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History See other History Articles Title: Memories of a 'houseboy' (Nelson Mandela) About 40 years ago Nelson Mandela worked as a servant at a farm outlying the outskirt of Johannesburg. Wearing blue overalls Mandela played his part convincingly, often seen working in the garden around the big manor farmhouse. Mandela was there under the ruse of "David Motsamai", a "houseboy" who slept in an outside room on the property. Behind the walls, however, "Motsamai" met up and conversed with his "boss" Arthur Goldreich more than any other worker would have during the strict apartheid era. This was an intelligently and well-thought play staged at Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, used as a stratagem to evade the sharp claws of the apartheid forces. Code-named "Cedric" the farm became a safe haven for many senior ANC and SACP leaders and also the liberation's secret headquarters. It was here where the idea of forming the freedom fighting brigade of the ANC, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), was implemented and buttressed. Key political and military strategies and operations were planned at Liliesleaf. Among others, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Bram Fischer, Ruth First, Joe Slovo, Harold Wolpe and Raymond Mhlaba have attended meetings or sought refuge at the farm. "Operation Mayibuye," a large-scale guerrilla warfare plan to overthrow the apartheid government was hatched at this farm. Mandela would later write in his book Long Walk to Freedom: "Liliesleaf was an old house that needed work and no one lived there. "I moved in under the pretext that I was a houseboy or caretaker that would live there until my master took possession. I had taken the alias David Motsamai, the name of one of my former clients. At the farm, I wore the simple blue overalls that were the uniform of the black male servant." To conserve such legacy stories, Liliesleaf Trust is turning the farm into a museum for education and tourist purposes. Although the farm has now been engulfed by new luxury homes in what is now a fully-fledged suburb north of Joburg, it has been undergoing a major revamp to turn it into a "Learning Centre". Themed "celebrating the transformation of a nation" the farm will officially open its doors to the public on June 9 for guided tours plus refreshments at its coffee shop. Two new blocks comprising a library, archives room and a resource centre have been built on the property. The story of Liliesleaf Farm dates back to when the apartheid government made it illegal for banned political affiliates to meet in public and there was a need for a secluded place. An original receipt shows that R2 600 was paid as a deposit for the 28 acre property priced at R26 000 and purchased by Navian (Pty) Ltd, a front company for the SACP in 1961. An SACP member, Goldreich moved into the farm with his family and made it look like a complete white-owned farm with black labourers living in the outside quarters. These outside buildings were actually being used for political planning and other activities. Radio Freedom transmission was tested from one of these rooms while printing presses where hidden in the main house for the production of liberation information material. Liliesleaf later became synonymous with the Rivonia treason trial which saw many political leaders, including Mandela, sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island. Security police pounced on the farm in the morning of July 11, 1963 after a tip-off that the leadership - including Walter Sisulu - were meeting to discuss "Operation Mayibuye". One of those who managed to flee the raid was Harold Wolpe whose son, Nicholas, today heads the project to preserve the farm. "This place will now become alive with interactive exhibits including audio and visual material. Most of the original walls have been left as they were," said Wolpe. Entrance to Liliesleaf is situated in Rivonia's George Avenue. "This is a living, breathing place, not a museum. If walls could talk you can imagine the stories we'd get from them. However, we have tried to get the stories from horses' mouths to be seen in our interactive exhibits," Wolpe said.
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Goldreich settled in Israel, where he participated in the 1948 war as a member of the Palmach, the military wing of the Haganah. In time he became a leading figure at Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. In 1966, he became the head of Industrial and Environmental Design Department, which he helped transform into an internationally recognized center for design. By the age of 33, Goldreich had moved to South Africa where he became one of the country's most successful artists. In 1955, he won South Africa's Best Young Painter Award for his figures in black and white, but to the Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd's regime, he was a key suspect in the clandestine operations of the anti-apartheid underground.
First thing we do, shoot all the painters.
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