Claims amounting to more than R500,000 were made against J. T. Kruger in his capacity as Minster of Justice, Police and Prisons since 1976, as a result of alleged assaults on political detainees and on ordinary prisoners, and for wrongful arrest. The total number of claims brought since 1974, when Mr. Kruger became Minster of Police, have exceeded R1-million. Mr. Kruger was dropped from the Cabinet in June.
Since the beginning of 1979, Mr. Kruger had made at least three out-of-court settlements amounting to over R20,000 by the end of May. This included one to Mrs. Mdluli, wife of former ANC member Joseph Mdluli who died in detention in March 1976, of R15,000.
In 1978, 72 people filed claims totalling R187,725 for assaults and R32,050 for wrongful arrests.
One of the biggest individual claims was brought by Mrs. Ntsiki Biko, who is claiming R90,000 for the death in detention of her husband, black leader Steve Biko. Another large claim was made by Stanley Ndlovu, the Pretoria youth who was shot during the uprisings in 1976 by Constable Kallie Knoetze and had one of his legs amputated. Another claim is the R131,000 against the Minster by 13 of the 18 accused in the Bethal PAC trial for alleged assault during detention.
There were an estimated 152 people known to be detained without trial in South Africa as at 1 January 1979 according to records of the South African Institute of Race Relations. In a report in the Star, the names of 46 people who had been detained during 1979, and who were not known to have been released were listed. In March 40 people were in detention in the Transkei under the Transkei Public Security Act, according to Mr. Digby Koyana, Transkei Minister of Justice.
An unnamed 14-year-old girl told a Port Elizabeth regional court in April how security police had assaulted her in detention, breaking one of her knees.
She had been called to give evidence in the trial of three 19-year-old youths who were appearing on charges of arson. She had been called as a State witness and was warned as an accomplice. She told the court how, at the Sanlam security police headquarters in Port Elizabeth, a black security policeman had bashet her against a wall, hit her with his fists and kicked her while interrogating her about a gun of which she knew nothing. As a result her knee was broken and her face became swollen. She said she had had no clean clothes or toiletries for 14 days. Security Police had also threatened to hang her from a rope which hung against a window if she did not tell the truth.
A Soweto woman Fancy Martha NGWENYA, appealed through her lawyer to the Attorney General in early May in a "desperate bid" to help trace her husband, Lucas NGWENYA who was detained by security police on 22 June 1977.
Repeated attempts to find out his whereabouts from the police had been unsuccessful.
Two parents of two detainees told the VOICE newspaper in May, that they still did not know their son's whereabouts, even though the security police claim to have released the two detainees long ago.
Mrs. Sarah Shiburi of Soweto has reported her son, Elias Shiburi (29), as a "missing person". He was detained in March 1976, and she saw him in detention in October 1976 and she has not seen him since. In June 1978 two police-men arrived at her house with some of his clothing (which was torn) saying that he had long since been released.
Mrs Regina Nomvula Nomgquokwana of New Brighton said her son Miselo (25) was detained on 9 June 1978 under the General Law Amendment Act and was later transferred to Terrorism Act detention. In April 1979 his mother wrote to the Minster of Justice and received a reply from the Commissioner of Police stating that Miselo had been released on 8 August 1978.
Mrs Nomgquokwana commented: "My son is a very sober person and would definitely inform me if he intended to leave the country; at least we would be knowing by now".
The Commissioner of Prisons replied to Mrs Shiburi's lawyers saying that all efforts to locate him had been fruitless.
In Parliament the opposition spokesman on justice and police matters, Mrs. Helen Suzman, said that the magistrates who paid fortnightly visits to Peter Jones when he was in detention under the Terrorison Act, must have seen injuries inflicted on him during interrogation, but they did nothing about it. "They seemed to take it for granted that Section Six people can be treated in any way whatever".
Mrs. Suzman described Mr Jones's detention as "another Biko case in the making". She said Mr. Jones was kept naked and was not allowed to bath or exercise during the two months that he was held at Algoa Park police station in Port Elizabeth, and that he had visible injuries after being interrogated by the security police.
