RENFREW CHRISTIE
Renfrew CHRISTIE was sentenced on 6 June to an effective term of 10 years in prison by the Pretoria Supreme Court after being found guilty on five out of seven charges under the Terrorism Act. The total sentences, to run concurrently, were 30 years. Christie was granted leave to appeal.
Christie's conviction was on charges relating to the collection of information on South Africa's nuclear programme for the African National Congress. He was found guilty of conspiring with the ANC and with supplying information on South Africa's energy reserves to an official of the ANC. He was also found guilty of sending to the International University Exchange Fund (IUEF) classified information on where it was seismologically safe to explode a nuclear device in South Africa. The judge said that this was something which would endanger the maintenance of law and order and was for that reason an offence under the Terrorism Act.
Christie was further found guilty on the charge that he had sent a blueprint of the Koeberg nuclear power station and a report on public relations techniques for gaining public installations, to the ANC, and of gathering information of Duvha and Kriel power stations and Amcoal open cast mine to send to the ANC.
The prosecution case rested primarily on the evidence of Captain Craig WILLIAMSON, a member of the security police who had infiltrated the IUEF and became its deputy director, and on a statement by Christie to the police.
The defence contested the admissibility of the statement on the grounds that it had been made under duress, after Christie had been made to stand a whole night under interrogation.
In the statement, read to the court, Christie said he was fully aware of what he was doing and that he sympathised with the aims of the ANC. He also said that he had found copies of the blueprint of the Koeberg power station, a classified document of the South African Atomic Energy Board, in the Escom library. Williamson's evidence included statements that he had as an official of the IUEF agreed that Christie could have £200 of IUEF funds to carry out research into questions relating to energy in South Africa and that the Director of the IUEF had arranged for other funds to be made available to Christie to finance this research.
CONTINUING TRIALS
MOGALE AND MAKUNYANE
Ephraim MOGALE, president of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) and Thabo MAKUNYANE (24) student at the University of the North and a member of the Black Art Union, appeared in Pietersburg Regional Court on 21 April charged under the Terrorism Act. It is alleged that they promoted the objects of communism and the African National Congress, that they recruited for the ANC and encouraged the formation of youth clubs to promote unrest between 1977 and 1979. They are also alleged to have produced and distributed various pamphlets with titles including "Being Black in South Africa Today", "Declaration of War" and "Come let us Unite and Defeat Our Oppressors". The establishment of the Communist Advance Movement (CAM) is also attributed to them.
MODISE, NKOSI, MOGALE
A Natal woman, Thandi MODISE (20), and two Soweto men, Moses KNOSI (24) and Aaron MOGALE (21) appeared in the Johannesburg Regional Court on 21 April on charges under the Terrorism Act. Modise, who is accused of propagating the aims of the ANC, is alleged to have undergone military training in Tanzania or Angola, to have endangered the maintenance of law and order at or near Johannesburg, and to have been in possession of explosives, ammunition and a pistol. She is alleged to have conspired with the others to set alight the clothing division of OK Bazaars in Johannesburg and to have spied on the Krugersdorp police station and administration board offices with the intention of committing sabotage. Mogale and Nkosi are alleged to have harboured Modise on her return to South Africa and to have stored explosives and a firearm belonging to her.
The case was postponed for hearing at the Kempton Park Magistrates Court on 16 June.
NINE GUERILLAS
The trial of nine men on various charges arising out of the attacks on Soekmekaar police station and on Silverton Volkskas Bank was postponed on 2 June to 4 August, at the request of the defence advocate.
All the accused had refused to answer questions when they appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court in April, but said it should be recorded that they had been members of the ANC.
BENTLEY AND MZINYATHI
The trial of Bingo Mbonjeni BENTLEY and Archibald Monti MZINYATHI, accused under the Terrorism Act, resumed on 6 May after a postponement. Mzinyathi is accused of undergoing military training in the Soviet Union in 1977 and Bentley with harbouring him after he is said to have returned in 1978. The hearing was postponed until 7 July.
The court spent several days considering the admissibility as evidence of statements by the two accused. Despite their testimony that they were assaulted and forced to make the statements, the magistrate ruled these were admissible. He also turned down a second application to hear evidence on commission from witnesses in Lesotho which the defence said would show Mzinyathi was in Lesotho when the state alleges he was in the Soviet Union.
The court also allowed the admission of sketches and diagrams of bombs and booby-traps allegedly drawn by Mzinyathi while in detention, which the prosecution claimed were similar to those used in recent guerilla attacks.
While the admissability of the statements was being considered, evidence was heard from the district surgeon who saw the accused when they complained of assaults. Bentley had complained of shoulder and head injuries and said the police had assaulted him with a tyre. The district surgeon, who said he saw no injuries supporting the claim, revealed that whenever examining a detainee, he always gave duplicate reports of their complaints to the police. The duplicates contain reports of their illnesses and injuries caused by the alleged police assaults and so on. Challenged by the defence as to the ethics of this he replied "I have ethics. This is a routine matter and I have no control over it".
FUNDS WITHHELD
Money sent from overseas to the family of a political prisoner on Robben Island was withheld for six months by the Port Elizabeth post office manager on the grounds that it came from "terrorist sources".
In October 1979 the family of Zweibanzi NZOTHOYI, serving 7 years, were notified from Pretoria of money to be collected on his behalf, but the local post office clerk refused to allow this. Several subsequent payments, totalling R2000, were blocked, and the Nzothoyi family were evicted from their township home for failure to pay rent. After the matter was investigated, the Post Office claimed that the blockage had been caused by a missing receipt. The money would now be paid, and it was incorrect to suggest that the department was interfering with overseas mail and money legally being sent into South Africa.
TRANSKEI STATE OF EMERGENCY
A 'state of emergency' was declared in the Transkei on 5 June, specifically to restrict the movement of students. Declared under Section 44 of the Transkei's Public Security Act, the proclamation forbids all students from leaving home except to attend school or church.
Penalties are up to five years' imprisonment, fines up to R1000 or a maximum of ten lashes. Permission to leave a municipal area must be sought by students from police or magistrate. If charged under the new proclamation, the burden of proving innocence rests with the accused, with the accused.
As in the rest of the country, students at school and college in the Transkei have been protesting against unequal education and the apartheid system. Following the proclamation there were more demonstrations. Chief George Matanzima, Prime Minister of the Transkei, alleged that they were instigated by the liberation movements, the ANC and PAC. Several persons said to belong to these organisations have been in detention since 1978.
