TEN ANC MEN (NATAL)
On 2 July Joseph Nduli and Cleopas Ndlovu, two of the ten ANC men charged in the Pietermaritzburg Supreme Court with various offences under the Terrorism Act applied to the court for a rule nisi compelling the relevant government ministers to withdraw the case against them and permit their return to Swaziland. They claimed to have been illegally abducted from Swaziland.
In an affidavit Mr. Nduli stated that he was a South African who had been granted political asylum in Swaziland in 1968. He and Mr. Ndlovu had arranged to meet a Mr. Samson Lukele on the SA-Swaziland border on the night of 25 March. They drove to within 2km. of the meeting place and it some 50m. from the border fence. They saw a vehicle on the South African side flashing its lights; Mr. Nduli gave the agreed signal, and several people emerged from the car and climbed over the fence. These and others surrounded and overpowered them and Nduli was taken to a camp in Zululand where he was subjected to continuous interrogation whilst being made to stand blindfolded for five days and nights. He was beaten on the shoulders, hung from the rafters and given electric shocks.
In replying affidavits Col. J.G. Dreyer and Major J.J. de Swardt of the Natal Security Police denied the kidnapping and torture. Col. Dreyer said he was in charge of an operation on the South African side of the border to intercept trainee 'terrorists' who were being handed over to the African National Congress. He waited 15 km. from the meeting place and later that night Major de Swardt arrived with two Africans with wrists tied who looked as if they had been in a struggle.
Counsel for the respondents revealed that orders had been issued by the Attorney-General against the two men under the provisions of the new Internal Security Amendment Act preventing their release. But in any case Mr. Justice van Heerden ruled that the court had jurisdiction to try the men even if they had been arrested in Swaziland. He found that the applicants had failed to prove they were kidnapped in Swaziland.
When the trial proper began, counsel for the two men lodged an interdictory plea against the courts' jurisdiction repeating the kidnap allegations and pointing out that the Swaziland government had demanded their return because their capture was a violation of Swazi sovereignty, and had not waived its rights in respect of the two men. The other 8 accused pleaded not guilty to the charges which allege that they incited, aided and procured others to undergo military or political training outside South Africa in order to return and overthrow the government by violent means. According to the 18-page indictment, Mr. Nduli is alios alleged to have undergone training in guerilla warfare and radio communication in Kongwa, Tanzania and Odessa, USSR, and to have entered Rhodesia from Zambia bearing arms en route to the Republic of South Africa. Mr. Justice Howard adjourned the court for 18 days to consider the pleas of Nduli and Ndlovu, saying "I can see all the dangers of flouting international law."
On the resumption the judge ruled that they had been in lawful custody since 15 May when they first appeared and dismissed the circumstances of their capture and arrest as irrelevant. The two men then pleaded not guilty. Outlining the prosecution case Mr. D.J. Rossouw said Mr. J. Mdluli, who died in custody on 19 March, attended meetings in Durban organised by some of the accused and paid for the transport of a number of youths to Swaziland. This was part of a detailed plan to overthrow the government by landing trained revolutionaries on the coast and forming them into a sabotage force. Mdluli was alleged to have offered employment to unemployed youths at R250 a month in Swaziland, without telling them why they were being recruited.
Major Stadler, a state witness in 5 previous 'terrorism' trials, testified that the ANC had distributed thousands of pamphlets by post calling for armed struggle against white oppression, and for a free and compulsory education system. One of them was a recent pamphlet referring to the Soweto riots and 'the murder of Joseph Mdluli.'
The defence sought an assurance from the Attorney-General that none of the witnesses was being detained under the Terrorism Act. The Deputy Attorney-General replied that the vast majority of state witnesses were not being detained, apart from a small number held under the Act "for administrative reasons completely unrelated to this trial."
Major C.J. Dirker of the security police emerged from retirement to testify about the history and policies of the ANC, Communist Party and Umkonto we Sizwe. The hearing was adjourned to 16 August to give the defence time to prepare its case.
On resumption, evidence about ANC sabotage activities and military preparations in the 1960s was given by state witnesses Bruno Mtolo and Leonard Nkose, who joined the Special Branch in 1972, and James Ngwenya, a former SACTU member.
BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS
Hearings in the trial of nine SASO/BPC members charged under the Terrorism Act continued in June, and again in August, with the calling of defence witnesses. Amongst those who appeared were:
Adam Small, the Coloured poet and philosopher. The prosecution objected to Small's testimony on the grounds that it was hearsay and that he was not a member of SASO or an expert in political science, but the judge overruled the objection. Small, who resigned the post of head of the Philosophy Dept. at the (Coloured) University of the Western Cape in 1973 in sympathy with student grievances, described himself as an active supporter of SASO and an informal adviser on its 'free university' scheme. He defined SASO's purpose as the "advancement of the positive personality of the black man", with the Coloured people being part of the black community.
Kaborane Sedibe, 25, one of the accused, former SRC president at the University of the North, Turfloop. He was cross-examined about the origins and implications of posters used in a pro-Frelimo rally at the university on 25 September 1974 when police baton-charged students.
G.M. Nkondo, lecturer in English at the University of the North. He said that whether change was peaceful or violent depended on the whites who had "the machinery to bring about change, and if that does not happen the black man would lose patience with and confidence in the whites and could resort to violence." He was cross-examined about some of the poems in the indictment, and about events at Turfloop.
