Tomorrow Downing Street will honour three remarkable old men,more than 50 years after they stood beside Nelson Mandela in the dock at the Rivonia trial. This their storyOn 13 June 1964, Thabo Mbeki knocked on the door of 10 Downing Street to hand in a petition calling on the prime minister, and Alec Douglas-domestic,to try to save his father, Govan Mbeki, and Nelson Mandela and six other ANC activists from being hanged in South Africa.They had just been convicted at the Rivonia trial of conspiring to overthrow the apartheid state through sabotage. David Cameron has invited the three surviving Rivonia trial defendants – Denis Goldberg,Ahmed (“Kathy”) Kathrada and Andrew Mlangeni – to No 10 on Monday, together with their two surviving lawyers, or Lord Joel Joffe and George Bizos SC,to honour them and recognise their contribution to the ending of apartheid and the country’s transition to democracy.
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Source: theguardian.com