The Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation in partnership with the Nkangala District Municipality will unveil the Delmas Treason Trial Monument that has been built at the precinct of the Delmas Magistrate Court, starting at 09:00.
The monument will be unveiled on Saturday, 03 March 2011 and it has been developed to honour the memory of the trialists and to preserve the popular Delmas Treason Trial.
The Delmas Treason Trial started in 1985 and dragged until December 1989 and it’s one of the longest trials in the country. Twenty-two anti apartheid activists including Frank Chikane, Popo Molefe and Mosiuoa Lekota who were known as “The Big Three”, were prosecuted under the apartheid regime’s security laws and tried for treason. Eleven of the accused were found guilty and their sentences ranged from five to eleven years. Their sentences were overturned in 1989 after an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The monument seeks to educate all South Africans about the history of the country and the contribution that the Delmas Trialists made in the attainment of freedom and democracy in the country.
Spokesperson for the Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation, Ms Sibongile Nkosi says the monument will be a place of commemoration and it represents the triumph against the apartheid regime by a generation of heroes and heroines who played an important role in the liberation struggle.
The unveiling will be followed by a memorial lecture on the Delmas Treason Trial that will be delivered by Advocate George Bizos who was the defence lawyer for the trialists. The lecture will afford people more in particular the youth, an opportunity to learn about the history of the country and it will allow engagements between facilitators and the audience.
MEC for Culture, Sport and Recreation, Ms Sibongile Manana, Advocate George Bizos, the trialists and Executive Mayor for Nkangala District Municiplaity, Cllr Speedy Mashilo are some of the dignitaries expected at both the unveiling of the monument and the memorial lecture.
Enquiries: Ms Sibongile Nkosi on (013) 766 5372 or 082 492 4886.