Mncedisi James Daniel MANGE, sentenced to death at the end of the Pietermaritzburg 12 trial aged 24, from Soweto, was charged with having received guerilla training in Angola and the Soviet Union, and with having returned to South Africa in July 1978 to reconnoitre various targets at Whittlesea.
He was said to have returned again in October 1978 to make arrangements for an attack. On this trip, according to an unnamed witness, Mange was dressed in clerical garb; the car in which he, the witness and another man were travelling from Soweto was stopped by traffic police in Warmbaths on their way to collect arms. In detention, the witness said he received a note from Mange describing his interrogation, urging him not to make a statement "even if tortured". The note ended "You are safe. Try and be vigilant". The witness confessed, however, after being assaulted by security police in Pietersburg.
Mange was also said to have shown "expert knowledge of artillery" by fixing the jammed breech-block of a Soviet anti-aircraft gun captured by the SADF when a South African officer was unable to rectify the fault.
In the application for leave to appeal against Mange's sentence, it is argued that the judge ought to have taken into account the lack of constitutional means available to them for social and political reform, and that he ought not to have regarded as "of no significance" the fact that the acts were done in the name of social justice and political reform. Further, Mange had not caused death, injury, or damage to property, had not had weapons in his possession when arrested and had not used weapons or explosives at any time in South Africa.
The application, presented by Mr. S. Kentridge, is expected to be heard some time in January.
James Mange's fiancée, Ms Dipuo Moerane, of Soweto, was released from nearly a year in detention at the conclusion of the trial. She and Mange have a three-year-old son, Prince Lehlohonolo.
