By mid October the number of South Africans held under security legislation (as opposed to arrest following demonstrations etc) was believed to be approaching 400. On 11 October the Rand Daily Mail claimed to have the names of 393 detainees. The Minister of Justice was quoted as saying on 20 October that 374 people were in detention - 217 under the Terrorism Act, 123 under the Internal Security Act and 34 as 'protected witnesses'. In addition over 300 are held as a result of demonstrations and disturbances. (BBC 21.10.76)
Among these are a large number of students from the University of Zululand at Ngoye and some staff and students from the University of the North at Turfloop. Virtually every prominent and active member of the BPC and SASO is in detention, together with a number of black ministers and priests.
During August and September a large number of detentions took place in the Eastern Cape. Many were health and community workers connected with BPC projects. On 13 August Dr. Mamphela Ramphele was arrested at Zanempilo health clinic near Kingwilliamstown. Her two successors, Dr. S. Solombela and Dr. L. Msauli, were arrested on 27 and 29 August respectively. Several social workers from the same area are also being held.
Another group of Eastern Cape people to be detained are those connected with the Zimele Trust Fund, which exists to initiate projects aimed at rehabilitating ex-political prisoners, in the resettlement areas to which prisoners and their families are confined. Mapetla Mohapi, who died in police custody on 5 August (see Focus 6, p. 7) was the Zimele Trust Fund administrator. Mr. M. Tembeni, the Grahamstown attorney detained on 13 August, is the chairman of Zimele Trust, and Dr. L. Msauli is on the board of trustees. (CT 14.8.76; RDM 30.8.76)
At the beginning of September five staff members of the Western Province Workers Advice Bureau in Cape Town were arrested by the Security Police under the General Laws Amendment Act (which allows for 14 days detention). One of these, Luke Mazwembe, died shortly after being detained (see box).
Several newspaper reporters and photographers have also been held. Rand Daily Mail staff who covered the late August Soweto stay-at-home and the apparently police-inspired 'Zulu rampage' included Peter Magubane, photographer, who was immediately detained (and beaten up) under the Internal Security Act. He was followed by Willie Nkosi, another photographer and Jan Tugwana, a reporter. Joe Thlloe, of Drum and president of the Union of Black Journalists was detained on 1 September, followed by five reporters from the African paper The World and Don Mattera, banned person and sub-editor on the Star. The detention of journalists was widely seen as an official attempt to prevent accurate information on events in the townships reaching the public. (In contrast, the Afrikaans press, at least in the Transvaal, has frequently carried 'scare stories' and rumours of Black plans to kill all whites, apparently with the intention of inflaming white feeling against Africans (RDM 9.10.76).
In addition several Black Theatre people have been detained, including three playwrights (Gibson Kente of Soweto, arrested while filming his play How Long in Kingwilliamstown, Kyalethu Mqayisa, author of Confused Mhlaba whose central character is the son of a political prisoner, and Rev. Mzwandile Maqina, author of a play based on the assassination of student leader O. A. Tiro). Performances of Sizwe Bansi is Dead by John Kani and Winston Ntshona were banned in East London; early in October the two actors were detained after a performance at Butterworth in the Transkei, during which the forthcoming 'independence' of the Transkei was apparently criticised (RDM 23/25.8.76; GN 15.10.76).
As 'independence' approached, there were further arrests in the Transkei.
FOUR MORE DEATHS Since the death in August of Mapetla Mohapi (see FOCUS 6 p.7) four more political detainees have died in police custody. These were:
*Luke MAZWEMBE, aged 32, a staff member of the Western Province Workers Advice Bureau in Cape Town. He was arrested at home at 6 a.m. on 2 September, as were several other workers at the Bureau. By 7.40 a.m. he was dead in his cell - having hanged himself with blanket strips, according to the police. A statement from the multi-racial board of the Workers Bureau said at the time of his arrest he was "in good health and good spirits", and called for a post-mortem, inquest and full inquiry into the circumstances of the death.
Mazwembe was the 25th person to die in detention. (RDM 3/6.9.76; CT 4.9.76)
*Fenuel MOGATUSI, a Soweto schoolboy arrested in July and held in Johannesburg Fort on charges of theft following the unrest. He was offered bail of R500, but his family could not raise the money. He died on 28 September 'from an epileptic fit' according to police - but his sister, who visited him the day before, denied that he was epileptic. (Star 9.10.76)
*Dumisani Isaac MBATHA, aged 16, a Soweto schoolboy arrested in the centre of Johannesburg on 23 September during the African demonstration there. According to police, he "became ill" in prison, was moved to hospital and died on 25th September. His family had no news of him until the Prisons Department released the body for burial, giving their account of his death. The funeral was held in Soweto on 17 October, attended by 15,000 mourners. (GN 19.10.76; Times 19.10.76)
*Zungwane Jacob MASHABANE, aged 22, a student at the University of Zululand at Ngoye, who died on 5 October while in detention at Johannesburg Fort. Police alleged suicide, but Mashabane's family were not satisfied with this explanation. (RDM 18.10.76)
STOP PRESS: Two more prisoners may have died in Modder B prison, where male detainees under the Internal Security Act are held. It is alleged that Edward MZOLO, aged 40, and William TSHWANE have also died in detention (GN 22.10.76)
