The indictment on which five members of NUSAS were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act and the Unlawful Organisations Act was published in March, and the trial opened in the Johannesburg magistrates court on 1 April.
The accused are Glen Moss, 23, Charles Nupen, 25, Edward Webster, 33, a sociology lecturer, Paul Cedric de Beer, 23, and Karel Tip, 30, former president of NUSAS. The charges against them comprise one main count and three alternative counts. They relate to 10 acts allegedly committed by the accused between October 1973 and August 1974. They are accused of associating themselves with and conspiring to promote the policies of two banned organisations – the SA Communist Party and the African National Congress. Details of the charges relate to (1) the student-led campaign for the release of political prisoners mounted in 1974, in particular the planning of the campaign at a student seminar held at a hostel on a Cape apple farm in December 1973; (2) the organisation of various protests and public meetings, including some addressed by prominent public figures; (3) the distribution of "inflammatory pamphlets" and the quoting of banned persons in speeches and student publications. The accused pleaded not guilty.
The prosecution case opened with evidence from B.M. Hlapane, a former member of the Communist Party and the ANC until detained for a second time in 1964. He told the court about the activities of the ANC and the Congress of the People, including the publication of the Freedom Charter - which was reprinted in a copy of Wits Student dated May 1974. The defence pointed out that the Charter had also been printed in a book on the Rivonia trial written by Gerard Ludi, an ex-security policeman, which was where the text had been obtained. Captain M.B. van Niekerk of the Security Police admitted that the Freedom Charter was not an illegal document. The defence also commented that some of the events mentioned by Hlapane had taken place 20 years ago, when Glen Moss was three years old.
Hlapane's cross-examination, it was submitted, could not proceed without instructions from three prisoners now on Robben Island. Accordingly the defence applied to the Prisons Department for permission to interview Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki. Permission was initially granted but later withdrawn, with the Department claiming that the defence could ask its questions by correspondence instead, alleging that the three prisoners had been unwilling to give evidence in the past, and stating that evidence would have to be taken on a commission basis because they would not be allowed to come to court. The magistrate asked the prosecutor to approach the Prisons Department again.
The next testimony dealt with events on the Witwatersrand University campus early in 1974. Two security police officers gave evidence of a raid on the Wits SRC office in January 1974 when documents written by Moss, Tip and Nupen had been seized. Letters to overseas students' unions had been intercepted by the post office and handed to the police. A film of a student march for the release of political prisoners was shown to the court but a police witness admitted that his identification of Moss as its leader was possibly mistaken. During a subsequent meeting on 30 May 1974 the security police had again raided the SRC office and de Beer was alleged to have encouraged the student crowd to prevent the police entering the office, which they had to do by force. Other evidence of meetings chaired by Moss was given.
One surprise witness was Dr. J.Z. Recsey, who left Hungary in 1948 after living under communist rule for three years, and who claimed that the Freedom Charter should not have been printed in Wits Student because it was "contrary to the democratic principles of South Africa". Questioned, he was unable to identify any particular points as undemocratic, and admitted that he was not an expert witness. Another witness was security policeman Gerhardhus Horak, who had posed as a student for a year in order to spy and report on political activities. He detailed 11 meetings held at Wits between February and May 1974, at which a number of speakers representing most shades of South African opinion were heard. Speeches by a Namibian ex-political prisoner Gerson Veii (on 29 May) and Coloured Labour Party leader Sonny Leon (30 May) were clandestinely taped by Horak. On 30 May he had been present when police arrived to search the SRC office and had seen de Beer announcing the fact before a scuffle took place between police and students.
The case was adjourned to 21 April. The accused were granted bail; three of them were required to report to the police twice a week; the other two (Moss & Webster) have to report daily. An application for the relaxation of this condition was refused.
