Petrus Tshabalala, 25, a Soweto high school student, appeared in the Rand Supreme Court on 26 February charged under the Terrorism Act, and alternatively under the Suppression of Communism Act. He was alleged to have unlawfully influenced two friends, Mr. L. Madinga, 19, and Mr. P. Mahlangu, 23, to undergo military training in Sept./Oct. 1975. The case was adjourned to 8 March.
When it was resumed, the evidence revealed that the accused and his two friends had been arrested in November on the Botswana border, and taken to Mafeking. Both friends, after being warned as accomplices, testified for the State that together with the accused they had listened to broadcasts from Radio Zambia exhorting people to volunteer for military training. Madiya said that Tshabalala told him he would like to undergo such training in Zambia, and that the three of them agreed to go for military training. Under cross-examination he agreed that the accused wanted to leave the country to train as an ordinary pilot, but said that in Mafeking when he mentioned this he was not believed.
The main security police witness in the case (Cronwright) and the judge (Steyn) were the same as in the Molokeng case. Cronwright admitted that he knew that Tshabalala had spent 12 days in hospital after his arrest, but claimed he did not know the reason for it.
Defence counsel (Sidney Kentridge and George Bizos) applied for the discharge of the accused on the grounds that there was no evidence that he had incited the others to get military training. The judge accepted this, condemned the youths' plans as "foolish and grandiose" (the three had arrived at the border without passports or money) and acquitted the accused.
