At the end of January 1981 there were 150 people being detained in terms of South Africa's main security laws. According to figures given by the Minister of Police in parliament on 30 January, the numbers being held under the various Acts were: * 52 – Terrorism Act * 38 – Section 10, Internal Security Act * 40 – Section 12, Internal Security Act * 20 – General Law Amendment Act
Since January detentions have continued. As in previous months, numbers of pupils and students have been detained, in several parts of the country.
Amongst those detained were some members of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), one of them an executive member. These COSAS detentions were amongst several in the Witwatersrand and Vaal area at the end of February and in early March, which also included the detention of an executive member of the Young Christian Workers.
In April several people were detained in connection with rent protests in Tembisa.
About 20 people – many of them prominent members of AZAPO – were arrested on 4 April in connection with protests in Tembisa, near Kempton Park, over rent increases. Police used teargas to prevent residents holding a meeting about the issue, a man was shot, bottiestores set alight and vehicles stoned. After the arrests AZAPO issued a statement in which it charged that the harsh police actions were carried out to ensure that the Republic Day festivities run smoothly, to assure the White electorate that the Government is tough and to lend credibility to Community Council leaders who enforce the rent hikes.
At the beginning of March 20 pupils of Tshireleco Senior Secondary School in Galeshewe were in detention.
FOCUS 33 p 2 reported the detention of several members of the Galeshewe Action Committee, set up during the school boycott, and gave the names of two of them. The names of the rest detained in January are given in this issue's list. In February a further 12 Galeshewe pupils were detained.
In Cape Town the President and Vice-President of the Fezeka High School Students Representative Council were detained, after being acquitted of charges of sabotage. This provoked a demonstration of protest. On 4 March hundreds of pupils marched around the school buildings, carrying placards and singing freedom songs.
Under the heading 'Place of Detention' in this issue's list of new detainees will be seen the name of a place outside the borders of South Africa – Matola, in Mozambique. Here three members of the ANC were abducted in the South African Defence Force raid on the town on 30 January 1981. The detention of the three was confirmed by the South African police on 27 February. The Commissioner of Police, General Mike Geldenhuys, said in a statement that the men were being held in terms of the Terrorism Act and that police were investigating a possible connection between them and the sabotage attack on the Sasol plant last year.
Another incident took place in Swaziland which involved the abduction of a teacher, a South African refugee, on 19 February and his subsequent return three weeks later. The name of the person abducted, Daya Joe PILLAY, does not appear in the list of detainees as his disappearance and return to Swaziland occurred in mysterious circumstances.
Bonisile Philemon NORUSHE, branch secretary of the African Food and Canning Workers Union, has been detained since 15 June 1980. He was initially held under Section 22 of the General Law Amendment Act and then under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act. He was subsequently held under Section 12B of the Internal Security Act and was subpoenaed to give evidence in the Berger and Pillay trial.
Cynthia MONTWEDI, a former Terrorism Act detainee, has been paid R6,250 by the State. Her claim against the police has been pending for at least two years.
