Vernon Berrangé

In 1941 Berrangé was charged with special duties by Brigadier General Collyer, Military Secretary to General Smuts.[7] These duties included seeking out fascists who might be infiltrating the armed forces. After the Second World War, however, Berrangé would find himself increasingly involved in defending the human rights of those prosecuted by the Nationalist Government some of whose members had been supporters of the Nazis.

Following the Alexandra Township bus boycott (1944), organised in response to the bus companies raising bus fares by a penny, the Government passed emergency legislation that prohibited all meetings. Communists Bram Fischer and Berrangé discovered a legal loophole in this legislation which meant that the boycotters could still assemble and march. However, when discussing this loophole over the phone, their lines were tapped by the police who thereby learned of it and hastily redrafted the legislation. The boycotters won their concessions in the end.[8]^: 175 This was the first of many times that Berrangé and Fischer worked together for justice for the oppressed.

In 1946, whilst he was on holiday in Europe, Berrangé received a phone call from Bram Fischer asking him to return to South Africa to defend him and others on a charge of inciting the African Mine Workers' Strike.[7] This was strongly supported by the SACP. Some 70,000 African miners took part in this momentous strike which lasted five days before it was violently put down by the police at the cost of eleven miners killed and more than 1,200 injured. The 52 defendants pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a strike, but they received relatively modest sentences[9]^: 84–6

Together with others including Harold Hanson and Bram Fischer,[8]^: 228–30 Berrangé acted for F. M. Alexander in the high-profile Alexander Libel Trial which caused an international stir. Berrangé was initially introduced to the Alexander Technique by his wife, Yolande. In the 1940s all close family members were having "Alexander lessons" from Irene Tasker who had been taught by Alexander in New York and London, and his son Jevan was attending Tasker's Montessori school. When Dr Ernst Jokl, Director of Physical Education to the South African Government and apparently hostile to the Alexander Technique, asked Tasker to demonstrate the Technique, she arranged for Berrangé to be present as a legal witness. Upon reading Jokl's subsequent article in the SA Government journal 'Volkskragte', Berrangé was of the opinion that it was libellous and suggested that Tasker show it to Alexander, whom subsequently started libel proceedings. As instructing attorney for Alexander, Berrangé journeyed to London in 1946 to help prepare the case with his client and English Counsel.[10] He became friendly with Alexander, who joined Berrangé and his wife Yolande and the Barlows (Bill and Marjory, Alexander Technique teachers) on a short holiday to France. The trial proper was heard in South Africa in 1948. Alexander won his case and was awarded damages.

The circumstances which led to the South African Treason Trial, the proceedings, and the conclusion some ten years later, all demonstrated Berrangé's personal qualities and professional skill.

In 1951 when the leaders of the Congress Movement developed a plan involving deliberate defiance of the apartheid laws, Berrangé was consulted on its legal implications.[9]^: 111 After the Defiance Campaign during which some 8,000 volunteers went to prison; in 1955 the Congress of the People organised a convention, attended by thousands of delegates, to present the Freedom Charter[11]^: 61–5 that was essentially a call for a democratic South Africa in which "all shall enjoy equal human rights". The Nationalist Government's reaction to this was to arrest 156 people and charge them with high treason, a crime punishable by the death penalty. The accused represented a cross-section of South Africans from all walks of life and included Oliver Tambo, Chief Albert Luthuli (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize), Helen Joseph and Nelson Mandela. The formidable defence team included Berrangé who, in a stirring opening address[11]^: 65–9 at the preliminary hearing, contended, inter alia, that the ideas and beliefs expressed in the Freedom Charter, although opposed to the policy of the Government, were shared by the overwhelming majority of humankind, of all races and all colours, and also the overwhelming majority of the country's citizens. He argued that the treason allegations amounted to a political plot comparable with the Inquisition and the Reichstag Fire Trial, and were an attempt to silence and outlaw the ideas held by the accused and the thousands whom they represented. This vibrant address was published in newspapers around the world.

The State alleged that holding the Congress of the People and adopting the Freedom Charter constituted steps towards the establishment of a communist state and the prelude to revolution. They aimed to show that speeches and writings by the accused were communistic. Probably the most farcical event in the trial occurred when expert witness for the prosecution, Prof. A.H. Murray of the University of Cape Town, gave evidence on the nature of communism and the infallible clues that he claimed indicated certain statements and speeches were communistic or communist inspired. Berrangé's cross-examination was dramatic. He read out a number of statements by various people and the professor agreed that these were "the sort of statements that communists make". Berrangé then revealed that the statements had been made by persons such as former SA Prime Minister Malan, President Franklin Roosevelt, William Pitt, Heine, Luther, Voltaire, Milton and Jefferson and finally one written by Prof Murray himself in the 1930s![12]^: 195–6

'Vernon had been our god during the long months of the Preparatory Examination in the Drill Hall. He fought our battles for us, ever ready to take up the cudgels on our behalf. Medium in height and build, always impeccably dressed, he was a joy to behold as he would systematically demolish the Crown witnesses. Long before the trial began the name Vernon Berrangé struck fear into the hearts of police witnesses, because of his incomparable and merciless skill in exposing unreliable or dishonest evidence. Only the utmost truth and sincerity could ever stand against this supreme master of cross-examination.[13]^: 30

The accused had been arrested in December 1956, but it was only in March 1961, after numerous hearings, that by unanimous verdict the Court found all the accused not guilty and Berrangé was carried aloft outside the court.[14]

In 1959 Berrangé left Johannesburg to live in Swaziland, where he acquired Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies thereby forfeiting his South African citizenship and passport. He continued to practise law intermittently, both in the Republic of South Africa and Swaziland, until his full retirement in 1966 and resignation from the Johannesburg Bar. The proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission show that South African Government continued to keep Berrange under close surveillance whenever he visited the country.[15] He was briefly on a committee whose purpose was to afford assistance to political refugees from South Africa. In 1963, at the time of the Rivonia arrests, two suspects, Harold Wolpe and Arthur Goldreich, made a spectacular jail break from the Johannesburg Fort and eventually managed to get to Swaziland where Berrangé helped by arranging a charter plane to fly them to Bechuanaland (Botswana)[9]^: 202 Berrangé died in Swaziland in 1983 at Siteki, Lubombo.

The Rivonia Trial was the outcome of a raid on Liliesleaf Farm at Rivonia near Johannesburg on 11 July 1963, when police arrested seven alleged members of the armed wing of the African National Congress, seizing many highly incriminating documents of their activities and plans.[16]^: 5 The accused included Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Rusty Bernstein and Nelson Mandela, who had been arrested later upon release from jail. The charge was sabotage and the death sentence seemed likely.[16]^: 35 The defence team was led by Bram Fischer and included Berrangé, whom he asked to come from Swaziland.[6]^: 67 He accepted unhesitatingly despite risking ex-communication from the legal profession as he knew that the government was drafting legislation which would permit them to debar any "named" communist from practising law in South Africa. Berrangé had special responsibility for the defence of Bernstein, Mhlaba and Kathrada.[6]^: 152 Once again, his devastating[16]^: 18 cross-examination exposed inconsistencies and outright lies in the testimony of many of the state witnesses. With the exception of Bernstein, all the accused were found guilty and sentenced to lengthy jail terms (from 22 to 27 years) but avoided the death penalty.

As part of a crack-down following the Rivonia raid, in mid-August 1963 the police arrested Looksmart Khulile Ngudle, a regional leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Sixteen days later he was found hanged in his cell. Despite the police's best attempts at suppression of the cause of his death they were eventually forced to hold an inquest. Berrangé represented Ngudle's widow[17]^: 169–60 and decided to turn the inquest into a forum on police torture. When the Court deemed evidence of torture to other detainees as inadmissible Berrangé withdrew from the proceedings in protest. The matter was subsequently raised in Parliament by Helen Suzman to the great embarrassment of the Government.

Shortly after his acquittal in the Rivonia Trial, Rusty Bernstein was arrested again on three charges under the Suppression of Communism Act. Berrangé again

'appeared on his behalf and pulled off one of those spectacular pieces of legerdemain which Vernon managed so brilliantly from time to time. He persuaded the prosecutor and magistrate and do what everyone believed was quite impossible – to grant Bernstein bail'.[6]^: 187–8

Rusty and his wife Hilda were thus able to flee to the UK via Botswana.

Berrangé's last political trial was defending his friend and colleague Bram Fischer, who along with 14 others had been charged in 1964 under the Suppression of Communism Act.[8]^: 331–61 In the event Fischer realised the futility of his case and whilst the trial was in progress skipped bail and went underground to continue the struggle against apartheid. He was recaptured nine months later in November 1965, put on trial for a second time, found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.