TSOTSOBE and OTHERS The trial of the three alleged ANC members, Anthony Bobby TSOTSOBE (25), Johannes SHABANGU (26) and David MOISE (25), who are accused, amongst other things, of attacking the Booysens Police Station and the Sasol oil-from-coal plants last year, continued on 2 June in the Pretoria Supreme Court.
The three are charged with high treason, and alternatively with terrorism, robbery and attempted murder. They all pleaded not guilty to these charges in the Pretoria Magistrates Court in April this year. They are charged additionally with establishing underground bases and of being in possession of arms, ammunition and explosives.
A man who was allegedly captured in the South African Defence Force raid on ANC residences at Matola, Mozambique, in January this year, gave evidence for the State and claimed that he had been one of the group who had been responsible for the ANC attack on the Sasol installations. He identified the three accused and claimed that Moise was captured with him in the SADF raid at Matola. He also said that he had seen Moise in Mozambique during the report-back session after the Sasol sabotage mission and had heard him say that he had been there.
The defence of the three accused claimed that violence had been used on Tsotsobe to force him to 'point out' where he had allegedly committed his offences. A security policeman giving evidence for the State claimed that Tsotsobe had voluntarily shown him various places, including Booysens police station.
Tsotsobe himself told the court how he had been repeatedly assaulted by security police-men in a Soweto police station "truth room". He was stripped, handcuffed and beaten with a length of hosepipe by the security police. A wet sack was also pulled tightly over his head preventing him from breathing properly. This treatment was continued for three days and on the fourth day he had broken down and admitted taking part in the Booysens police station attack, in bombing the Dieploof WRAB offices and in the gutting of Uncle Tom's Hall. During the 'pointing-out' sessions he had also constantly been hit and threatened.
The trial was adjourned on 10 June to allow the defence counsel to trace and interview witnesses to oppose the admissability of a statement made by Tsotsobe to a magistrate while under detention. Medical evidence was submitted which described a number of marks and scars consistent with the injuries which Tsotsobe had claimed had been inflicted on him by the police.
The trial resumed on 21 July with the defence presenting four former security legislation detainees to give evidence of how they had been forced to make statements after being tortured by the police.
Themba SHONGWE said that during lengthy interrogations over several days he was made to stand naked and handcuffed in a corridor during winter last year. He had been repeatedly beaten and subjected to electric shocks with his hands and feet bound together. Masedi Norman MONYEPOTE said he was subjected to the same ordeals for five nights. He said he was placed between two chairs after being blindfolded, made to hold a brick high above his head and jog for a long time while being hit with a length of hosepipe. He was also made to sit in an imaginary chair for a long time. He was only permitted to write out a statement after confessing that certain statements made to him were true.
Vuyisile MDLELENI said that his hands had been handcuffed behind his back so tightly that they could not be unlocked to enable him to eat. Eventually he had to be carried - with swollen legs from sleepless nights of torture - to a fire station where the manacles had to be cut off.
Keresewe Patrick GABOATHLOLOE made similar claims to the others and a 17 year old schoolgirl claimed that police had used a piece of hosepipe to assault her and had slapped her face after she had denied certain photographs shown to her were of her boyfriend.
Security police denied having tortured or assaulted the four witnesses and claimed that while conducting their enquiries with Tsotsobe they had even entertained him to a barbecue with beer and cigarettes. The trial continues.
OSCAR MPETHA and 18 OTHERS The marathon trial of SACTU founder member and one-time President of the Cape ANC, Oscar MPETHA (71), and 18 others, continued in the Cape Town Supreme Court until 12 June, when it was postponed until 4 August.
The 19 face charges under the Terrorism Act and two charges of murder arising from the deaths of two whites who died in the unrest at Crossroads in August last year.
The 15 year old state witness mentioned in the last issue of FOCUS (p.4) was excused after spending eight days in the witness box under intensive cross-examination by the counsel for the defence. A second witness, a 17 year old youth who suffered from epilepsy, asked that his evidence be heard in camera because of threats that had been made to his mother. The defence maintained that the real reason why the youth wanted to give evidence in camera was because he was scared of being called a "sell-out" in the townships. The judge ruled that he be heard in public and not in camera as the first witness was.
The second witness claimed that he had attended meetings where Mpetha had told him about the "Comrades", saying they were people who were fighting for the nation, and that if they were arrested while about to embark on their "boycotts", he would see to it that the ANC helped to defend them. Also, Mpetha had said that the "Comrades" would have to fight the whites because they were oppressing the blacks and would not give them their country. It was Mpetha who had ordered the people to start rioting, to damage schools, to destroy and burn white men's cars and to kill any white drivers they came across. The youth also claimed that Mpetha swore and threw stones at one of the injured whites, after the man had already been stoned with bricks, stabbed several times and hit with an iron instrument.
The youth remained in the witness box for eight days. Thorough cross-examination by the defence revealed a number of contradictions between the youth's evidence and that of the first witness. A statement he had made to a magistrate on the day of his arrest was, he admitted, false. Later he had written another statement for the police which he claimed was truthful.
On the 30th day of the trial a state pathologist gave evidence about the causes of death of one of the two whites killed. No stab wounds were found on the body of the man whom the second witness had claimed had been stabbed. All injuries, apart from the burns, were confined to the face and head.
KHUMALO and OTHERS The trial of four alleged ANC members, Eddie Bafana KHUMALO (30), Norman YENGENI (22), Edward MBUNDU (38) and David Linda MAMPANE (20), was postponed in the Pretoria Magistrates Court on 3 July to 24 August, when it was due to be heard in a regional court.
A request by the four for their trial to be postponed for an additional month so that they could be represented by the counsel of their choice was rejected by the magistrate.
The four appeared on charges under the Terrorism Act and the Unlawful Organisations Act. All have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
MOTLHABAKWE and 4 OTHERS The trial of the five Galeshewe youths continued in the Kimberley Regional Court on 2 June. Neville Sello MOTLHABAKWE (19), Johannes Joey KERS (18), Eugene MOKGOASI (20), Nelco Zenzile HLATSHWAYO (20) and Ben Mlulami FANI (21) appeared on charges of taking part in guerilla activities, arson, housebreaking and attempted arson. All five pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Police sealed off the court building and allowed only the families of the accused and witnesses to attend the trial. All those who entered, including the press, were searched with electronic equipment.
Giving evidence, a police sergeant said that black scholars who had damaged two white homes in Kimberley in September last year, had done so unintentionally while fleeing from the teargas fired by police. Other evidence given to indicate the atmosphere in Galeshewe at the time revealed that large groups of youths had stoned and set alight several vehicles and a beer hall. The houses of two Galeshewe policemen were also set ablaze, as was the house of a security policeman.
A state application for the trial to be held in camera to protect state witnesses was accepted by the court, despite the fact the possibility existed that messages containing the identity of the witnesses could be conveyed to Galeshewe by family members who attended the hearings.
Several youths were called to present state evidence. A 17 year old youth who was arrested on 5 February this year said that he felt he was "going mad" because of being held in solitary confinement so long. A Galeshewe matric pupil described how he had taken part in discussions about the burning of Galeshewe policemen's homes. It had been decided at a meeting of about 500 pupils to disrupt a Galeshewe Community Council meeting. When the pupils threw their school books over the fence of the council's premises, the police attacked them with teargas. As a result the pupils had decided to set fire to the homes of Galeshewe policemen.
Much of the evidence given by the state witnesses was contradictory and the defence made attempts to ascertain whether the witnesses had been influenced by the security police during recessions and in the evenings. The trial continues.
