The celebrated lawyer represented Mandela during the Rivonia Trial which saw Mandela and seven others sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 on charges of seeking to overthrow the racist apartheid government. Many had expected the death penalty

JOHANNESBURG – George Bizos, the noted lawyer who had defended Nelson Mandela on treason charges, died on Wednesday at the age of 92. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced his death during an online media briefing.

“This is very sad for our country,” he said.

Bizos died of natural causes at his Johannesburg, his family said in a statement.

The celebrated lawyer represented Mandela during the Rivonia Trial which saw Mandela and seven others sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 on charges of seeking to overthrow the racist apartheid government. Many had expected the death penalty.

He was widely praised as an anti-apartheid activist and champion for human rights.

Ramaphosa described Bizos as one of the lawyers who “contributed immensely to the attainment of our democracy”.

“He had an incisive legal mind and was one of the architects of our constitution,” the president said.

In one of his many interviews with Eyewitness News, Bizos was clear he never wanted to be a politician. “I was offered a political job and I didn’t want it. I was offered a judiciary job and I did not want it. And we have a good history of a strong judiciary,” he said.

Bizos loved to tell the story of the phone call he received from Cyril Ramaphosa – with a message from Nelson Mandela asking him to join the team to write the Constitution. There was no hesitation, and his only question was whether he would have to join the African National Congress (ANC).

Ramaphosa said, “no don’t worry about that.”

During World War 2, 13-year-old Bizos fled Nazi-occupied Greece and would go on to play a pivotal role in South Africa’s democracy. He was born on 15 November 1927.

Bizos arrived in South Africa with his father in 1941 and first settled in Durban.

Six years later, he applied to study medicine at the University of Witwatersrand.

His application was rejected, so he opted for law and that’s where his political activism was ignited.

Bizos represented several political activists in high profile cases during his career – and never stopped working, even in his old age.

He also represented families of apartheid-era victims, including widows of the Cradock Four who were brutally killed by security forces.

In 2012, the veteran human rights lawyer led the South African Human Rights Commission at the inquiry into the Marikana Massacre which left 34 miners dead at the hands of the police – 78 others were wounded.

Bizos drew parallels between the violence on the platinum belt and the Sharpville massacre of 1960. He later took on the cause of the miners at the courts.

At the inquest into the murder of political activist Ahmed Timol – an emotional Bizos spoke of the importance of constantly pursuing justice.

“Justice is something that you have to pursue, a single judgement can help; and I am sure that it will. I want to congratulate the Timol family and the extended family that took the battle up. We have been working on it for almost two and a half years.”

His work also went beyond the borders.

In 2004, he represented the late Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai after he was charged with high treason by the Zimbabwean government.

The human rights champion was also passionate about education and in the 1970s helped start Greek school Saheti in Johannesburg.

Praised as the struggle stalwart of stalwarts, Bizos was also a family man.

He was married to Rita Daflos, who died in 2017 – just before his 90th birthday. Together they had three sons.

–          With input from ‘Eyewitness News’