Week ending 19 February: Chiredzi At a series of trials, a total of 69 people were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 5 to 7 years for assisting and failing to report the presence of two guerillas in the Triangle area. A Detective Section Officer told the special court that the guerillas, named as Gabriel and Servias, had been wounded in a contact with security forces and had lived in Triangle for several weeks with the help of local people. Those convicted included a Baptist minister, JOHN NEGANDA, and an evangelical literature salesman, LAZARUS MUNYUKI. The two men received 5 year prison terms, with 4½ years conditionally suspended. According to Mr Justice M.E. Davies, the presiding judge, three Triangle security guards were among the worst offenders. ZINYAKATIRA MARAMBA, (gaoled for 7 years), SALATIEL MHERE (4 years), and FRADI ZIVENGWA (5 years) had not only failed to report the guerillas but had provided them and others in the area with money.
14 March: Salisbury KEPHAS MUTANBIRWA (23), and RICHARD NEMAHIRE (22), described as the sole survivors of a 21-man guerilla group involved in a contact with security forces, were each sentenced to 6 years imprisonment, 3 years conditionally suspended, on charges of possessing arms of war. Both had surrendered after the engagement.
end January: Fort Victoria Magistrates Court Two unnamed men were each sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on conviction of failing to report the presence of guerillas. Passing judgement, the senior magistrate, Mr G.J. Huxtable, said that difficulties arose in trials of this kind because the views of different reviewing judges on the appropriate punishment did not always coincide. He pointed out that sentences in the Special Courts were normally higher than those imposed by Magistrates Courts for the same offences. The Special Courts were under pressure from the Attorney General to pass heavy sentences on people convicted of failing to report guerillas, he said.
4 February: Harari Magistrates Court Four people were sentenced to prison terms for either conspiring or attempting to leave Rhodesia for Mozambique during 1976 to undergo guerilla training. GIRISONI MANDEVELE, a married man, was sentenced to 5 years; ELFIGIO MATATE (19), 4 years, 3 of which were conditionally suspended; PAUL KAMUTIKAOMA (19), 5 years (2 suspended); SHAKIE WIZLA (19), 5 years (2 suspended). 14 teenagers, eight of them girls, were remanded until 18 February on similar charges.
7 (?) February: Umtali Magistrates Court PETROS MARUZANA (22) was sentenced to 9 years imprisonment for attempting to leave the country for guerilla training in Mozambique. He told the senior magistrate that he had been forced by the police to make a statement admitting his intention to commit the offence.
10 February: Salisbury Regional Court DIKINYA MATSA (55), from Kimuriwo kraal in the Rushinga area, Mount Darwin, pleaded not guilty to charges of harbouring a sick guerilla and alternatively of failing to report his presence. The court was told that the guerilla, Tafireyi Kanyama, had arrived at Matsa's house, very ill, on 26 September 1976. Matsa had concealed him in his grain hut and provided him with food and cigarettes. On 1 October however, Kanyama's presence was discovered by a security force patrol. He was arrested and subsequently sentenced to death by a Special Court in Bindura. A Detective Patrol Officer told the Regional Court that there was a resident group of guerillas in the Rushinga area, and that many local people acted as informers for them.
18 February: Harari Magistrates Court Seven boys aged between 15 and 17 and said to be from Salisbury's Hunyani Township, were sentenced to prison terms for attempting or conspiring to go to Mozambique. At least six of the boys had been arrested at Inyazura in December 1976, while en route to Umtali by train. They had been found without registration certificates and were remanded in custody at Highfield Remand Home until their trial. Three 15-year-olds were each sentenced to 3 years imprisonment; three 16-year-olds, 4 years; one 17-year-old, 5 years.
The magistrate, Mr D.K. Utting, disagreed with probation officers who recommended that capital punishment and/or suspended prison sentences should be imposed on the accused. He said that while he would not send children of their age to prison "under normal circumstances" or for "ordinary offences", in this case the sentences passed must have a strong deterrent effect. He warned the boys and their relatives, who were also in court, that "the maximum sentence for this type of offence is death". "The boys and their families should ponder on the fact that, had the boys not been prevented from going, they would have returned as terrorists and probably been killed." An eighth boy, aged 16 and from a Salisbury secondary school, was sentenced to 6 cuts plus a 2 year conditionally suspended prison sentence, after pleading guilty to similar charges.
Eight girls, at least four of them from Mabvuku Secondary School, were convicted of attempting or conspiring to go to Mozambique for training and were remanded until 4 March for sentence.
1 (7?) March: Salisbury Regional Magistrates Court An unnamed juvenile was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on charges of assisting guerillas on Hedleywood Farm, Mtepatepa, near Bindura, in November 1976. He admitted that he had helped to provide food for the guerillas and had gone to a store to get them supplies. Two men, ANDERSON RESAYI and PETER MUSWAIRI, also appeared before the court on similar charges of harbouring or assisting guerillas on the farm Duiker's Flats, about 10 miles from Bindura in the Salisbury direction. Both had been working at the farm under contract, and were alleged to have helped to organise a meeting for the guerillas to address other farmworkers, run messages and provide water and supplies. The presence of guerillas on the farm had never been reported despite warnings to the farmworkers from the police.
13 March: Harari Magistrates Court Two 13-year-old boys of St. Mary's Township, Salisbury, were each sentenced to 8 cuts on conviction of trying to leave Rhodesia for guerilla training. They had been arrested in Umtali in February en route for Mozambique. The magistrate, Mr. L.C. Stretton, told the boys that the punishment they were receiving was "much better than being cut to ribbons by the guns of the security forces, which is an almost certain destiny of most terrorists entering Rhodesia." Although the boys were only 13, "you are both politically aware, you know what terrorism is all about."
18 March: Harari Magistrates Court LOVEMORE MUCHENJE (21) and a 17-year-old youth, both of Highfield Township, were convicted of attempting to leave Rhodesia for guerilla training in Mozambique. In a statement to the police, which he later challenged on the grounds of assault, Muchenje said that he had decided to leave for training because of unemployment and the "present segregation and discrimination."
21 (?) March: Bulawayo Magistrates Court 24 unnamed Africans were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 6 to 15 years for attempting to leave the country for guerilla training.
28 (?) March: Umtali Regional Court The headmaster of Thonde Industrial Mission School, JOHN GOOD, and three members of staff were all sentenced to prison terms after pleading not guilty to failing to report guerillas. Good was sentenced to 6 years, CHARLES KUNYEZI to 4 years, STANISLAS MASUNDA to 6 years, and JONATHAN KADZIDIRE to 9 years (all names phonetic). The court was told that a group of guerillas had entered dormitories of the school on the night of 30 January. Three 16-year-old Matabele youths, two of whom were subsequently found dead in the bush, were alleged to have been "abducted" for training in Mozambique.
end April: Magistrates Court, Salisbury Father LAURENCE LYNCH (43), an Irish Roman Catholic priest of long-term Rhodesian residence and MICHAEL POCOCK (48), a British-born Anglican headmaster who has also lived in Rhodesia many years, both received 3½ year conditionally suspended prison terms on conviction of helping guerillas and failing to report their presence to the security forces. Father Lynch ran the Mount Melaroy Mission in the Eastern Highlands of Inyanga, while Mr. Pocock was the principal of St. Mary Magdalene School in the same district. Following their arrest in March, the two men had been found guilty of the charges under the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act by Umtali Regional Court on 19 April. According to an agreed statement of facts presented by the prosecution, a group of 13 armed guerillas had arrived at St. Mary Magdalene School on 2 February. Pocock had assembled students and staff at the guerillas' request and an hour-long political meeting took place. The guerillas then told Pocock to announce a list of their needs to the gathering. It was agreed by him and the staff that they would all contribute the cost of the guerillas' needs, the money to be deducted from their salaries. Pocock had also supplied the guerillas with beer, food, clothing and watches, and had lent them some blankets, which were returned. In the case of Father Lynch, the agreed statement said that on 20 February the same group of 13 armed guerillas arrived at Mount Melaroy Mission and had been given food and soft drinks. Father Lynch had spoken to the guerillas and three of them, carrying arms, had attended Mass. The guerillas had returned on 6 March and drank beer and gin in Father Lynch's house. One of the guerillas subsequently gave himself up to the security forces and acted as informer. Neither man intends to appeal against the sentence.
