Escape From Jail
Arthur Goldreich and Harold Wolpe, a lawyer, used South African Communist Party funds to buy Liliesleaf Farm, which was to become the key location in the Rivonia Trial, following the arrests of 19 African National Congress members and leaders by the National Party there. Goldreich and Wolpe also helped locate sabotage sites for Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military arm of the ANC, and draft a disciplinary code for guerrillas.
Wolpe, father of Nicholas Wolpe, the administrator of the new Liliesleaf Trust, was arrested shortly after the Liliesleaf raid where Goldreich, along with Nelson Mandela and others were also jailed. He was taken to Marshall Square prison in the city, where Goldreich was already being held.
The two met up with Mosie Moola and Abdulhay Jassat, members of the Natal Indian Congress, allied to the African National Congress. Moola and Jassat had been held in solitary confinement, where they had been tortured (they were believed to be the first political activists tortured in South African jails). Eventually the four men, working together with the aid of a prison warden, escaped successfully from custody, splitting up outside the prison (with Goldreich disguised as a priest).
Wolpe and Goldreich spent several days hiding in and around Johannesburg's suburbs to avoid capture. Eventually, they were driven to Swaziland, and from there were flown to Botswana, still disguised as priests to avoid being identified by potentially pro-South African British colonial authorities (at this time Swaziland was not independent).
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