Denis Goldberg
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Denis Goldberg (b. in Cape Town, 1933) is a Jewish South African social campaigner, who was active in the struggle against apartheid and was imprisoned along with other key members of the anti-apartheid movement.
He grew up in Cape Town and studied for a degree in Civil Engineering. As member of the South African Communist Party, an organisation which was suppressed by the apartheid regime which came to power in 1948, he joined other leading white members in forming the Congress of Democrats, of which he became leader. This in turn allied itself with the African National Congress and other 'non-racial' congresses in the Congress Alliance. He was detained in 1960 and spent four months in prison without trial.
When the underground armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe was founded in 1961, Goldberg became a technical officer. In 1963 he was arrested at the Rivonia headquarters of their army. He was sentenced in 1964 at the end of the famous Rivonia Trial to four terms of life imprisonment. He was the only white member of Umkhonto we Sizwe to be arrested and sentenced in the Rivonia Trial to life imprisonment.
Goldberg described the issue of being white and involved with the armed struggle as follows: "Being black and involved (in the struggle) meant you had support of many people and it meant you got to be part of a community. Being white and involved meant being isolated." [1]
He was sent to a white prison in Pretoria. Whilst in prison he took degrees in Public Administration, History and Geography, and in Library Science. He was halfway through a law degree when he was released.
He was released in 1985 after 22 years in prison. He went into exile in London where he joined his family. In London he resumed his work in the African National Congress (ANC) in its London office from 1985 to 1994. He was a spokesperson for the ANC and also represented it at the Anti-Apartheid Committee of the United Nations. A large group of US organisations presented Denis Goldberg with the Albert Luthuli Peace Prize in recognition of his work against apartheid.
After the first non racial elections in South Africa Goldberg founded the development organisation Community H.E.A.R.T. in London in 1995 to help to improve the living standards of black South Africans. With the support of German friends he established Community H.E.A.R.T. e.V. in Essen in Germany in 1996.
Goldberg returned to South Africa in 2002 and was appointed Special Adviser to Ronnie Kasrils MP, then Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry.
