Three men were convicted in the Port Elizabeth Regional Court on 19 July of being members of an underground movement, the People's United Front for the Liberation of South Africa. Mlukeli GEORGE, 31, of Kingwilliamstown, and Simon MLONYENI, 26, of Mdantsane, East London, were each sentenced to five years' imprisonment, a year of which was suspended for five years. The third accused, Phila NKAYI, 22, of Grahamstown, was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, one year suspended for five years.
A 21-year-old student Ntsumbedzeni Alson TSHIDAYA was sentenced to a total of 20 years' imprisonment on four counts under the Terrorism Act in the Pietersburg Regional Court on 19 June 1978. However the four counts will run concurrently, so he will actually serve a five year sentence.
A 17-year-old unnamed youth was sentenced to five years' imprisonment on 22 June for writing letters from jail telling friends where to get military training.
Mbongani Clement KHANYI (53) was sentenced to two-and-a-half years' imprisonment for furthering the aims of a banned organisation in the Durban Regional Court on 22 August 1978.
A 19-year-old school student, Ms. Truelove Mahlodi NGOAKU, was given an 18-month suspended prison sentence for furthering the aims of a banned organisation, the ANC, by wearing a lapel sticker, in a Johannesburg court in late August.
Petrus MOLEFE was imprisoned for 15 years after a trial which his family did not know about and in which he had no legal representation. Petrus 'Bushy' Molefe, 23, of Brakpan, was apparently detained on 19 February under Section Six of the Terrorism Act. Apparently while in detention he was "injured while trying to escape". Apparently he was admitted to Leeuwkop prison (en route to Robben Island) on 29 March, after being sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment on unspecified Terrorism Act charges at an unspecified hearing.
Gladwell MBALI who was reported in FOCUS 17 (p.2) as having been convicted for PAC activities received a sentence of ten years' imprisonment in the East London Regional Court in early March.
Four unnamed youths aged 14-16 were sentenced to five years' imprisonment for sabotage in a "special makeshift court" in Algoa Park police station in Port Elizabeth.
The trial of 18 alleged members of the Pan-Africanist Congress in Bethal is in its eighth month. Anonymous witnesses continue to give evidence in camera for the State against the 18, who face charges under the Terrorism Act of conspiring to overthrow the Government and of furthering the aims of the PAC between 1963 and 1977. In May this year it was reported that the instructing attorney for the defence, Griffiths Mxenge, had received a death threat and that attempts had been made on his life. Mr. Mxenge, a former member of the ANC and Robben Island prisoner, is currently under a banning order. He received a letter threatening him with the same fate as Rick Turner, a university lecturer who was shot dead by an unknown assailant at his home in Durban this year.
Eleven members of the South African Students' Movement (SASM) appeared in the Randburg Magistrates' Court on 28 August charged with sedition or alternatively a Terrorism Act offence. The indictment alleges that SASM was the main force behind the Soweto unrest during 1976 and '77, and mobilised black school pupils with the "ultimate object of contributing towards the liberation of blacks". SASM, it is alleged, formed a local "action committee" in Soweto which later became the Soweto Students' Representative Council (SSRC) and which sought confrontation with the police and committed various offences, including murder, arson, public violence, and destruction of Government property. The eleven accused are Wilson Wellie TWALA, (18), Sechaba MONTSITSI (23), Seth MAZIBUKO (19), Mafison MOROBE (22), Khotso LENGANE (21), Ms. Susan MTHEMBU (22), Thabo NDABENI (21), Kennedy MOGAMI (19), Reginald MNGOMEZULU (21), Michael KHIBA (20) and George TWALA (23).
