Nelson Mandela is acquitted of high treason

Updated: 30 Sep 2019

Nelson Mandela is acquitted of high treason

Nelson Mandela, leader of the Transvaal branch of the African National Congress (ANC), was acquitted of treason charges after a four year long trial. Mandela was one of the 156 leading figures, 104 Africans, 23 Whites, 21 Indians and 8 Coloureds, of the South African Congress of Democrats (SACOD), who were arrested on the morning of 5 December 1956, but all eventually acquitted. The SACOD constituted mainly of three organisations, namely the ANC, South African Communist Party (SACP) and the South African Indian Congress (SAIC). These mass arrests were executed a year after the Congress of People met at Kliptown in 1955 to endorse the Freedom Charter and was an attack on the Charter.

How we know this

01O'Malley P., Nelson Mandela's Testimony at the Treason Trial 1956-60, from the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, [online], Available at: www.nelsonmandela.org [Accessed: 25 April 2014]
02Guiloineau J.(1939), 'Nelson Mandela: The Early Life of Rolihlahla Madiba', (North Atlantic Books), p.146

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Nelson Mandela is acquitted of high treason. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011928

South African History Online (2011) 'Nelson Mandela is acquitted of high treason', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011928 (Accessed: 26 October 2026).

South African History Online, Nelson Mandela is acquitted of high treason [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011928, (accessed 26 October 2026).

"Nelson Mandela is acquitted of high treason." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011928. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

South African History Online. "Nelson Mandela is acquitted of high treason." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011928.