A small number of prominent detainees have been released by the Smith regime over recent months:-
CANAAN BANANA, formerly deputy president of the African National Council and the official ANC representative in the United States, was released on 15 January. In May 1975 he was detained on returning from the U.S.A. and later sentenced to three months' imprisonment for leaving Rhodesia illegally. Shortly after his release in January, he announced his decision to rejoin the Muzorewa wing of the ANC and has been appointed its secretary for education.
ARTHUR CHADZINGWA, former organising secretary of the ANC, was released at the end of January to take part with other members of the Nkomo wing of the ANC in the constitutional talks. He graduated from the then University College of Rhodesia in 1969 and was detained in February 1973.
JOHN CHIRISA, former acting secretary of the ANC, was released together with Chadzingwa. He was detained in July 1973, having previously been imprisoned in 1964 and 1970.
GARFIELD TODD, the former Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia who was restricted to his cattle ranch at Shabani in the south of the country in January 1972, was temporarily released by the regime on 6 February. He was permitted to fly to London to spend three weeks with relatives on the understanding that he steered clear of politics and made no comment to the press on the Rhodesian situation.
CHARLTON NGCEBETSHA, the first secretary-general of the ANC, was released in November 1975. Ngcebetsha, who was born in the Transkei, was first detained in the early 1960s. Following a period of release after the Smith-Home agreement of November 1971, he was redetained in February 1973.
Four other African detainees were released at the same time as Ngcebetsha:
VOTE MOYO, former deputy secretary-general of the ANC, was detained with Ngcebetsha at Wha Wha in the Rhodesian midlands.
NAISON NDLOVO, was acting General President of the ANC, and detained in July 1973.
LAWRENCE NDELA, a national executive council member in the Bulawayo district of the ANC, was detained in July 1973.
POLLANT MPOPHU was first detained in the 1960s at the Gonakudzingwe detention camp near the Mozambique border, and again in May 1974. He was deputy secretary of the Culture, Arts and Science Committee of the ANC National Executive, and general secretary of the Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union. PATRICK GURUPIRA, who was detained in the mid-60s and held along with Joshua Nkomo at Gonakudzingwe, died tragically last year. He received his release order, but within hours of securing his freedom is reported to have suffered a stroke and died on 6 November on his way to hospital.
There is, however, no sign of the vast majority of detainees being released, and it is possible that their number is again growing now that security operations in the north-east and east have been greatly intensified.
