Vernon Berrangé
Vernon Celliers Berrangé SCOT "Defender of the People" was an eminent South African human rights advocate
Forebears
Berrangé's forebears were in the third wave of French Huguenots who went to the Cape in 1775 and as history evolved became Afrikaners. The Berrangés were essentially a family of Dutch Reformed ministers, but there were also "sick-comforters," medical doctors, public servants, politicians and advocates. His mother was Elizabeth Theresa Krogh. Berrangé's maternal grandfather, Johannes C. Krogh of Danish extraction, was Special Commissioner sent from the South African Republic to Swaziland, head of the Boundary Commission that settled the border between Swaziland and Moçambique in 1897 and one of the Boer signatories to the "Treaty of the Peace of Vereeniging".Family
Berrangé married Yolande Viviane Brewer, née de Pierres, who loved and supported him in all ways for 50 years until her death. They had one son, Jevan Pierres Berrangé ; a daughter Gelda Frances Berrangé, and a son Eric Brewer from their respective earlier marriages.Education
Berrangé was born in Pretoria soon after it had been occupied by the British during the Anglo-Boer War. He received his primary education at the Falk Real Gymnasium in Berlin and at the German School in Johannesburg. His secondary school was Hilton College, Natal, where he is commemorated on a plaque as "Scholar of the Year'". On leaving school he enlisted as one of Major Miller's recruits and became a Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, being trained in Kent, UK. After demobilisation he returned to South Africa and worked briefly for the Institute for Medical Research before going to the University of Cape Town from which he graduated with a law degree – BA LLBRecreation and other interests
Berrangé was an immaculate dresser and had a penchant for high living and fast cars. He was always against authority, loved a challenge and revelled in danger. He was a very active man, both intellectually and physically. Sports at school, in the RAF and at university included boxing, rowing, rugby and swimming. Later he became a motor racing driver on South African circuits. He had a large collection of sporting firearms and was keen on big game hunting and bird shooting. His considerable knowledge of guns and ballistics was something that he found useful in some of his criminal cases. In the 1930s he had an interest in a small gold mine in Swaziland. He read avidly and travelled widely in Africa and Europe.Communist
Berrangé joined the South African Communist Party of his own volition in about 1938, holding the opinion that it was an organisation which expressed in practice those economic and socialtheories which appealed to him. Berrangé was an ordinary member attached to the Central Branch in Johannesburg, except for a period when he was on a committee dealing with Industrial Legislation and Trade Union Work. Berrangé resigned from the SACP in 1950 when and because it was dissolved, after the passing of the Suppression of Communism Act 1950. Berrangé later reappraised and radically changed his views, to become critical of the theories and practices of the party. Despite this change of views he remained friends with some former comrades and subsequently was a member of the team defending Bram Fischer in court.
Legal career
Berrangé was admitted to the South African Bar in 1924 but in 1926 he left the Bar and went into partnership with his father, James Louis Steyn Berrangé, as an attorney. He remained at the Side Bar until 1950 when he was re-admitted to the Bar where he remained until his retirement in 1966.Berrangé built up a reputation as an outstanding criminal defence and human rights lawyer with a reputation for devastating cross-examination. He was a co-founder of The Organisation for Rights and Justice and Chairman of the Legal Aid Society. As such he was often willing to accept briefs in cases where non-whites were charged under the discriminatory apartheid laws, and in such cases usually acted pro bono.
Special wartime duties
In 1941 Berrangé was charged with special duties by Brigadier General Collyer, Military Secretary to General Smuts. These duties included seeking out fascists who might be infiltrating the armed forces. After the Second World War, however, Berrangé would find himself increasingly involved in defending the human rights of those prosecuted by the Nationalist Government some of whose members had been supporters of the Nazis.Alexandra bus boycott
Following the Alexandra Township bus boycott, organised in response to the bus companies raising bus fares by a penny, the Government passed emergency legislation that prohibited all meetings. Communists Bram Fischer and Berrangé discovered a legal loophole in this legislation which meant that the boycotters could still assemble and march. However, when discussing this loophole over the phone, their lines were tapped by the police who thereby learned of it and hastily redrafted the legislation. The boycotters won their concessions in the end. This was the first of many times that Berrangé and Fischer worked together for justice for the oppressed.African mine workers' strike
In 1946, whilst he was on holiday in Europe, Berrangé received a phone call from Bram Fischer asking him to return to South Africa to defend him and others on a charge of inciting African mine workers on the Rand to strike. This was strongly supported by the SACP. Some 70,000 African miners took part in this momentous strike which lasted five days before it was violently put down by the police at the cost of eleven miners killed and more than 1,200 injured. The 52 defendants pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a strike, but they received relatively modest sentencesThe F.M. Alexander case
Together with others including Harold Hanson and Bram Fischer, Berrangé acted for F. M. Alexander in the high profile Alexander Libel Trial which caused an international stir. Berrangé was initially introduced to the Alexander Technique by his wife, Yolande. In the 1940s all close family members were having "Alexander lessons" from Irene Tasker who had been taught by Alexander in New York and London, and his son Jevan was attending Tasker's Montessori school. When Dr Ernst Jokl, Director of Physical Education to the South African Government and apparently hostile to the Alexander Technique, asked Tasker to demonstrate the Technique, she arranged for Berrangé to be present as a legal witness. Upon reading Jokl's subsequent article in the SA Government journal 'Volkskragte', Berrangé was of the opinion that it was libellous and suggested that Tasker show it to Alexander, whom subsequently started libel proceedings. As instructing attorney for Alexander, Berrangé journeyed to London in 1946 to help prepare the case with his client and English Counsel. He became friendly with Alexander, who joined Berrangé and his wife Yolande and the Barlows on a short holiday to France. The trial proper was heard in South Africa in 1948. Alexander won his case and was awarded damages.The Treason Trial
The circumstances which led to the South African Treason Trial, the proceedings, and the conclusion some ten years later, all demonstrated Berrangé's personal qualities and professional skill.In 1951 when the leaders of the Congress Movement developed a plan involving deliberate defiance of the apartheid laws, Berrangé was consulted on its legal implications. After the Defiance Campaign during which some 8,000 volunteers went to prison; in 1955 the Congress of the People organised a convention, attended by thousands of delegates, to present the Freedom Charter that was essentially a call for a democratic South Africa in which "all shall enjoy equal human rights". The Nationalist Government's reaction to this was to arrest 156 people and charge them with high treason, a crime punishable by the death penalty. The accused represented a cross-section of South Africans from all walks of life and included Oliver Tambo, Chief Albert Luthuli, Helen Joseph and Nelson Mandela. The formidable defence team included Berrangé who, in a stirring opening address at the preliminary hearing, contended, inter alia, that the ideas and beliefs expressed in the Freedom Charter, although opposed to the policy of the Government, were shared by the overwhelming majority of humankind, of all races and all colours, and also the overwhelming majority of the country's citizens. He argued that the treason allegations amounted to a political plot comparable with the Inquisition and the Reichstag Fire Trial, and were an attempt to silence and outlaw the ideas held by the accused and the thousands whom they represented. This vibrant address was published in newspapers around the world.
The State alleged that holding the Congress of the People and adopting the Freedom Charter constituted steps towards the establishment of a communist state and the prelude to revolution. They aimed to show that speeches and writings by the accused were communistic. Probably the most farcical event in the trial occurred when expert witness for the prosecution, Prof. A.H. Murray of the University of Cape Town, gave evidence on the nature of communism and the infallible clues that he claimed indicated certain statements and speeches were communistic or communist inspired. Berrangé's cross-examination was dramatic. He read out a number of statements by various people and the professor agreed that these were "the sort of statements that communists make". Berrangé then revealed that the statements had been made by persons such as former SA Prime Minister Malan, President Franklin Roosevelt, William Pitt, Heine, Luther, Voltaire, Milton and Jefferson and finally one written by Prof Murray himself in the 1930s!
The accused had been arrested in December 1956, but it was only in March 1961, after numerous hearings, that by unanimous verdict the Court found all the accused not guilty and Berrangé was carried aloft outside the court.