Struggle stalwart and Unisa alumnus dies

Unisa mourns the passing of Rivonia triallist and alumnus Denis Goldberg. A brief tribute, published this morning by the Denis Goldberg House of Hope—an arts, culture, and education centre for children in his hometown of Hout Bay—confirmed his death at the age of 87.

“His family and the Denis Goldberg Legacy Foundation Trust are very sad to announce that Denis Goldberg passed away just before midnight on Wednesday 29 April 2020. His was a life well-lived in the struggle for freedom in South Africa. We will miss him. #denisgoldberg,” the short social media post announced.

Goldberg, one of the founding members of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC) in exile, was arrested in 1963 and convicted at the Rivonia trial with Nelson Mandela, another Unisa alumnus. He was released after serving 22 years in Pretoria Central Prison. After spending many years in England, Goldberg returned to South Africa to become an advisor in 2002 to Ronnie Kasrils, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry.

Image sourced from Denis Goldberg on Facebook.

During his time in prison, he completed degrees in Public Administration, History, Geography, and Library Science through the university. In The hidden history of South Africa’s book and reading cultures, Archie L Dick notes that Denis Goldberg’s prison cell was a study carrel, even a laboratory space for experimenting with information retrieval purposes.

“This explains Goldberg’s detailed Unisa examination answers, which included footnotes identifying authors, titles, and publishers of books he read. He numbered the pages of the examination answer books and then made cross-references back and forth across pages, and even across examination questions. Goldberg could do this because he had constructed a sophisticated index in the form of a makeshift filing cabinet, based on the bibliographies and reading lists in the Unisa study guides as sources for index entries.”

The Unisa Library houses the Denis Goldberg Collection, part of the Documentation Centre for African Studies. He donated sound cassettes and videos about his life during the struggle, as well as on his work after he was released.

With Goldberg’s passing, Isithwalandwe Andrew Mokete Mlangeni, who was awarded the degree of Doctor of Literature and Philosophy (honoris causa) by the university on 20 May 2014, becomes the sole surviving Rivonia Triallist, exemplifying a class of Unisans whose stories are deeply engraved on the broader fight against apartheid.

The thoughts of Unisans are with the family and close friends of Denis Theodore Goldberg and we give thanks for the profound contribution that he made to our society and way of life.

*Compiled by Sharon Farrell, Editor: Internal Communication, Department of Institutional Advancement