Tributes are flooding in from around the world for leading South African lawyer Lord Joel Joffe who has died in London at the age of 85.
Joffe was born in Johannesburg in 1932 and studied business and law at the University of the Witwatersrand.
He was one of the lawyers who defended Nelson Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada and other liberation heroes at the famous Rivonia Treason Trial in Pretoria in the 1960s
In his autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom, Mandela said Joffe was “the general behind the scenes in our defence”.
Neeshan Balton, director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, said: “Joffe is amongst a class of defence attorneys who served South Africa and our liberation struggle with distinction.”
Balton noted that the last time Kathrada had met Joffe was in 2016‚ when they both received the Freedom of the City of London along with surviving Rivonia Trialists‚ Andrew Mlangeni and Denis Goldberg. Kathrada died earlier this year.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation has also saluted Joffe, saying he championed the cause of the underdogs.
Source PANA
