CONVICTIONS
MODISE, NKOSI, MOGALE
Freedom songs were sung inside the Kempton Park Regional Court after Thandi MODISE (21), Moses NKOSI (25) and Aaron MOGALE (21) were sentenced to imprisonment on 7 November 1980.
Modise was convicted on three charges under the Terrorism Act and sentenced to a total of sixteen years, but will effectively serve eight. Nkosi was sentenced to five years. His council lodged notice of appeal and bail was fixed at R2,000. Mogale was sentenced to two years and six months, suspended for five years.
Modise had told the court that she had joined the ANC and had received military training in Tanzania and Angola. She had learnt how to handle a variety of firearms and use explosives. She said that the ANC's aim was to create a South Africa which belonged to all its people. Modise was charged with undergoing military training between October 1976 and January 1978, with being in possession of a machinegun, ammunition and explosives and with placing explosives in two department stores in Johannesburg.
Nkosi, the father of Modise's child which was born in custody, and Mogale, Modise's cousin, were charged with assisting Modise by keeping a bag containing a firearm and explosives belonging to her.
4 ANC MEMBERS
Four members of the ANC have each been sentenced in the Odi Regional Court to six years imprisonment, with four years suspended for five years, for being in possession of illegal ANC pamphlets.
Alpheus MATHOPE (23), Karabo MADIBA (19), Emmanuel MADIBA (29), and Gerald SEOBELA (21), all of Ga-Rankuwa, pleaded not guilty to the charge. The court heard that during July 1979 the four were found in possession of the pamphlets.
CONTINUING TRIALS
VUYISILE MDLELENI and 5 OTHERS
A crowd of people packed the courtroom and shouted slogans when the banned poet and ex-official of the now banned Black Community Programmes, Vuyisile MDLELENI (28), appeared in the Johannesburg Regional Court on 14 November 1980 with five others charged under the Internal Security Act. The others are: a staff member of the University of the Witwatersrand, Themba SHONGWE (26), Norman MONEYAPOTE (39), Patrick GABOATHLOELOE (46), Sipho NHLAPO (18) and John MATANA (24).
Priscilla Jana, the banned advocate, told the court she had not been furnished with a charge sheet. 50 friends and relatives of the accused were ordered out of the court for shouting slogans.
The accused appeared again in January and were charged with being members of the ANC or the PAC whose aims were to "undermine law and order and stability in South Africa". All pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The trial has been marked by adjournments and postponements over the withholding of documents by the state. Uniformed policemen had to form a buffer between the dock and the public gallery because of the crowds attending. The trial continues.
OSCAR MPETHA and 17 OTHERS
Oscar MPETHA (71) the veteran trade unionist and SACTU founder member, appeared in a specially convened court at Pollsmoor Prison on 4 December with 17 others. Filing into a packed court, the group chanted and sang freedom songs until security officials threatened to send them back to their cells unless they stopped. Prison warders used metal detectors to screen relatives and friends coming into the heavily guarded courtroom. No evidence was led and no detailed charges put to the accused. Bail was refused.
The 18 appeared again on 11 December, again in a specially convened court at Pollsmoor Prison. The charges brought against them were one count of terrorism and two counts of murder. As a first alternative to the three main counts they were also charged with public violence and as a second alternative, conspiracy.
As they filed into the court they gave clenched fist salutes. At the end of the appearance, which lasted twenty minutes, spectators stood to join the accused in singing Nkosi Sikelele' iAfrika (national anthem of the liberation movement) before they were ushered out.
The charge sheet includes six instances of contravening the Terrorism Act, amongst them damaging motor vehicles, assaulting and injuring people, barringading roads and congregating in various places to incite others to commit such acts. They are charged with the murder of two men who died in a fire during the unrest at Crossroads in August last year. They were remanded in custody until 3 March, without being asked to plead.
The latest report is that Oscar Mpetha has been transferred to a prison hospital for his diabetic condition. His family saw him for the first time in December after he had been held for nearly four months.
MAVI and OTHERS
The State has withdrawn sabotage charges against the leaders of the Johannesburg municipal workers' strike. Joseph MAVI, president of the Black Municipal Workers' Union, Philip DLAMINI and Gatsby MAZWI, both BMWU officials, will be charged instead under the Riotous Assemblies Act. They are charged with inciting an illegal strike. The new charges represent a substantial reduction in the seriousness of the offence with which they were originally charged.
The Sabotage Act, carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years upon conviction and a maximum sentence of death. Under the Riotous Assemblies Act there is no mandatory minimum.
All three are out on bail and will appear again on 16 February.
PHALATSE and OTHERS
Seven men appeared briefly in the Pretoria Regional Court on 27 November 1980 on charges under the Terrorism Act that they had attempted, consented or took steps to undergo military training by travelling to Houdkop on the South African-Swaziland border. The names of the accused appear in the list of detainees in this issue of FOCUS.
At a later hearing on 26 January 1981, a State witness told the court that he had received a letter from Lesotho requesting him and one of the accused to join Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC. They had been driven to Swaziland by a man who recruited people for the ANC. Another witness told the court that he had been given a copy of the Freedom Charter and ANC pamphlets to distribute. The pamphlets were taken away from him when it became clear that he was not prepared to leave the country.
RIBEIRO and OTHERS
A Mamelodi medical practitioner, Dr. Fabian Defu RIBEIRO (48), who, with two youths, faces charges under the Terrorism Act, has been granted R500 bail. This is the first time that bail has been granted to a person facing charges under the Terrorism Act. The two youths have been remanded in custody until 12 January.
Dr. Ribeiro and the youths have pleaded not guilty to taking steps to undergo military training outside South Africa. Dr. Ribeiro further pleaded not guilty to advising or encouraging several youths between January and April 1980 to undergo military training.
GUY BERGER and OTHERS
A journalism lecturer at Rhodes University, Guy BERGER (24), journalism student Devandiren PILLAY (21), and Mandla GXANYANA (26) of Duncan Village, East London, appeared in the East London Magistrates Court on 28 November 1980, charged with two counts under the Internal Security Act. They were refused bail.
They appeared again on 18 December 1980 but the case was postponed to 21 January and then to 27 January. Gxanyana was detained in June last year, Pillay in July and Berger in August.
