Under the Terrorism Act any person who is found guilty of the widely defined crime of 'terrorism' faces a possible death sentence, and a minimum imprisonment of five years. The following is a brief outline of recent and pending trials under the Terrorism Act (excluding the main SASO/ BPC case, to which a special article will be devoted in the next issue):
BLOEM & MOLOBI
Bernard Trevor Bloem (21) described as a Coloured clerk living in Noordgesig, Johannesburg was arrested on 6 February 1975 at Jan Smuts airport on his return from a visit to Denmark where he had apparently met Godfrey Beck, an exiled Coloured leader & trade unionist. Following his arrest "at least ten" other people were detained in Johannesburg, including Eric Molobi (28) of Klipspruit Soweto, described as a radio technician, who was arrested on 20 February.
In August Bloem & Molobi were charged in magistrate's court under the Terrorism Act or, alternatively the Suppression of Communism Act, the Customs & Excise Act and the Obscene or Indecent Photographic Matter Act. In addition Bloem was charged under the Prisons Act. At the Rand Supreme Court a month later Molobi's case was fixed for 3 November & Bloem's for 17 November.
VARIAVA AND HARE
Rubin Hare and Sadeque Variava, originally defendants in the main SASO-BPC trial, were accused on separate charges under the Terrorism Act when the indictment in the main case was altered. They were remanded to appear separately, on 4 and 10 September respectively in the Supreme Court. When Hare appeared, his case was postponed until 29 October, but the charges against him were suddenly withdrawn on 3 October because, according to the police "the main state witnesses had disappeared". Hare was then freed after nearly a year in custody.
When Variava appeared he was charged under the Terrorism Act with "participation in terroristic activities", the evidence apparently consisting of three articles in the Peoples Experimental Theatre newsletter and his presentation of Black Consciousness plays and poems in Johannesburg in 1973. He was bailed for R5,000 to appear on 29 October, the case was remanded until 10 December.
BREYTENBACH
Breyten Breytenbach (36) the distinguished Afrikaans poet who has lived in Paris for several years because he cannot legally live under SA's race laws with his Vietnamese wife, was detained under the Terrorism Act on 19 August two weeks after he arrived in South Africa in disguise and under a false name. He is to be charged under the Terrorism Act, and possibly under the Suppression of Communism Act, with working for the banned African National Congress, co-operating with the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the Defence and Aid Fund in Europe, entering South Africa to arrange for information to be forwarded to hostile groups outside the country, planning to start an underground publication, and importing forged pass-books for Africans. According to the press, some of the 20 or so whites and Africans who were detained shortly after Breytenbach was arrested may be charged with him, and others may be called to give evidence for the state. The case commences on 10 November and press conferences will be held in Paris, London and other European centres to boost the international campaign for his release and that of other political prisoners. The Attorney-General of the Transvaal, Dr. Percy Yutar, who led the prosecution team in the Rivonia trial of Nelson Mandela and others, is to conduct the prosecution.
SUTTNER
On 17 June this year Raymond Suttner (29) a lecturer in law at Natal University was arrested and held under the Terrorism Act. According to the police the arrest followed a long period of investigation. The next day a Natal lecturer in Zulu, Miss Jennifer Roxburgh (30) and a law student Laurence Kuny (26) were also arrested and held under the Terrorism Act. Police also searched university offices and took away alleged ANC pamphlets and other documents.
Suttner, a former member of the Students Representative Council at the University of Cape Town, was charged at Durban Magistrate's Court on 4 August with participating in terrorist activities. At the Supreme Court on 30 September the trial was fixed for 3 November; the state alleges Suttner formed a Communist Party or ANC cell in Durban, conspired with members of these banned organisations to print and distribute literature about them, incited Black workers to organise clandestinely in their factories, had received training outside SA and had trained others.
SELEOANE AND NGALO
In April this year two young Africans appeared at Bloemfontein charged under the Suppression of Communism and Terrorism Acts with leaving the country illegally. When their trial opened in June it was alleged that David Thabang Seleoane (20) and Wezile Oshode Guga Ngalo (24), members of a football team who listened to Freedom Radio broadcasts from Lusaka, had attempted to join the ANC in Zambia for the purpose of receiving military training. The two had reached Botswana, been arrested, escaped from Gaborone jail and returned to South Africa, where they were arrested.
Giving evidence Ngalo claimed they had gone in search of schooling, not military training, that he did not know freedom fighters were also known as terrorists and that he thought the ANC was a broadcasting station like the SABC. In the middle of the trial Seleoane changed his plea to guilty. Both men were convicted but the prosecution said the state would ask for the minimum sentence only to be imposed; accordingly Seleoane and Ngalo were each sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
SCHLEBUSCH COMMISSION CASES
Ever since members of the Christian Institute refused to appear before the Schlebusch Commission in 1973 the Rev. Beyers Naude, Rev. Theo Kotze and Peter Randall have been pursued through the courts by the state authorities.
Naude was originally charged with refusing to testify in November 1973, found guilty and fined. His appeal against conviction succeeded in March 1974 but in June the state was granted leave to appeal against the decision, and at the end of the year his conviction was upheld by the Appeal Court. In the Supreme Court in March 1975 Naude again appealed, this time on the grounds that he had sufficient cause in refusing to testify without legal representation. Judgement was reserved.
The trials of Kotze and Randall began in January 1974 and were repeatedly adjourned until March 1975 when both pleaded not guilty, saying they could not trust the commission to produce unbiased reports on the organisations they scrutinised and therefore their consciences forbade them to give evidence. Judgement was reserved pending the finding in Naude's appeal and now, nearly two years after they were originally charged, neither Kotze nor Randall know what the outcome is to be.
Simultaneously the three directors of the Christian Institute-supported publishing house Ravan Press were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act with publishing an article by a banned person (former NUSAS president Paul Pretorius) in the "NUSAS dossier". The three directors are Naude, Randall and the Rev. Danie van Zyl and they were acquitted, since the book had been printed before the article's author was banned. The state appealed against the decision and after a hearing in September judgement was reserved.
