On 24 November Eric Molobi, 28, an employee for 7 years of a Johannesburg electronics company, who lives in Pimville, Soweto was jailed for five years after being found guilty on two charges under the Terrorism Act. The prosecution alleged that he had incited people over a period of 9-10 months in late 1973 and early 1974 to commit acts of sabotage against public buildings such as Urban Bantu Council offices, post offices, roads and bridges, and to undergo military training. He was further charged with planning to form trade unions in order to cripple the economy by a general strike, and with distributing a subversive pamphlet.
Molobi, who was detained in March 1975 together with his cousin and several others who appeared as state witnesses in his trial, said that while serving as a workers' representative on an employees' council he had become interested in black trade unions as a means of improving black workers' conditions. Though not a union member himself, he had visited the offices of the Black Allied Workers Union (BAWU) to learn more about trade unions.
He had discussed the idea of forming an 'umbrella' national trade union organisation with a former ANC member during a weekend visit to Botswana in 1974. Describing himself as a lay preacher with the Seventh Day Adventist church and an admirer of Martin Luther King and the politics of non-violence, Molobi said that in 1974 he had written and distributed at stations and bus stops in Soweto a pamphlet entitled 'Freedom Now' to divert African attention from the South African Games and discourage them from participating in the government's 'homeland' policy. He had used the word 'revolution' to mean a process of non-violent change, and 'war' in a metaphorical sense, as in 'war against inflation'.
State witnesses included: Thula Nkosi, Xola Nuse, Simon Radebe, Vincent Selanto, and Frank Molobi.
Frank Molobi, called to the witness box, refused to give evidence for the State saying "It is naive and foolhardy of the Security Branch to expect me to testify against a man with whom I have the same political views and who is my first cousin". He would not testify for a State that had shown no dignity or concern for oppressed black people. For this refusal he was jailed for four months. When the court adjourned spectators shouted out "Amandla!" (Power) and sang freedom songs.
The defence case for Eric Molobi, who pleaded not guilty to the Terrorism Act charges but guilty to lesser charges under the Suppression of Communism Act and the Customs and Excise Act (bringing banned publications "Africa" and "China Reconstructs" from Botswana), rested on his adherence to the principles of non-violence (to which the state witnesses had testified) and to his honest and open character. Molobi was acquitted on the first two items under the main charge, dealing with incitement to sabotage and conspiring to establish trade unions with a view to bringing about economic chaos. On the third and fourth counts, that of writing and distributing a subversive pamphlet, and that of inciting Selanto, Nuse and Radebe to undergo military training in Botswana, he was convicted and sentenced to five years on each count, to run concurrently. This is the minimum sentence under the Terrorism Act. Leave to appeal was granted.
