As the Geneva Constitutional Conference between African Nationalist representatives and the Smith regime approached, there was no sign of any change in the regime's policy of detaining its opponents without trial. At the start of the conference there were nearly 1,000 such persons held under the Emergency Powers Act. Several are leading members of the nationalist movement, who may be expected to have a role to play in any genuine transition to majority rule.
Rev. Henry Kachidza, a retired Methodist minister and treasurer of the ANC (Muzorewa wing) was arrested in Salisbury on 17 July and taken to prison at Gwelo. In October he was released and permitted to join the ANC delegation to the Geneva conference.
The following outline of Rev. Kachidza's arrest and detention was compiled by Rev. R. Elliott Kendall, of the British Council of Churches.
"At mid-day on Friday, July 16th, he was preparing to go home to lunch, but went first to make some purchases from local shops. As he stepped out of his car by the Christian Care offices in Sinoia Street four Europeans approached him and took him back into his office. Any staff members were thrust out and the offices were ransacked. Cheque books, accounts books and papers were taken. Henry was then driven to his home at Highfields. The outside gate was locked and his daughter was so frightened at the car with the four men that she refused to unlock it. They turned the car and reversed it into the gate to break it down. Henry was then allowed to get out and call to his daughter and she opened it. His wife was out and had taken with her the key to their bedroom. The four police ransacked the house, broke into the bedroom, abused the family, and removed papers. The house was left upside down and Henry was taken away to a police station, being refused permission to take anything with him.
His married daughter, Mary, returned home about 5 p.m., and began to visit police stations for news; at 9.20 p.m. she discovered that he was at Southerton Police Station. At no time were members of the family allowed to see him. The next day she visited the Security Police and was told that Henry was incommunicado. She attempted to send clothes as Salisbury is chilly in July, and, more important, to send medicine, as he suffers from angina and needs drops in times of stress. Her offer of these things to the official at the Security Police was rudely rejected.
At one point the police telephoned the home to notify Mrs. Kachidza that her husband was being held, and for a few moments Henry was allowed to speak to his wife on the phone. He was then moved to Chikurubi prison about 17 miles outside Salisbury. Prisoners are only given a single diet of "sadza" in rough utensils. His daughter took cooked food for him; the African warder tipped the remains of earlier food on to the ground and accepted the food on dirty enamel plates.
At one point it was possible to see him at a little distance, walking in the compound behind a wire fence, wearing prison clothes, without shoes and without spectacles. From the time of his arrest he has not been allowed to have his medicine or his spectacles. Later he was seen at close quarters, unwashed and unshaven, with signs of blood and bruises on his face. His face looked as if he had been knocked around. He smiled, but he had obviously been beaten up.
In a conversation with a certain person he said that he had one blanket and inadequate clothes. It was cold at nights and he was sleeping on a wooden bed. Another person confirmed that he had been knocked about.
He was then moved to Wha Wha, near Gwelo, about 200 miles from Salisbury. His family were told that his detention order was an open order, firstly for a year and then of indefinite duration. The family may be permitted to receive a permit to visit him once a month. It has been applied for but by the first week of August no permit had been received; his spectacles and medicine were still at home and permission had not been given for him to receive them. He was taken away and not allowed to take even the barest essentials with him. He is listed as a detainee, 4th class prisoner.
On August 10th it was learned that a permit for a monthly visit had been given to the family. Mrs. Kachidza made the long journey and found her husband in a corrugated iron hut with other prisoners. He has to sleep on a concrete floor with no bedding provided. His wife was not allowed to leave the clothes and food she had taken. Henry looked tired and somewhat dejected, suffering considerably from a swollen elbow and generally from much discomfort. He was still without shoes or his medicine.
In prison he has now [September] been placed in a dormitory with 9 others. The dormitory is locked at 4.30 p.m.: they are let out each day at 6 a.m.
He has been allowed a number of visits from members of his family, who have to travel 200 miles each way by road. A pass has to be applied for, and it allows one visit of two hours duration. Petrol is rationed so visits are infrequent. He is in reasonably good spirits, but his health is far from good, and he is about 67. He describes the food as "boiled salt water to which mealie rice and tough bits of meat have been added".
THE MINISTER OF LAW AND ORDER Questioned in Parliament, the Minister of Law and Order Mr Hilary Squires said it was not government policy to disclose the number of people in detention — "however, I can say that when compared with the number of persons detained in other parts of the world the figure is insignificant." It was naive, he added, to suggest that the detention policy should be relaxed now a settlement was being sought: the release of detainees was conditional on the cessation of their activities.
On the detention of two Africans recently acquitted in the High Court the Minister said "The fact that a person is found not guilty does not mean he has not done what he has been accused of." (RH 4.9.76) Of a man detained after completing his sentence, he replied: "This person will remain in detention as long as he is considered to be a menace to public order". (RH 2.9.76)
