Pretoria – The Nelson Mandela Foundation has extended its condolences to the family and friends of anti-apartheid activist Arthur Goldreich, who died on Tuesday.
“Goldreich and his family provided refuge at their home on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, to Nelson Mandela and other freedom fighters in 1961,” the Foundation’s Chief Executive Achmat Dangor said.
Goldreich, 82, an artist and designer who created sets for the musical King Kong, was also a political activist who became a member of the Umkhonto weSizwe – the armed wing of the ANC.
He was among those arrested on the farm in July 1963 in the Rivonia Raid.
Goldreich, along with Harold Wolpe, Mosie Moola and Abdulhay Jassat escaped from custody at Marshall Square Police Station in Johannesburg on August 1963. He moved to Israel the following year.
During his speech from the dock on 20 April 1964 in the Rivonia Trial, Mandela said: “Whilst staying at Liliesleaf farm, I frequently visited Arthur Goldreich in the main house and he also paid me visits in my room. We had numerous political discussions covering a variety of subjects.
“We discussed ideological and practical questions, the Congress Alliance … Because of what I had got to know of Goldreich, I recommended on my return to South Africa that he should be recruited to Umkhonto.”
Goldreich is survived by his sons Nicholas, Paul, Amos and Eden. – BuaNews
