The landmark 1964 Rivonia Trial may have ended with the icons of South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle being handed life sentences, but 60 years later, the historic sentencing is being celebrated as the moment that changed the course of South Africa's history.

On 12 June 1964, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni and Dennis Goldberg walked into a courtroom in the Palace of Justice in Pretoria to be sentenced in "the trial that changed South Africa", the Rivonia Trial.

Former president Mandela and his co-accused managed to sidestep the death penalty and were sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island for sabotage.

Sixty years later, the same courtroom was filled with members of civil society, the judicial fraternity and the families of Sisulu, Kathrada, Motsoaledi and Mlangeni to commemorate the anniversary of the trial that set off a string of events that eventually ended apartheid and brought democracy and freedom from oppression to all South Africans.

The purpose of the commemoration, organised by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation on Wednesday, 12 June, was to reflect on the enormity of what happened in that courtroom 60 years ago, and the importance the Rivonia Trial holds for where South Africa is today, 30 years into the nation's democracy, said Neeshan Balton, the executive director of the foundation.

Delivering the opening address, Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo said that the significance of historic events like the Rivonia Trial...