Here I was a young attorney, I literally had nothing behind me.
The only thing that I had was what we call on the Cape Flats: “Guts.
Tenacity.” But also the sense of the deep wrong that
apartheid had perpetrated.
And no one was really seriously held to account.
Charles Abrahams is a lawyer in South Africa…
who has taken on some of the most powerful corporations in the world.
In 2006 he began an unprecedented legal fight…
against South African gold mining companies.
Mines like this one at Blyvooruitzict make South Africa one of the largest gold
producing countries in the world.
Charles was arguing for compensation on behalf of…
exploited miners who suffered from debilitating lung diseases.
But his team had many setbacks in the courts.
All five judges flatly dismissed our case.
It took years of arguments and court cases…
but eventually, the judges ruled in their favour.
It brought tears to my eyes.
They finally they won the case for the miners.
The joy, the celebration in court is still vivid in my mind.
Charles’ journey to that moment was not easy.
I am born and bred in Cape Town.
I was born in a shack.
But particularly the Cape Flats.
A deeply difficult place to live in, a very dangerous place.
Violence was a common occurrence at school.
Charles was the victim of a vicious beating from a teacher…
that left him unable to walk for days.
That day I knew that that teacher had crossed a red line.
The consistent threat of violence had a deep impact on Charles.
That childhood spirit, it was killed inside of me.
But over time you regain, you regroup.
It grows, it develops.
And a different kind of spirit grew up in me.
I said to myself, “I know now what I want to become.
I want to become a lawyer.”
He started his law training amidst the growing movement…
for change in South Africa.
You can imagine I was the one that both my mother and father were happy about.
Charles struggled financially but refused to give up.
The idea of the injustices of apartheid was the momentum, was the thing that drove me.
That momentum led him to success and the famous gold mining case.
The largest class action lawsuit in the country’s history.
Years later, Charles returned to his former school…
where he confronted the teacher who had beaten him.
And I said, “Oh, you are the one, do you remember?
I was one of those whom you viciously assaulted.”
His face changed completely.
It has not been an easy journey.
But if you ask me if it was worthwhile?
I will tell you, oh yeah.
Every bit of it.