Page 5 - SA Chamber UK-NOV News letter 2023

Nick read an article about Denis Goldberg

in the Cape Times, called the newspaper for
his contact details, then called Denis who
immediately invited Nick and his wife, Frances,

to spend the day within the Goldberg home
overlooking Hout Bay Harbour. “It was a life-
changing experience,” Nick wrote later in a
tribute after Denis died in April 2020.

Nick was mesmerised by the courage and
integrity of the Rivonia co-defendants and the
sacrifices they made for a “higher purpose”.

He was humbled by the fact that they were
not only prepared to die for the cause but
almost invited the death penalty by endorsing
Mandela’s famous statement from the dock Nick at the Wits University

that “if needs be” he was prepared to die. Life Is Wonderful Film Screening 2018

Nick was also intrigued, as a practitioner of the law, that both Mandela and Fischer had

demonstrated in their respective trials that the only way to honour the rule-of-law in apartheid
South Africa – which they so profoundly believed in – was to break laws which were immoral
and had not been endorsed by the majority of the population.

Nick had internalised the stories of his parents who both fled the Nazi Anschluss in Austria
in their youth and knew of the trauma of a great uncle, Friedl, who waited too long and then
took his own life rather than live under Nazi rule.

Nick’s lifelong professional role of implementing the rule of law – first as barrister then as
judge – does not tell the full story of his compassion and generosity in his daily life. According
to his eldest son Matthew, a broadcaster, he was constantly helping people who had been

dealt an unfair hand in life.

Nick was a powerful and persuasive advocate of the values and vision that he believed in and
there was no room for compromise on principles.

Much of his idealism and commitment to human rights came from his mother Hedi (nee
Simon) – a passionate anti-colonial activist who studied moral sciences at Cambridge at a time

when women could graduate but were not allowed to attend their graduation ceremony. She
campaigned for Indian independence with Indira Gandhi in London and her first marriage
was to an activist in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) who headed the Communist Party in that country

while she organised strikes and protests as a trade union organiser.

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SA CHAMBER UK NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2023