Presentation at Save Your Archive Workshop the FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2014 in Amsterdam.

1. “SAVE YOUR ARCHIVES”
RIVONIA TRIAL DICTABELT PROJECT
FIAT/IFTA WORLD CONFERENCE
AMSTERDAM 2014
Gerrit Wagener
Brenda Kotze
Mandy Gilder

2. RIVONIA TRIAL
 The State versus N Mandela and others
 19 arrested on 11 July 1963 on the farm Liliesleaf in Rivonia
 10 stood trial – 8 guilty and 2 acquitted
 Started October 1963 and ended June 1964
 They were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to overthrow the apartheid system
 Nelson Mandela was already serving a 5 year sentence for illegally leaving the
country
 The others were
● Walter Sisulu ● Govan Mbeki
● Raymond Mhlaba ● Andrew Mlangeni
● Elias Motsoaledi, ● Ahmed Kathrada
● Denis Goldberg, ● Lionel "Rusty" Bernstein,
● James "Jimmy" Kantor
.

3. RIVONIA TRIAL
GUILTY
Nelson Mandela Govan Mbeki
Walter Sisulu Raymond Mhlaba
Elias Motsoaledi Ahmed Kathrada
Andrew Mlangeni Denis Goldberg

4. RIVONIA TRIAL PAPER RECORDS
 Records relating to so called “terrorist” groups under apartheid were
not very important for the apartheid government
 New National Archives Act promulgated in 1996
 Archivists now have the power to obtain records under the Act
 The Department of Justice were now forced under the act to transfer
the Rivonia Trial Records to the National Archives of South Africa
 Still many gaps in this collection due to reason no 1
 Some projects are happening to get as complete a set of records on
this trial as possible
● “Percy Yutar papers” digitisation project
● Collaboration with Nelson Mandela Foundation

5. RIVONIA TRIAL PAPER RECORDS
PHOTO’S
Liliesleaf farm

6. RIVONIA TRIAL PAPER RECORDS
PHOTO’S
Raid in progress

7. RIVONIA TRIAL PAPER RECORDS
LEAFLET
Evidence submitted in the trial “The African Communist”

8. RIVONIA TRIAL PAPER RECORDS
“Percy Yutar papers”

9. RIVONIA TRIAL PAPER RECORDS
Extract from
Nelson Mandela’s
Diary that was used
as evidence during the
Rivonia trial

10. RIVONIA TRIAL PAPER RECORDS
Cover page of
the Rivonia trial
court records

11. RIVONIA TRIAL PAPER RECORDS
The verdict

12. RIVONIA TRIAL PAPER RECORDS
Nelson Mandela
statement from the
dock.
He refused to testify

13. DICTABELTS
 All administrative, legal, material and financial consequences for the
existence and development of audio-visual archives begin with the
realization that audio-visual materials are part of the national culture of
all nations’, and belong to the testimony and memory of the twentieth
century as proof of cultural identity.
 Dictabelts formed part of the document collection that was transferred
from DoJ as mentioned earlier
 Dictabelts were used between 1950’s and middle 1970’s in the court
system in South Africa
 Current estimates comes to more than 50 000 dictabelts in the
different archive repositories in South Africa
 The Rivonia trial collection consist of 591 dictabelts

14. DICTABELTS
Dictabelts were red until 1964, blue from 1964 until 1975 and purple from
1975 until 1980 when the use thereof was discontinued

15. RIVONIA TRIAL DICTABELTS
 The Rivonia trial dictabelt collection is the most complete record of the
trial that exist anywhere in the world.
 It is a verbatim record of the proceedings of this landmark trial in South
Africa’s liberation history.
 It is in view of this that we started working on solutions to gain access
to the content of these recordings
 In South Africa we found a few machines but nobody to operate them
in such a way not to harm the records
 In the early 2000’s the British Library National Sound Archive assisted
us to transfer the part of Mandela’s statement from the dock.
 The rest of the collection still needed to be transferred to have our
near complete record of this trial

16. RIVONIA TRIAL DICTABELTS
DICTABELT
EXAMPLES
The way in which they
were stored over the years
poses some challenges
as they were stored flat
and is therefore bent, which
may cause distortion when
transferring it

17. RIVONIA TRIAL
Memory of the World
 The vision of the UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme is that
the world's documentary heritage belongs to all, should be fully
preserved and protected for all and, with due recognition of cultural
mores and practicalities, should be permanently accessible to all
without hindrance.
 In support of this vision the Rivonia trial collection was nominated and
accepted in 2007 for inclusion in the Memory of the World Programme
International Register

18. RIVONIA TRIAL
Memory of the World Register

19. RIVONIA TRIAL
INA
Save your Archives
 Part of the mission of the Memory of the World Programme is to facilitate
preservation, by the most appropriate techniques of the world's documentary
heritage. This may be done by direct practical assistance, by the dissemination of
advice and information and the encouragement of training, or by linking sponsors
with timely and appropriate projects.
 No better timing could be imagined when officials from the NARSSA attended a
workshop on access to audio-visual collections in South Africa in Cape Town in
November 2012 as part of the South African French seasons
 Discussions followed between us and INA (Mathieu Fourniet) to establish a project to
digitise the Rivonia Trial Dictabelts
 These discussions also lead us to FIAT/IFTA’s “Save your Archive” programme
 The big question?? Can INA do this specific belts?? Test belts from the same period
were brought over to INA for tests in May 2014.
 GOOD NEWS – The tests results were positive INA can do it!!!!!!!!
 On 27 October 2013 at the FIAT/IFTA world conference in Dubai it was announced
that our project was accepted to be part of the “Save your Archives” programme
 On 20 December 2013 an agreement between INA and the DAC was signed to mark
the beginning of this project

20. RIVONIA TRIAL
INA
Save your Archives
The test results

21. RIVONIA TRIAL
INA
Save your Archives
We receive the
SYA grant
A FIAT/IFTA Program
http://fiatifta.org/save-your-archive/
Saving Mandela and ANC leaders Court Trial Recordings
Priceless audio recordings of the historic trials of Nelson Mandela and the ANC Leaders from 1963
and 1964 are to be digitised and preserved as part of a major new initiative by international
audiovisual archives association, FIAT/IFTA, the International Federation of Television Archives.
The fragile collection of recordings of the trial proceedings made on Dictaphone tape over 50 years
ago rests silently in the vaults of the South African National Archives, the machines to play them
long since obsolete. In May of this year FIAT/IFTA put out a call inviting audiovisual archives
worldwide to submit proposals to a newly created program fund “Save Your Archive”. The South
African National Archives was one of a large number of applicants to answer the call and along with
three other projects has been selected for support by the Program.
Announcing the successful projects on the 27th of October, UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual
Heritage, Jan Muller , President of FIAT/IFTA said, “ the significance of the Trial collection cannot
be overstated, and represents in a way, as Nelson Mandela has done for the world, a guiding light
for the plight of endangered audiovisual archives everywhere. He went on to say that huge
swathes of our heritage and history is written in moving image and sound, much of it slowly
decaying in quiet places. “We want to shine a light on this problem and make an active
contribution to saving our heritage”.

22. RIVONIA TRIAL
INA
Save your Archives
Signing of the agreement between INA and DAC 20 December 2013

23. RIVONIA TRIAL DICTABELTS
CHALLENGES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
 Challenges and Solutions:
• Where to get enough money for this project
• INA and SYA saves the day
• Finding the right partners
• Keep on talking about the programme and UNESCO’s Memory of the World international
register
• Political support and buy-in
• Changes within the top structures – Elections, New Ministers, work with CD/NA to get
political support
• Heritage leaving the country
• Agreements signed not only between institutions but also bi-laterals within countries
• Timing, bureaucracy and national priorities (housing/education/sanitation etc.)
• Timing is everything (20 years of canvassing) – budget and prioritise within your sector
• Inventories
• Fragility and handling in partnership with experts

24. RIVONIA TRIAL DICTABELTS
HANDOVER SOUTH AFRICA
The National Archivist Ms. Mandy Gilder watching closely while the
Director-General of DAC hands over the first consignment of Dictabelts to
the French Ambassador in South Africa

25. RIVONIA TRIAL DICTABELTS
HANDOVER FRANCE
The South African Ambassador in France signing the handover of the
Dictabelts to the President of INA

26. THANK YOU INA
THANK YOU FIAT/IFTA
THANK YOU SYA
THANK YOU SOUTH AFRICA
THANK YOU AUDIENCE