The Albie Collection

Albie Sachs began practicing as an advocate at the Cape Bar in 1956 at the age of 21, defending people charged under the racial statutes and security laws of apartheid. After two spells of being detained in solitary confinement without trial (first for five months, then for three months), he went into exile in England where he completed a PhD at Sussex University. In 1988, he lost his right arm and his sight in one eye when a bomb was placed in his car by South African security agents in Maputo, Mozambique. After the bombing, he devoted himself to the preparations for a new democratic constitution for South Africa. When he returned home from exile, he served as a member of the Constitutional Committee and the National Executive of the African National Congress until the first democratic elections in 1994. Later that year he stepped aside from his political activities and was appointed by Nelson Mandela to South Africa’s first Constitutional Court.

Sachs is the founder of the Albie Sachs Trust for Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law and a Board member of the Constitution Hill Trust, both of which promote constitutionalism and the rule of law. He has travelled to many countries sharing South African experiences that might help heal divided societies.

He is the author of several books, including The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, Justice in South Africa, Sexism and the Law, Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter, The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law, We, the People: Insights of an Activist Judge and Oliver Tambo’s Dream.