After living for a month under the restrictions imposed by a 3-year banning order, Thozamile BOTHA left Zwide Township in Port Elizabeth to which he was restricted and crossed into Lesotho. The South African police were reported to be launching urgent investigations into how he escaped.
Thozamile Botha, formerly Chairman of the Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation (PBECO) was banned for 3 years at the end of February. An application for a relaxation of the ban so that he could return to work was rejected, as was the application for a relaxation by another banned PBECO member, Lizo PITYANA, who wanted to attend church services. Another banned PBECO colleague, Don QEQE, appeared in Port Elizabeth Magistrates Court in March on a charge of contravening his restriction order; the hearing was postponed till 3 April and then again until 7 May.
Winnie Mandela, confined since 1977 to Brandfort in the Free State, has applied for a passport so that she can take part in celebrations marking the first anniversary of Grenada's revolution. If the application is successful, she will also go to India to accept on Nelson Mandela's behalf, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award. Her banning orders will also need relaxing if she is successful in interviews she has had for a job with the Sigr~ Motor Corporation.
Dr Mamphela Ramphele, banned and restricted to the Napumo area of Tzaneen, has been refused permission to have her banning order relaxed so that she can study a course in medicine relevant to the Tzaneen area at the University of the Witwatersrand. The application was turned down twice, first in March and again in April after the case had been taken up by the Medical Association of South Africa.
The Transkei Youth League has been declared an unlawful organisation and its organiser Teddy Mpahlwa has been arrested.
Aubrey Mokoena was acquitted in March after being charged with contravening his banning order.
David Russell, on bail pending the outcome of an appeal against a 12-month sentence for contravening banning orders, was convicted on a number of further charges in April resulting in a fine of R500 and sentences totalling 8 months, suspended for 5 years. The fine, with an option of three months imprisonment was for being in possession of the banned book Biko by Donald Woods. The 8 months suspended prison sentence was for three contraventions of the Internal Security Act — 6 months for two contraventions of his banning order and 2 months for distributing a publication about police actions in Crossroads in 1978.
In the year ending 30 June 1979 a total of 355 persons were charged under the Immorality Act, according to the Minister of Police. The police investigated 350 suspected contraventions of the Act.
