A total of 306 people were known to be in security police detention at the beginning of July, according to figures compiled by the South African Institute of Race Relations. This does not include the 53 people then held under the internment provisions of the Internal Security Act. 169 detainees — over half the total — were school pupils. Again, over half of these — 99 — have been in detention for over 18 months.
Of these 306 detainees, 180 are being held under the Terrorism Act, 111 under the Criminal Procedure Act or the Internal Security Act (Section 12b), as potential state witnesses, and 15 under the General Laws Amendment Act.
Since October 1977, 89 people have been detained under the Section 10 provisions of the ISA, that is, under the internment provisions of the Act. These provisions were renewed on 4 August, allowing the continued detention of the 15 people still held under the Act. These include Thandisizwe MAZIBUKO and Sedupe RAMOKGORA of the Soweto Committee of 10; Hlaku RACHIDI and Rev. Drake TSHENKENG, formerly of BPC; Aubrey MOKOENA, former director of the Black Community Programmes; journalist Jubey MAYET, and Peter JONES, who was detained together with Steve Biko.
Since the end of June, 62 people have been released from detention, the majority being those held under the internment provisions of the ISA. However, in the same period, another 70 people have been detained, most of whom are being held under investigative detention laws.
Some of the 169 school pupils detained were reported to be as young as 13 years old. Many have been held for long periods often in solitary confinement.
The Rand Daily Mail, drawing attention to the plight of long term Terrorism Act detainees, particularly the school children, wrote on 2.8.78: "Keeping adults in detention without trial is bad enough, but children as young as 13 and 14 — it's unthinkable!... Why have they been held for so long? If there are indeed charges pending, why have the children not been released into the custody of their parents? There can be no reasonable explanation for this scandalous situation."
Concern for their safety has been highlighted by the continuing evidence of torture and assault by the Security Police, and by recent cases of serious injury to young detainees. In July the parents of Jefferson LENGANE (21), detained under the Terrorism Act, discovered that he had been admitted to hospital with a broken leg. Refused permission to see him they were incredulous at the Security Police explanation that although held in solitary confinement he had been "hurt while playing soccer with his friends". Another young detainee, Joseph MNGINA (19) was admitted into an intensive care unit in Baragwanath hospital in July. His parents heard from another patient that he had been shot in his cell, but they too were refused permission to see him.
Many young people have simply disappeared since 1976. Some only turn up when police finally inform the parents that their relative is being held, often a year or more later. Although no figures are available on how many people have vanished without trace, a Reuters report suggests that "hundreds" are involved. A recent case has added a more ominous note to this problem. In June two policemen visited the mother of Elias SHIBURI, detained in March, 1977, to return his clothes. When she asked what was happening to him she was informed that he had been released three months earlier She has neither seen nor heard from him since his detention.
