EMERGENCY REGULATIONS A number of new provisions have been incorporated into the Smith regime's emergency powers regulations, recently consolidated and reprinted. They include: more stringent controls over the taking of photographs in the operational areas; existing controls on the importation and distribution of books, newspapers and other publications have been widened to include television and cinema films; a person who is not a resident of Rhodesia may be detained indefinitely without charge; Rhodesian courts are granted jurisdiction over persons who are not resident in Rhodesia suspected of assisting guerillas, and also over Rhodesian residents who commit such an offence outside Rhodesia; the statutory penalty of death or life imprisonment laid down under Section 24 of the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act for anyone convicted of undergoing, or recruiting for guerilla training has been widened to apply to a person who does "any act whatsoever with the intention of, or preparatory to" undergoing such training; persons who have been served with call-up papers will not be excused from performing national service by the fact that they have instituted court proceedings challenging their call-up.
Section 19 and 44 together would appear to amount to a legal carte blanche for the regime's security forces to indulge in "hot pursuit" raids into neighbouring countries and to capture and abduct Zimbabwean exiles and refugees, and the citizens of those countries themselves.
HARSH CONDITIONS IN KHAMI PRISON An 1800-word document describing conditions in Khami Maximum Security Prison, the Smith regime's main prison for political offenders convicted under the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act, has been received in London. The original document, which was closely written on four sides of lined paper, with a postscript on toilet tissue, was posted in Zimbabwe at the beginning of June 1977. Khami Maximum Security Prison is 18 miles west of the city of Bulawayo. At present there are 486 prisoners in A/Hall and 187 prisoners in B/Hall. Only 5% of the 673 prisoners now at Khami are non-political prisoners and the rest are political prisoners. The prisoners are serving prison terms ranging from seven years to life, in which case some of the prisoners, especially those serving LIFE have spent more than ten years in prison without reclassification, still under the so-called 'D Class' conditions. Under the so-called prison regulations prisoners are allowed newspapers or radios, but they are deprived of these privileges. The International Red Cross provided the prisoners with a radio but it is often turned off by the authorities. Another thing the prisoners have been refused the permission to write a petition to the Ministry of Justice or the Director of Prisons. No reasons were given at all.
Medication: Healthy conditions have and are still deteriorating at an alarming rate at Khami, and as a result prisoners die each and every year, through lack of adequate medication. Those still living are nothing but moving skeletons. To quote an incident, in 1976 two prisoners died, namely Reggie Hlatshwayo and George Mothosi. Note: Both Reggie Hlatshwayo and George Mothosi (or Mutusi) were members of the ANC of South Africa. "All these dead men could have been saved had they been allowed to see the doctor. There are also outstanding cases which need urgent medical attention but they are refused. If by chance Cpl Daniel Mpandi (earlier described as an unqualified medical assistant) takes the prisoners to Mr. McLeod (the white medical officer) for examination etc. the dispensary but nothing is done for them. He simply gives the prisoner medicine without consulting the qualified doctor or he just turns away the patient without treatment Or if the patient concerned is lucky he will be told to wait for the doctor Lewis who is the government hired doctor and visits the prison periodically. Dr. Lewis is nothing to prisoners and also the first thing he asks is the complaint, the name and the offence of crime and if by chance the offence happens to be a political one; he there and then tells the prisoner to go and seek treatment in Moscow or Peking and then turns the prisoner away without a look at him. The cells are so crowded that health conditions have deteriorated terribly, youngsters and elders sleep together like sardines, common diseases such as flu, ulcers, colds, diarrhoea etc. are rampant. It is also surprising that some of the already sentenced prisoners are frequently taken by the CIDs for torture."
WARDERS GAOLED AFTER DEATH OF PRISONER A corporal and two warders, all members of staff at Chikurubi Prison, were each sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in April this year for causing the death of a prisoner. Corporal Zivenga Machona, Warder Faray Chenjeya and Warder Benzine were found guilty of culpable homicide through assaulting John Daniel and causing injuries from which he died. A fourth man, Warder Samuel Kanume, was acquitted through lack of evidence. Salisbury Regional Court heard that the prisoner, John Daniel, had died from a combination of bronchial pneumonia and multiple injuries sustained in a beating.
