, during a secret meeting on July 12, 1963, that leaders of the anti-apartheid movement were arrested following an informant's disclosure of the farm. Among those arrested were revered anti-apartheid activists Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki. Former South African President Nelson Mandela, though already serving a five-year prison sentence for inciting illegal strikes and leaving the country on a fake passport, was also charged for his role in plotting to overthrow the apartheid government.

The main house on Liliesleaf farm the day after the raid and today

The case became known as the Rivonia Trial, and its defendants, the Rivonia 12. In addition to Mandela, Sisulu and Mbeki, the government also charged Denis Goldberg, Ahmed Kathrada, Lionel 'Rusty' Bernstein, Raymond Mhlaba, James Kantor, Elias Motsoaledi, Arthur Goldreich, Harold Wolpe and Andrew Mlangeni. Goldreich and Wolpe escaped detention by bribing a security guard, and eventually fled the country. Bernstein and Kantor were acquitted and the rest were sentenced to life imprisonment.

The defendants in the Rivonia Trial

At the Liliesleaf site, visitors get an interactive account of the period leading up to the invasion of the farm, including a 12 minute movie presentation, video interviews from some of the key people involved, pictures and a telephone call that takes you through the conspiracy theory addressing how the hideout was discovered. To get the phone call, visitors need to step on a mat with two shoe prints inside Room 3.

Visitors can hear about the conspiracy behind the safe house leak by stepping onto the footmat, which causes the phone to ring

Hearing or in some cases watching actual interviews from those involved is an important part of the reenactment because it almost catapults you to the scene of the actual events taking place. I truly enjoyed learning about this significant period in South Africa's history. This is one thing South Africa's great for, its historic museums. Retelling its history through the many museums, centers and memorials that have become major tourist attractions, South Africans ensure that its past is never forgotten; the memories are never lost. My only regret was not having enough time to take in every interview or voiceover account onsite.

A man exits Room 3, where tourists can listen in on phones or watch interviews with those involved with the prison escape

A group of people were visiting from a center for people with disability and I met this man who told me about his family. He has a daughter in Pittsburgh, another in Canada and one set to relocate to London soon. But he was more interested in telling me about his son, an aviation engineer who happens to be in Johannesburg. He said he would tell his son about me and inquired about the possibility of me remaining in South Africa. He called me by a name, which sounded weirdly similar to my last name. It meant, "daughter in-law." Perhaps my other regret was not getting his son's contact details...

I was unofficially asked for my hand in marriage by the visitor in a wheelchair, who wanted me to marry his son

During the Rivonia Trial, Mandela addressed the court, delivering his famous speech that is often referenced perhaps as much as Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. This excerpt from Mandela's speech is the most widely quoted portion, and it ideally portrays the mindsets of the activists who fought to take down apartheid. It reads,

This is the struggle of the African people, inspired by their own suffering and experience. It is a struggle for the right to live. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society, in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunity. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve. But, if needs be, my Lord, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.