MAZWEMBE: Suicide verdict recorded on 8 September (see FOCUS 12 p.12). Evidence was given by Lt. M.L. Sekame, one of the policemen who arrested Mazwembe. Sekame said Mazwembe worked for the Western Province Workers Advice Bureau which was thought to be engaged in underground activities. Sekame has since been made deputy Police Commissioner in BophuthaTswana. (RDM 9.9.77)
MABIJA: Suicide verdict recorded in early September. Cause of death was given as multiple injuries following jump from sixth floor window; no one else was responsible (see FOCUS 12 p.12). At the inquest police claimed that Mabija led a double life as a church worker and underground activist as a member of the ANC. The head of the Security Police in the Northern Cape read from an alleged ANC pamphlet urging detainees to commit suicide. (W 11.9.77)
NTSHUNTSHA: Verdict - death by hanging, probably suicide; no one else responsible. Lt. Piet Kruger of Springs Security Police said he had interrogated Ntshuntsha who, he said, was not unwilling to talk. Questioning began on 6 January and apparently continued for three days. Ntshuntsha was then moved to Leandra in the Eastern Transvaal where he died on 9 January. The body was taken back to Springs, where it was apparently tampered with, and then to Johannesburg where it was examined by an eminent state pathologist, Prof. van Jaarsveld (name later given as J.J.F. Taljaard), who found that the head had already been opened with an incision behind the ear, and another incision 28 cm long, roughly stitched, on the abdomen. The pathologist also found several abrasions, on the left temple and in both ears, which he said could have been caused electrically or 'by impression', but had not been the cause of death, which he gave as hanging. There was a 2 cm mark on the neck. At the inquest, which closed on 5 October, the family's legal representative pressed for a verdict of 'death by hanging in inexplicable circumstances'. (RDM 16.9.77, 6.10.77).
