Political trials under the Terrorism Act are taking place in many parts of South Africa at present – with the serious possibility of the death penalty being imposed in major trials such as in the case of the twelve people on trial in Pretoria. Five men in the Pietermaritzburg trial received life sentences in July for allegedly recruiting people for military training. In spite of repeated allegations of torture by the accused and key State witnesses, the judge had no hesitation in finding the nine guilty. In the Springs and Pretoria trials the accused stand charged with smuggling arms and explosives into the country and of training people to use them.
It is against this background that the recent remarks by Minister of Justice Kruger need to be seen. Speaking at the Cape Nationalist Party congress, the Minister said that compulsory death sentences for people attempting to overthrow the government by force should be considered. He referred to people who possessed foreign weapons for use "on a war basis" against the established order.
In July a representative of the International League for Human Rights, Mr. Martin Garbus, visited South Africa and attended some court hearings. In his report he wrote: "The trials, presided over by black-robed lawyers and red-robed English judges, who are addressed as your Lordship, are elegant facades covering one of the most vicious police states in the world." Referring to the Pretoria 12 trial he wrote of a different mood in the wider arena: "The spectators hang on to every word, and react to each answer. At lunch and at the end of each day's court session, the defendants, lifting their hands in black power salutes, shout 'amandla' (power). The audience answers 'ngawetu' (to us). It often becomes noisy to the point of provocation.... At the end of each court day the ANC prisoners are removed in a van that, as it drives through the street, is surrounded by hundreds of black spectators. Each day the blacks sing freedom songs and cheer the defendants."
