NO ONE TO BLAME? In pursuit of justice in South Africa

246pp., illus., paperback, Reprint, Cape Town, (1998) 2018

Foreword by Sydney Kentridge QC.

Human Rights lawyer George Bizos on the inquests into the deaths of opponents of the apartheid state, including Ahmed Timol, Steve Biko, Neil Aggett, Simon Mndawe, Get Gluckman and the Cradock Four.

 "This compelling work is a timely reminder that without truth there is mo justice and that much of the truth of South Africa's past has yet to be told ... In his book George Bizos rises like a colossus in his continued search for justice and accountability" Dullah Omar, former Minister of Justice

"No One to Blame? explores the implications of torture, deaths in detention, murders by death squads and the failure to find anyone culpable. Throughout his career George Bizos has confronted these concerns with courage and dedication. No South African lawyer did more to challenge the abuse of power by the security forces under apartheid. No one is better qualified to write about this." Arthur Chaskalson, former President of the Constitutional Court 

George Bizos was born in Greece in 1928. During the Second World War he escaped from his occupied homeland, becoming a refugee in South Africa. Graduating from the University of the Witwatersrand with a legal degree and called to the Bar, he acted for many of Nelson Mandela's and Oliver Tambo's clients. He was involved with the Treason Trial of the late 1950s and the subsequent Rivonia Trial, the trials of Braam Fischer and Namibian Toivo ja Toivo, the trials of Winnie Mandela, the Delmas Trial, and other human-rights trials through the 1970s and 1980s. He acted for the ANC at the post-1994 constitutional hearings, was associated with the amnesty hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the 2004 treason trial of Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. He died in 2020.