Soweto community leader Dr. Nthato Motlana was threatened with "permanent detention" after his speech at the 16 June commemorative meeting in Soweto. According to Dr. Motlana the warning was issued by Soweto police chief, Brig. Jan Visser. At the commemoration service in Soweto's Regina Mundi Cathedral Dr. Motlana compared the Nationalist Government with the Third Reich. "The twilight of a little freedom is over", he said. "We are entering a period of darkness". (GN 21.6.78)
South Africa is increasingly moving towards the position which obtained in Rhodesia from the early sixties, where the authorities held large numbers of people in indefinite detention. Between July 1976 and June 1977 the South African authorities held a total of 1089 people in detention. At least 650 people are currently detained according to the most recent figures (Dept. of Prisons Annual Report 1976-7, p.19; RDM 11.3.78)
A number of those currently detained have recently been transferred from detention in terms of 'investigative' detention laws like the Terrorism Act to the internment-type detention provided for by the Internal Security Act. Those affected have often served previous periods of detention and have been connected with the student and anti-apartheid organisations banned in October 1977. They include: Ms. Nohle MOHAPI, widow of Mapetla Mohapi who died in detention in August 1976; Ms. Xoliswa NQABENI and Nosipho KETO, both former employees of BCP; Asha RAMBALLY former editor of BCP's Black Review; Thami ZANI former BCP publicity secretary; Ray MAGIDA and Fikile MLINDA, and former secretary-general Barney PITYANA. (DD 16.3.78)
One former ISA detainee, Mr. Jacob MAMABOLO has been transferred to detention under the Terrorism Act. (DD 24.3.78)
Meanwhile there is continuing concern for the fate of the many detainees who have been held for long periods. Among these are the five children of Margaret Ngubeni who were detained after a police swoop on their homes in Soweto in June 1977. (See FOCUS No. 12 p.13). They are Sibongile (17), Virginia (16), Busizwe (18), Herbert (22) and Thembi (26). (Post 17.3.78). In the Transkei the mother of detained Phumelele Cecil VANDA appealed for help to the East London Daily Dispatch when police refused to supply her with any information of her son's whereabouts. She has heard nothing of him since his detention in November 1977. (DD 29.3.78)
Peter Jones who was detained with Steve Biko in August 1977 also remains detained, although he is now held under the ISA. (RDM 10.6.78)
STATE WITNESSES
According to the Minister of Police and Justice, 111 prospective state witnesses are currently detained. (RDM 13.5.78). Legislation under which these people are held has recently been amended so that they may now be detained continuously until the trial (or trials) for which they are required is completed, provided that such trial begins within 6 months of their detention under the Criminal Procedure Act. Previously state witnesses could only be held for up to 6 months. (RDM 17.5.78)
The fate of a number of state witnesses who refused to give the required evidence, and in many cases spoke of their torture by the Security Police and pleaded unsuccessfully for protection, is unknown. Many appear to have been redetained, probably under the Terrorism Act.
CONCERN FOR CHILDREN
The International Commission of Jurists has expressed its serious concern at the detention and ill-treatment of children in South African prisons. In a report issued in Geneva the jurists called for the urgent establishment of a Commission to examine all aspects of detention in South Africa. According to the report a "large portion" of the 2,430 people known to have been detained over the past 18 months were children. Almost 200 children were being held in detention at the beginning of this year.
Children as young as 10 years old have been held in solitary confinement for several months and "there have been disquieting allegations that young children have been subjected to assaults and brutality by the police". The jurists said children had given accounts of torture involving electric shocks, beatings, whippings and suffocation. In Port Elizabeth one of the accused in a trial had turned out to be only seven years old. (Detention of Children in South Africa: A Special Report prepared by the International Commission of Jurists)
CATHOLIC YOUTHS DETAINED
The Security Police have recently stepped up their harassment of the Catholic youth movement, according to several Churchmen. Four members of the Young Catholic Workers (YCW) were detained in May (see list of detainees). They included the YCW's first black president Simon Phelelo MAGANE (25).
The South African YCW is affiliated to the international YCW which was founded in Belguim in 1913. The YCW has links with the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation. (RDM 9/28.5.78 CT 30.5.78; CT 10.6.78).
By mid-June over 20 members of the YCW had been detained, in what the South African YCW chaplain called increasing "persecution of the Catholic Church". (CT 19.6.78)
