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2 & more persons R1 450.00 per person; Single person R2 700.00

½ Day : Morning or Afternoon (± 3 hours, 8:30 or 13:30, departure times may be changed to suit customers)

Liliesleaf Farm in northern Johannesburg, South Africa, was the farm used secretly by African National Congress activists in the 1960s and was the location where many prominent African National Congress leaders were arrested, leading to the Rivonia Trial. Nowadays Liliesleaf Farm is a Museum and world famous Heritage Site, attracting many visitors annually, and rated as a top “things to do in Johannesburg” site.
In 1961, Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia was purchased by Arthur Goldreich and Harold Wolpe as headquarters for the underground Communist Party and a safe house for political fugitives. The purchase was made using South African Communist Party funds. Nelson Mandela needed a safe place from which to operate, and lived there under the assumed name of David Motsamayi as a worker in blue overalls employed by the owner to look after the farm.
On 11 July 1963, security police raided the farm and captured 19 members of the underground, charging them with sabotage. They were meeting in the thatched room, and were stunned by the raid.

 

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Itinerary

Tucked away in the leafy suburb of Rivonia, Johannesburg is Liliesleaf. Once the nerve centre of the liberation movement and a place of refuge for its leaders, today Liliesleaf is one of South Africa’s foremost, award-winning heritage sites, where the journey to democracy in South Africa is honoured.

Liliesleaf has always been a place of dialogue. In the early 1960s, when the property was the headquarters for covert, underground activities and a safe house for many leading figures of the liberation movement, debates on political and military policy and strategy were commonplace. People from diverse backgrounds but with a common vision met here to discuss South Africa’s emancipation from an oppressive apartheid regime. Today Liliesleaf is a repository for those conversations, and a place where the fruits of a free and equal South Africa are recounted and celebrated.

On 11 July 1963, a dramatic police raid took place at Liliesleaf. Concealed inside a laundry van, a number of security branch policemen made their way down a long, dusty driveway. Members of the MK high command were meeting to discuss a contested strategy to overthrow the government. The raid took them completely by surprise. In the search that followed, the police combed every square centimetre of the property, and collected masses of liberation struggle documents. The security police proclaimed that they had ‘hit the jackpot’.

For the apartheid government, the event was a coup. For the liberation movement, it was a crippling blow. Comrades Bernstein, Goldberg, Goldreich, Hepple, Kathrada, Mbeki, Mhlaba and Sisulu were detained. Following the raid, they were joined by Nelson Mandela, who at the time of the raid was serving a five year prison sentence, as well as Andrew Mlangeni and Elias Motsoaledi, fellow comrades who had been arrested prior to the raid.

Following the raid, the core leadership of the ANC and MK were charged with sabotage. The subsequent trial, known as the Rivonia Trial, would change the course of South African history. The apartheid state aimed to use the nine-month long trial as a platform to discredit the liberation movement and their resistance strategies, and to position the trialists as malicious terrorists intent on overthrowing the apartheid government by violent means. The prosecution duly asked for the death penalty. However, the trialists and their dedicated defence counsel, led by Bram Fischer, in effect used the opportunity to put the apartheid government on trial.

On 12 June 1964 Justice Quartus de Wet announced the verdict to a packed courtroom. The local press, international reporters and correspondents eagerly waited for the sentence to be handed down. When the penalty of life imprisonment was declared for the majority of the accused, South Africa’s struggle for democracy was catapulted onto the international stage.

We invite you to visit Liliesleaf for a journey of enlightenment and the opportunity to immerse yourself in the history of the South African liberation struggle.

can also be combined as a Full Day Tour with:

Tour	Full Day Tour Combination
Johannesburg City Tour	Lilliesleaf Farm & Johannesburg City Tour
Apartheid Museum	Lilliesleaf Farm & Apartheid Museum Tour
Soweto Tour	Lilliesleaf Farm &  Soweto Tour
Constitutional Court	Lilliesleaf Farm& Constititional Court
Gold Reef City	Lilliesleaf Farm & Gold Reef City Tour

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Further Tour information:

1/2 Day : Morning or Afternoon (± 3 hours, 8:30 or 13:30, departure times may be changed to suit customers )

Clients will be picked up at the OR Tambo Airport (Johannesburg) or their accommodation in Johannesburg or Pretoria.

NB.: an additional R450 per vehicle for each pick-up/drop-off in Johannesburg/ORTambo Airport/Sandton.

Lunch is  not included.

Included:  

• Guided tour in Air-conditioned vehicle, conducted by a SA Tourism registered guide.
• Entrance fees, fuel

Tour Info:

• Tours are generally conducted in English. Surcharge applies for foreign language guides.

In your booking requests kindly provide us with the following info:

1. Number of persons in your group (no minimum number)
2. Desired date of tour.
3. Pick-up address (place of departure) (Hotel, Home, or OR Tambo Airport)

 

Booking / Enquiry:

 

 

or

send an E-mail directly to the following E-mail Address:

Email: travel@touraco.co.za

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