Six young Robben Island prisoners have been charged in absentia in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court with attempted murder.
The charges arise from an alleged attempt on the life of the second-in-command at the prison, a Captain Harding. According to a Prisons Department official: "an incident occurred at Robben Island on the morning of 9 February during which members of the Prisons Department were injured. Captain Harding was stabbed".
The prisoners are: Vusimuzi Mcongo (19), Zuko Camaqu (18), Elliot Mncedisi Siswana (22), Tamsanqa Jeffrey Klaas (22), Khumbelele Mnikina (29) and Fezile Lawrence Mvula (20).
Jeffrey Klaas was sentenced to an effective term of three years' imprisonment in October 1978 for furthering the aims of the ANC. Khumbelele Mnikina was sentenced under the Terrorism Act to 13 years' imprisonment in June 1978, and Fezile Lawrence Mvula was sentenced to two periods of five years' in May 1978 in two separate trials under the Sabotage Act. Recently Lawrence Mvula's sentence was reduced to seven years. Elliot Siswana was sentenced in 1978 to an unknown term.
The other two young men whose cases were not previously reported, and presumably are people sentenced for sabotage since 1976. Many of these cases were never reported in the press.
A total of 447 political prisoners - nine of them under 18 years of age - were serving sentences on Robben Island at the end of April 1979, the then Minister of Prisons, Mr. J.T. Kruger, stated in parliament.
A further 220 prisoners serving sentences for offences other than "crimes against the state" were also on Robben Island, Mr. Kruger revealed. This figure appears not to include the approximately 50 Namibian political prisoners on Robben Island, but even so IDAF considers this figure an underestimation. However it is known that before release political prisoners usually spend several months in mainland prisons, and that newly convicted prisoners equally sometimes spend several months in mainland prisons before being sent to Robben Island. If Mr. Kruger's figures are correct then the black male political prisoners not on Robben Island, together with the Namibian prisoners, the white political prisoners and the women, must be added to his figure for the total number of convicted political prisoners in South Africa. IDAF estimates this at 550 at least.
The names of three political prisoners in South Africa, whose cases were not previously reported, have appeared in recent newspaper articles.
Two of them are Vusumuzi MCONGO (19) and Zuko CAMAQU (18) who are both serving sentences on Robben Island. They are at present charged with four others with the attempted murder of a prison official.
The third political prisoner is Mrs. Elizabeth NHLAPO who was described as "serving a five-year sentence for her political activities" by Post on 13.3.79. She testified as a state witness at the Terrorism Act trial of Mrs. Ethel Wauchope and Washington Mlauzi at the Johannesburg Regional Court in March.
It has been reported that the former SSRC chairman Sehaba MONTSITSI, who was sentenced to an effective term of four years' imprisonment on 11 May, may serve his sentence on Robben Island, even though he was convicted of sedition.
Sedition is a common law offence in South Africa, and so those convicted of it would not be expected to be treated as political prisoners. No mention was made of the other three who were imprisoned at the end of the trial.
According to figures released in Parliament the average daily number of prisoners for each race group is: Africans: 73,185; coloureds: 21,225; Indians: 607; whites 4,275. These figures were for the year ending 30 June, 1978. This means South Africa has one of the highest prison populations per general population in the world.
According to figures given in parliament on short-term sentences by former Supreme Court judge and Opposition M.P., Kowie Marais, in the year ending June 1978, about 90,000 people were jailed in South Africa for one month, another 90,000 were jailed for up to four months and 25,000 more for between four and six months.
