At the beginning of August Peter Moll, a young South African conscript who refuses to serve in the SADF, was officially recognised as a conscientious objector by the S.A. Army after having spent a total of 118 days in solitary confinement.
In December 1979 Moll was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment in military detention barracks for refusing to attend a three-week military training camp. This was his third conviction for failing to report for service. In a letter distributed by supporters before his court martial, Moll stated: "Our land is one of vast inequalities — in wealth, in power and in education ... This is a situation of fundamental injustice. Until it is the government's express intention to remove it, I will be unable in conscience to defend it".
On arrival at detention barracks at Voortrekkerhoogte in Pretoria, Moll was ordered to wear a standard army uniform. He refused to do so, arguing that this would identify him with the system he was refusing to serve, and as a result was subjected to recurring two-week periods of solitary confinement.
In April, Moll and fellow-resister, Richard Steele, went on hunger strike in protest and were supported by church leaders and christians throughout the country who held fasts and vigils in solidarity. An international campaign for the release of Moll and Steele and all imprisoned war resisters was launched by the London-based Committee of South African War Registers.
Repeated periods of solitary confinement continued until in July Moll again went on a three-day hunger strike. A few weeks later the army offered to release Moll if he would take a job as an orderly in a military hospital or as an assistant to a military pardre. He refused both, arguing that they would still identify him with the SADF. A week later the army conceded, granting him conscientious objector status.
He still has to serve out his sentence, but thereafter will no longer be liable to military call-up. The SADF has stressed that Moll's case is strictly an exception. He has been recognised purely as a religious objector.
