JUST PUBLISHED
Whirlwind before the Storm
THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE UPRISING IN SOWETO AND THE REST OF SOUTH AFRICA, JUNE-DECEMBER 1976
by Alan Brooks and Jeremy Brickhill
This book, the first to draw heavily on the students' own accounts of their experiences, reveals how the pressures were building up under the surface before 1976, and sheds new light on the regime's responses, concealing its own losses and weaknesses and the brutal atrocities it unleashed on the black communities. Essential reading for anybody who seeks to understand why the student movement is surging forward once again.
396 pages including 16 pages of illustrations; price £8.00 for case bound edition, £4.00 for paper back edition, including packing and postage U.K. only. Published July 1980.
Available from: Publications Department, International Defence and Aid Fund, 104 Newgate Street, London EC1A 7AP.
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HELEN JOSEPH BANNED AGAIN
On 25 June Mrs. Helen Joseph was served with a new banning order preventing her from attending political gatherings and addressing meetings for two years.
This is the fourth ban to be imposed on Mrs. Joseph, who is now 75 years old and who was the first person to be placed under house arrest in 1962. She was originally banned in 1957, the bans being renewed in 1962 and 1967 and lifted in 1971 after she underwent a major operation.
Since 1971 she has been able to address meetings in various parts of South Africa, although as a 'listed Communist' she could not be quoted. In the 1950s Mrs. Joseph was a member of the Congress of Democrats and active in the Defiance Campaign and other protest movements.
In the weeks before her latest ban she travelled from her Johannesburg home to address meetings in Cape Town, Durban and elsewhere in connection with the schools boycott, the Release Mandela campaign and the detention of political activists.
NEW BANS
Curtis NKONDO was banned for 3 years on 23 May shortly after his release from detention. He had been detained in April after addressing students at the University of the Witwatersrand on the schools boycott. A leading figure in the black community, Nkondo is Chairman of the Soweto Teachers Action Committee, which represents the majority of teachers who resigned during the 1976-77 schools protests, and was the first president of AZAPO. The banning order confines him to the magisterial district of Johannesburg and also prevents him from teaching anyone other than his own children.
Two men were banned within days of their release from Robben Island. Kader HASSIM of Pietermaritzburg was banned for 5 years and Mogemi MOENG of Johannesburg for 2 years. The were convicted under the Terrorism Act along with 11 others in 1972, all members of the African People's Democratic Union of South Africa (APDUSA). Kader Hassim and Mogemi Moeng were given the longest sentences of 8 years along with three others, Bransby VUSANI, Mgolwane MBELE and Phindiso ZIMAMBANE. All were released on April 5.
BANS LIFTED
The ban on John COPELYN was lifted at the beginning of May. It had been imposed in November 1976 when more than 20 people associated with trade unions were banned. Barney DU PLESSIS's name was removed in May from the list of named Communists.
BANNED PERSONS
Jairus KGOKONG, who was banned in December 1978 for 5 years, lost an appeal against a 2-year sentence under the Terrorism Act passed on 23 March 1978. He was later reported to have left the country.
Two Port Elizabeth men were each given a 6-month suspended sentence for helping Thozamile BOTHHA break his banning order by escaping from Port Elizabeth to Lesotho. Phakamise MENTE (30) and Nikele NTLALI (32) pleaded guilty.
Earlier Mrs Fezeka BOTHHA successfully applied for a court interdict preventing two security policemen from molesting or assaulting her. She made an urgent application after questioning by the security police after her husband's disappearance. She said she was made to stand during interrogation from early evening till the following morning and that during questioning she was assaulted and kicked by two security policemen Capt. de Plessis and Lieut. Moolman. The judge ordered them not to assault her. Mrs. Botha was later believed to have left the country to join her husband. Mono BADELA, who was detained along with Thozamile BOTHHA in January and banned on release, was questioned for about 5 hours by the security police.
CONTRAVENTION
Father Sipho MKHATSHWA appeared in the Pretoria Regional Court charged with contravening his banning order. He is alleged to have received visitors and attended a gathering on June 15 and 20 last year. The case was postponed until June 26.
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The International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa has the following objects (i) to aid, defend and rehabilitate the victims of unjust legislation and oppressive and arbitrary procedures; (ii) to support their families and dependants (iii) to keep the conscience of the world alive to the issues at stake.
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For attention US subscribers only International Defence and Air Fund for Southern Africa, US Committee P.O. Box 17, Cambridge, MA 02138.
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Sources and abbreviations: BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation Survey of World Broadcasts; Cit - The Citizen, Johannesburg; CT - Cape Times; DD - Daily Dispatch, East London; Debates - House of Assembly Debates, Cape Town; DN - Daily News, Durban; GG - Government Gazette, Pretoria; GN - Guardian, London; FM - Financial Mail, Johannesburg; FT - Financial Times, London; MS - Morning Star, London; NW - Natal Witness, Pietermaritzburg; Obs - Observer, London; Post - Post, Johannesburg; RDM - Rand Daily Mail, Johannesburg; SP - Sunday Post, Johannesburg; ST - Sunday Times, Johannesburg; Star - Star weekly edn., Johannesburg; Tel - Daily Telegraph, London; T - Times, London; WA - Windhoek Advertiser, Namibia; WO - Windhoek Observer, Namibia.
Typeset by The Alden Press, (London & Northampton) Ltd and printed by Alden & Billingham Ltd, Northampton ISSN no: 0308-3586
