Our struggle is not against the white people of South Africa as such but against oppression and injustice. Today our beloved country cries out for justice. There is a growing attack on the liberties and rights of all sections of South African people, white and non-white. Even the high tradition of our Supreme Court in upholding basic rights of the people, in so far as that is possible for the Supreme Court to do, is also being challenged. It is at a time like this that the non-white people of the country have given a clear lead and pointed out that South Africa cannot have freedom for only a small section of its people and oppression for the rest.
Freedom is indivisible.
Sir, my people have come to believe that when unjust laws prevail in the country the place for all just men and women is in the prisons of the country in defiance of these unjust laws. History will decide whether it was correct for us to have decided to defy unjust laws as we are doing today. In our minds we are satisfied that history is with us for in the struggle of every nation men and women have had to make sacrifices including courting imprisonment in order to usher in democracy. That is all I have to say in explaining why we are before you. It is now for you to pronounce your sentence.