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The State vs. Nelson Mandela: The Trial That Changed South Africa by Joel Joffe is the only account of this seminal trial, written by Nelson Mandela's defence lawyer. On 11 July 1963, a seemingly harmless dry cleaning van drew up outside a rural farm near Johannesburg, South Africa. Within seconds, heavily armed police had burst out and arrested the entire high command of the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Together with the already imprisoned Nelson Mandela, they were put on trial and charged with conspiring to overthrow the apartheid government by violent revolution. Their defence attorney, Joel Joffe, gives a blow-by-blow account of the most important trial in South Africa's history.