Born into struggle
Albie recalls growing up as an infant beside the beach in Clifton, Cape Town with his mother and his brother, after separating from his father in Johannesburg. Both his parents were politically active, supporting radical causes; his mother worked as a typist for ‘Uncle Moses’ Kotane who was the General Secretary of the Communist Party. He shares strong memories of growing up as a boy dreaming of being a brave soldier during the years of World War 2 and describes how the birth of apartheid in 1948 was received at his school.
Poetry and revolution
Reflecting on the big influence culture was to have on his life, Albie speaks about the impact of his first visit to the cinema as a child; his exposure to modern art through books and his interest in classical music. He describes becoming politically active during his second year of university and how a lecture by Uys Krige on the Spanish poet Lorca, drove him to become a political activist. He joins the multi-racial youth organization, Modern Youth Society and volunteers to go to jail as part of the ANC Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign.
Which side are you on?
After school, Albie pursues studying a BA at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He recalls life under apartheid like going to watch rugby and hearing the spectators in the badly placed stands for spectators-of-colour shouting in favour of visiting teams. He speaks about making his first public speech at university and how his political activism grew through the Modern Youth Society. He recalls the atmosphere of an international struggle against oppression and listening to songs by Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson. He speaks about his interests in philosophy; studying Marxism and history; learning about ideas and affirming his commitment to the struggle for freedom.
Welcome to our boardroom
A historically significant episode that details leading moments of the drawing up of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown in Johannesburg in 1955. It features the formation of the Congress of Democrats, consisting of white anti-apartheid activists who worked as part of the Congress Alliance with the ANC. Albie recalls joining the underground Communist Party and describes secret meetings in Newlands Forest with Chris Hani and other members. He talks about what sent his father, Solly Sachs, banned by the Apartheid government from his position General Secretary of the Garment Workers Union, into exile in London and the year he spent with him there in 1954. He discusses at length why he believed the Freedom Charter went onto carry so much weight.
What happened to you?
Returning from London, Albie pursues his LLB at UCT and due to his political activity is the first white student to receive a banning order. He details his early years practising as an advocate occupying the chambers of advocate Lionel Forman who had been put on trial for treason. He talks about the mixture of his love of being an advocate at the Supreme Court Cape of Good Hope Division, and hatred of having to navigate his advocacy in the cruel apartheid context in which the courts functioned. He talks about defending people charged under racist statutes, including appearing in cases at the Native Administration Court in Langa.
All they'll hear is Beethoven
The New Age newspaper is featured as a dynamic publication driven by many political activists. Albie talks about working there in various roles. He describes significant moments in South Africa’s history such as the Anti-Pass Campaign by women in 1956, the Black Sash in 1956, the beginnings of the famous Treason Trial in 1956 and the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960. He witnesses the massive anti-apartheid march led by Philip Kgosana and other PAC leaders where 30 000 black people marched from Langa into Cape Town in 1960 and appears for the defence in the trial that follows.
You're not going to be a guerilla
Despite some victories for the liberation movement through the ‘50s, the year 1960 was a turning point under apartheid with political groups being banned, states of emergency, detention without trial and people being tortured and disappearing. Albie discusses the roots of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) and the armed struggle. Albie also shares a memory of helping his convicted clients still out on bail - Chris Hani and Archie Sibeko - escape from Cape Town.
From advocate to accused
As the apartheid government clamps down on political activities, Albie discusses how comrades left the country. He is arrested on the 1 October 1963 under the 90-Day Detention Law and placed in solitary confinement at the Maitland Police Station. He describes the isolation, loneliness and mental turmoil of solitary confinement and being in jail. He shares a memory of hearing someone whistling to whom he could respond, which gave him some consolation. Some weeks into his detention, because of a court order, he receives reading matter and writing material, which helps keep him sane. After 168 days, he is released and runs several miles from the police station to the sea at Clifton beach.
Afternoon, evening, late into the night
After his release, Albie describes how he no longer had the courage and strength to carry on in the underground Communist Party. His fight back consists off clandestinely writing a book describing his experiences that later was published under the title The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs. He describes becoming involved in the defence of Stephanie Kemp, an activist charged with blowing up electricity power lines. After numerous meetings with her, in Roeland Street prison in Cape Town, he discovers that they are deeply attached to each other. After serving a two-year sentence in prison, she returns to Cape Town to warn him that the police were going to crack down there. Shortly afterwards, Albie is arrested and put in solitary confinement again. This time the Security Police led by the notorious Rooi ‘Rus’ Swanepoel, is much more ruthless. They apply sleep deprivation techniques. He collapses on the floor. Water is poured on him and his spirit is partially broken.
My thank you, if you like, to England
Upon his second release, Albie is about to be thrown out of his legal practice on political grounds. He applies for an exit permit to leave the country. He takes the Union Castle ship to England in 1966 and is followed by Stephanie Kemp. They marry. He works with the ANC and the anti-apartheid movement mobilising international opinion against racist South Africa. He gets to know London well through anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. Albie begins his PhD studies at Sussex University on how the South African judiciary functioned in a racially stratified society. His thesis is published as Justice in South Africa and is banned in South Africa. He then becomes a lecturer at Southampton University and writes Sexism and the Law.
And sixty thousand arms go up in the air
In June 1976, the same time as the Soweto Uprising, Albie is a visiting lecturer at The University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He describes the emergence of Black Consciousness, and the new energy it evokes. He visits Lusaka where the ANC exiled headquarters were and then travels to Mozambique where he gives guest lectures. He is excited and moved by the revolutionary spirit of the people of Mozambique, Samora Machel and FRELIMO; and it helps get his courage back. He leaves London and relocates to Mozambique to teach at the Eduardo Mondlane University there.
The year of happiness
Albie describes his excitement at feeling that revolution works. He finds himself in a world of intense emotion, a world of revolution, love and war. His marriage with Stephanie is breaking down. His salvo at saving it fails, and they agree on divorce. He is hurt by an attitude of dismissal by Mozambicans for the ANC taking so long to achieve freedom. He describes intense relationships, first with Fatima, who then falls in love with an MK combatant and is shattered when he is assassinated by the South African security police. He then falls in love with Lucia, originally from Peru, and is distraught when that relationship breaks down.
They sang freedom songs and danced the Marrabenta
Albie recalls how he used to love listening to Samora Machel speaking with songs, humour and vivid down-to-earth political wisdom, to the public on the square outside the city hall. Every July, teams from the University, professors, students, technicians and admin, would all go on visits to the countryside to get to know how people lived on the ground. The culture and cultural groups were alive everywhere in the country. Albie engaged with artists like Malangatana and sculptors like Chissano; at the same time heavy problems were appearing. There was a black market in scarce goods and an extremely benevolent penal system was turned on its head when Samora ordered the public execution of a black marketeer.
A macabre place
The ANC office in Maputo had many exiles moving in and out of it, including Jacob Zuma. Albie describes The Centre for African Studies at the University of Eduardo Mondlane as an extraordinary research department, led by Ruth First and Aquino de Braganca. He speaks in admiration of the work and character of Ruth First and her political and scholarly contributions. He speaks briefly about the Matola Massacre of 1981. He also details the immense shock at the parcel-bomb assassination of Ruth First in 1982 and what a major loss it was.
The oxygen for being human
Amidst teaching as a Law Professor in Mozambique, Albie is flown to Lusaka to work at the ANC Headquarters where Oliver Tambo was based. Albie speaks in detail about what kind of leader he was in terms of character, humility and pride of being African. Albie describes the work he would do in Lusaka regularly including helping to upgrade the statutes of the ANC. He says the most important work he did with Oliver Tambo was drafting the Code of Conduct for the ANC in exile, in the early 1980s, which abolished the use of torture in ANC camps in Angola. Albie asks the question, what does it mean to be a revolutionary?
Song for Samora
The Renamo (Mozambican National Resistance) were described by FRELIMO as bandits. Originally created by Ian Smith in Zimbabwe; later South African commandos worked directly with them in Mozambique, creating a threatening presence in the country. Albie talks about war spreading and how it became difficult to leave Maputo. He mentions the Nkomati Accords agreement between Samora Machel and PW Botha in 1984. And finally, Samora Machel’s plane was brought down by false beacons, crashing on South African soil, resulting in his death, which left the country devastated.
Roses and lilies will grow from my arm
The war in Mozambique intensifies and Albie gets advice on personal security and places an alarm in his car. The alarm is deactivated when the car is hosed down. On 7 April 1988, a bomb explodes as Albie opens the door to his car, causing him to lose an arm and sight in one eye. He describes the sequence of events in detail and the emotions that accompanied his life-altering experience. He recovers in the Maputo Central Hospital. After receiving a note saying that he would be avenged, he speaks about developing the philosophy of ‘Soft Vengeance’. Instead of retaliation, it involved achieving the goals for which he had been fighting; freedom, democracy and the rule of law. For fear of a further attempt on his life in Maputo, he is sent to England for his recovery, arriving there for the second time as a refugee.
Who I am, how I am
In England, Albie spends some time recovering in hospital. He talks in depth about the question of prosthesis and what it meant to him to live life with or without one, sharing stories about what ultimately led him to make an important decision about it. He continues his work for the anti-apartheid struggle. He also speaks about visiting Portugal and finding love; visiting Vienna and feeling liberated; and learning the important life lesson of how to accept being different.
The South Africa we envisage
Albie creates the South African Constitution Studies Centre at the University of London and produces a series of papers on how to protect human rights in a new South Africa. He speaks about an important moment in his life, in 1986, joining the ANC Constitutional Committee set up by Oliver Tambo. He describes in detail every step of the process of the Committee and names all the significant figures who contributed and took part in the process of laying the foundation of the Constitution.
Between the impossible and the inevitable
Oliver Tambo’s character is revealed in this episode; his early vision, and the original intention of the Bill of Rights aimed at protecting people as human beings and not as members of racial groups. Albie speaks at an ANC inhouse seminar at the University of Zambia about the need to understand the Constitution as a weapon of struggle. He mentions how after the bomb, he is asked to do a first draft of an ANC vision of the Bill of Rights. He works with Kader Asmal in Dublin on a version of this. He speaks about imagining the future and the possibility of home and helping to make helping to make South Africa a free country.
24 years, 2 months and 3 weeks
After hearing about the announcement of the unbanning of the ANC in a speech by FW De Klerk in Parliament on 2 February 1990, Albie returns home. After more than 24 years in exile, he takes up a position as a Professor at the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape. He stays with Dullah and Farida Omar in Rylands. He is elected as one of 50 members of the ANC National Executive Committee. The Community Law Centre becomes the engine room for workshops on core elements of a new Constitution.
Ways and means
Upon the return of many exiles back home, there was a total immersion of anti-apartheid leaders to pave the way forward. Most of 1990 was spent getting the Constitutional Committee of the ANC organised. Then in 1991, the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC), was restructured on South African soil and a Negotiations Commission was established. Refuting the notion that Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk were the only negotiators that solely ended apartheid, Albie gives detail about many kinds of people involved on both sides.
Human beings for the first time
Negotiations to end apartheid ran from the period of 1990 – 1994, however there were many violent disruptions and many deaths. Albie gives his personal take into some important moments in South Africa’s history including: The Groote Schuur Minute, The Pretoria Minute, the formation of CODESA, Declaration of Intent, Boipatong Massacre, Bisho Massacre, Record of Understanding, Chris Hani’s death, Oliver Tambo’s death, AWB attacks, Bophuthatswana Crisis and South Africa’s Interim Constitution. Albie describes the mood of South Africa leading up to the 1994 elections.
I put my name forward
After South Africa’s first democratic elections, Albie resigns from the ANC National Executive Committee and his branch of the ANC. He is nominated for a position as a Judge at the Constitutional Court. He describes his interview before the Judicial Service Commission in Johannesburg as being very gruelling and the months that followed being one of the more painful times in his life. In October 1994, he is finally appointed as Justice of South Africa’s first Constitutional Court.
Just call us 'Justice'
The first meeting of the new Constitutional Court of South Africa in Johannesburg is held, and Albie recalls it vividly. He talks about the decision collectively made not to be called ‘my lord’ or ‘my lady’ but simply ‘Justice’ and developing new styles of work. He also shares insights on other Judges in the Court like Justice Arthur Chaskalson and Justice Ismail Mahomed. His describes his thinking on what it means to be a Judge in the new South Africa; writing forceful passages in Court judgments that became known as ‘Albie paragraphs’ and using strong sources.
He's staring at me, I'm staring at him
Albie is surprised by a visit from Henri, the person responsible for planting the bomb in his car, who is set to testify at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). He talks about the TRC, the initial trigger for its creation and how it evolved to include amnesty for telling the truth. He also outlines the three different sections of the TRC, highlighting the work done by Desmond Tutu. Albie describes his theme of four different kinds of truth.
That little volume I carry with me
From 1994, it took two years for the new democratic elected parliament, functioning as a Constitutional Assembly, to draft the text of South Africa’s final Constitution. Two million South Africans submitted their suggestions. The Constitutional Court had to certify that the text complied with 34 principles agreed to in advance. Albie says it was ‘the most majestic case we had in terms of its sweep and significance’. The Court said that the text failed to comply in a number of respects. The Constitutional Assembly made appropriate corrections and on 10 December 1996, Nelson Mandela signed the document into law at Sharpeville.
Justice under a tree
An announcement is made that a permanent home would be constructed for the Constitutional Court. Albie describes the different options considered, before the site of the Old Fort Prison in Braamfontein is chosen. He names the different reasons that Constitution Hill became the home of the Constitutional Court, and the international architectural competition, set up with a jury on which he sat to decide whose design would be selected. The winning design was based on the concept of ‘justice under a tree’.
Bound by the Constitution
Albie reflects on fifteen years of being a Judge of the Constitutional Court and discusses seminal cases. One key case involved President Nelson Mandela accepting a ruling against him by the Court; Albie believes that was the day South Africa truly became a constitutional democracy. Topics such as the rights of gays and lesbians, reasons for abolition of capital punishment, access to antiretrovirals of persons living with HIV, bail, minimum sentences, corporal punishment, and how the Court approached decision-making on fundamental rights are dealt with. He sheds light on his last case, which involved an application for ventilated improved pit latrines (VIPS) for members of an informal settlement awaiting formal housing. He ends by reflecting on his last day as a Judge.
The mountain, the fynbos and the sea
Albie feels depressed for a year, despite being awarded three honorary degrees; publishing his book The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law and receiving the Lincoln Medal in the presence of President Obama. He is approached by film director Abby Ginzberg to create a documentary, Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa, which goes on to win a Peabody Award. He shares South African experiences with people in war-torn countries such as Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Angola, Colombia and Guyana. With funding from the Tang Prize for the Rule of Law, he sets up ASCAROL – Albie Sachs Trust for Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law. He receives an award created and named in his honour by Amal and George Clooney from the Clooney Foundation for Justice, called The Albies. He concludes with reflections on his life, and thoughts about the future.
