When I consider what it was that moved me to join the Communist Party, I have to cast my mind back for more than a quarter of a century to try and ascertain what precisely my motives at that time were.

I wish you to inform the Court that my absence though deliberate is not intended in any way to be disrespectful. In 1963 Bram and Molly were driving to Cape Town for their daughter's 21st birthday. After the verdict Bram Fischer visited the Rivonia trial prisoners on Robben Island to discuss the question of an appeal in their case.