South African anti-apartheid activist, Denis Goldberg, dies
Denis Goldberg, a South African anti-apartheid activist tried alongside Nelson Mandela, has died at the age of 87.
The veteran was convicted of armed resistance to white-minority rule and was then sentenced to four life terms in 1964.
Mr Goldberg’s niece, Joy Noero, who confirmed his death said he has been suffering from lung cancer.
She added that, “He died peacefully at his home in Hout Bay, near Cape Town, just before midnight on Wednesday and that he never stopped believing in his ideals.
Mr Goldberg was a lifelong supporter of the African National Congress and became a member of the armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, when it was formed in 1961.
Two years later, he was among the ANC officials arrested at a hideout in Johannesburg.
On trial with Mandela, they were both convicted of sabotage, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The black prisoners were sent to Robben Island. But as the only white person to be found guilty in the case, Mr Goldberg was separated from the others, and spent 22 years in prison in Pretoria.
