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| Letter: Joffe and his team ran rings round the prosecution and saved Mandela | Letter: Joffe and his team ran rings round the prosecution and saved Mandela |
| (7 months later) | |
| Nick Stadlen | |
| Thu 13 Jul 2017 18.28 BST | |
| Last modified on Mon 27 Nov 2017 20.13 GMT | |
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| For a man who played a key role in changing history, Joel Joffe was remarkably modest. He was also remarkably kind, selfless and courageous. | For a man who played a key role in changing history, Joel Joffe was remarkably modest. He was also remarkably kind, selfless and courageous. |
| When he took on the defence of Nelson Mandela and the other ANC leaders in July 1963, such was the atmosphere of intimidation by the government and police that their wives could find no other attorney (solicitor) brave enough to act for them. Together with his wife, Vanetta, their luggage already on a ship bound for Australia, where they had planned to emigrate to avoid bringing up their young children under apartheid, Joffe returned to their empty flat, slept on a mattress on the floor and set about masterminding the greatest defence in South African legal history. | When he took on the defence of Nelson Mandela and the other ANC leaders in July 1963, such was the atmosphere of intimidation by the government and police that their wives could find no other attorney (solicitor) brave enough to act for them. Together with his wife, Vanetta, their luggage already on a ship bound for Australia, where they had planned to emigrate to avoid bringing up their young children under apartheid, Joffe returned to their empty flat, slept on a mattress on the floor and set about masterminding the greatest defence in South African legal history. |
| Most of the extremely meagre fees he was required to charge he spent on the costs of the defence and giving financial and legal help to the defendants’ families, many of whom who were themselves arrested and harassed by the security police. Outnumbered and outresourced by the prosecution, led by the infamous Percy Yutar, Joffe picked the greatest legal team ever to appear in a South African court. Together they ran rings round the prosecution and saved Mandela and the other defendants from the gallows. | Most of the extremely meagre fees he was required to charge he spent on the costs of the defence and giving financial and legal help to the defendants’ families, many of whom who were themselves arrested and harassed by the security police. Outnumbered and outresourced by the prosecution, led by the infamous Percy Yutar, Joffe picked the greatest legal team ever to appear in a South African court. Together they ran rings round the prosecution and saved Mandela and the other defendants from the gallows. |
| Joffe’s two heroes were Mandela and Bram Fischer, the QC whom he picked to lead the defence. They in turn venerated him. Fischer called Joffe the closest person he had ever met to Jesus Christ. Mandela and his co-defendants wrote him a testimonial from prison: | Joffe’s two heroes were Mandela and Bram Fischer, the QC whom he picked to lead the defence. They in turn venerated him. Fischer called Joffe the closest person he had ever met to Jesus Christ. Mandela and his co-defendants wrote him a testimonial from prison: |
| “We have come to admire this quiet courageous man, whose devotion to the cause of justice has been shown to be in the highest tradition of his calling. We know that wherever he his, wherever he may go, Joel’s legal brain and services will be at the call of those in need of justice and defence as it has been so well and fully at ours.” | “We have come to admire this quiet courageous man, whose devotion to the cause of justice has been shown to be in the highest tradition of his calling. We know that wherever he his, wherever he may go, Joel’s legal brain and services will be at the call of those in need of justice and defence as it has been so well and fully at ours.” |
| They were not wrong. Shortly after the first free elections in 1994 one of the defendants, Elias Motsoaledi died. Joffe discreetly paid for a house for his wife, Caroline, one of many acts of generosity to former clients and their family members and to other victims of apartheid. | They were not wrong. Shortly after the first free elections in 1994 one of the defendants, Elias Motsoaledi died. Joffe discreetly paid for a house for his wife, Caroline, one of many acts of generosity to former clients and their family members and to other victims of apartheid. |
| South Africa | |
| Nelson Mandela | |
| obituaries | |
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