BRAM: The petit bourgeois press tried to make me look like a Boere James Bond … An Afrikaner terrorist and, of course, a traitor to my people.

When it became obvious which way my trial was headed I decided to go underground. The morning Ilse dropped me in Killarney I was taken to Rustenburg in a Combi belonging to the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal. I started playing my new role in a cottage in the Magaliesberg. The only people I saw were the old lady who lived in the main house on the farm and the man who drove me there … Raymond Schoop, a theatre designer who had survived the Nazis.

Twice a week he would drive the 40 miles from Pretoria to coach me. He said I should not only hide but also create a whole new appearance and personality … He put me on a strict diet and showed me how to shave my hairline so that I could have a higher forehead, and how to dye my hair … He taught me to walk in a way that would hide my slight limp … He also made me smoke a pipe so that my voice would change.

During my weeks on the farm I heard for the first time that the Johannesburg Bar was going to try and have me disbarred. I was furious. As an advocate I had always acted ethically, morally and fairly. My decision to go underground was political. During the rebellion of 1914 no steps were taken against people like my father who defended the rebels. Our Minister of Justice, Balthazar John Vorster, wasn't punished, even though he was interned in Koffiefontein as a Nazi supporter during the Second World War.

Raymond Schoop's disguise worked. When Ralph Sepel met me in the parking lot of the Marymount Maternity Home he didn't recognise me at first. Even Ilse thought I was somebody else. One morning in Commissioner Street a security policeman who had followed me several times in the past, and even interrogated me once, looked me in the face without recognising me.