NEW SECURITY LEGISLATION The introduction of new measures providing for the detention and trial of opponents to the 'internal government' was debated in the National Assembly during its session in November 1981. The new legislation was intended to tighten up existing provisions and consolidate a number of security laws applied in Namibia. In practice, it is part of the attempt by the South African-created Council of Ministers to present itself as independent of South Africa, while continuing to suppress all political opposition by use of arbitrary detention. The Security Districts Amendment Bill would amend Proclamation AG9, which was first introduced on 11 November 1977, and amended several times subsequently. It gave the police and army wide powers to suppress political activity, including arrest, detention without trial, interrogation and search without a warrant. Initially, detainees held under AG 9 could be held for interrogation for 96 hours; this period was extended to 30 days on 19 December 1979 (FOCUS 27 p.1). In practice, the detention order could simply be renewed, or detainees could be transferred to detention under Proclamation AG 26, which provides for indefinite detention without trial and remains in force (FOCUS 17 p.10). When implemented, the new amendment to AG 9 will empower members of the security forces to interrogate detainees held longer than 30 days (WA 19.11.81).
TERRORISM ACT The Combating of Terrorism Bill was being introduced to replace a number of existing laws, including the Terrorism Act of 1967, sections of the General Law Amendment Act as amended and the Internal Security Act of 1976.
The Terrorism Act, which has been widely used in Namibia and was introduced specifically to cover the new situation created by SWAPO's launching of the armed struggle, was made retroactive to 1962 to allow for the trial of Herman Toivo ja Toivo and 36 other SWAPO members. The great majority of Namibian political prisoners have been convicted under the Terrorism Act, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years imprisonment and provides for the death penalty for a broadly defined range of 'terrorist activities' likely to endanger law and order. Section Six of the Terrorism Act provides for indefinite detention without charge of any person suspected of 'terrorism orpossessing information about terrorism'.
The Combating of Terrorism Bill is to abolish the death penalty and provide instead for a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment. Like the Terrorism Act, the new Bill includes a wide range of activities under the definition of 'terrorism'. For example, it is an act of terror to cripple, prejudice or interrupt any industry or undertaking or the supply and distribution of food items, fuel and petroleum products, energy and other public ameni- ties. Engendering feelings of hostility between members of different 'population groups', or obstructing or threatening peaceful and orderly constitutional development will also be considered a political crime under the provisions of the Bill, as will possession of arms for the purpose of furthering or promoting constitutional, political, industrial, social or economic change. According to newspaper reports, the new law would scrap Section Six of the original Terrorism Act, and remove the minimum sentence of five years (RDM 13.11.81; WA 19.11.81; WO 21.11.81).
In recent years, the security forces have increasingly used the two proclamations introduced specifically to provide for detention without trial, AG 9 and AG 26, to arrest and detain large numbers of SWAPO supporters, while the Terrorism Act has been used less frequently. Markus KATEKA and Hendrik KARISEB were convicted under the Terrorism Act, as was Ida JIMMY (FOCUS 32 pp.1 and 2).
COURTS A number of changes relating to the courts were being implemented towards the end of 1981 in line with the 'internal settlement' carried out by South Africa in Namibia (NAMIBIA: THE CONSTITUTIONAL FRAUD, a review of recent legal and administrative changes introduced under South African occupation, FOCUS Briefing Paper No. 2, July 1981).
A Supreme Court of South West Africa was due to be established on 1 January 1981. Until then, the Supreme Court of South West Africa was a division of the Supreme Court of South Africa. As a result of the transfer, the Council of Ministers was being given power to recommend the appointment of judges to the Administrator General, who retains however a final say in their selection (CT 11.11.81).
A bill named the Criminal Procedure Bill was debated in the National Assembly in November 1981, providing for the conversion of a trial in a Magistrate's Court to a preparatory examination as part of a Supreme Court trial.
The Magistrate's Court Amendment Bill was read during the same session. It provided for the extension of the powers of sentence of the lower courts from one to three years and fines from R1,000 to R3,000. Both these Bills were intended to give the Magistrate's Courts certain functions previously carried out by the Regional Courts which were abolished in 1980 (WA 19.11.81).
MEETINGS The Prohibition and Notification of Meetings Bill, which passed through its second reading in the National Assembly at the end of November, aims to prohibit political meetings by parties 'whose stated objective (is) the violent overthrow of the existing order' (WA 30.11.81).
PRISONERS AND DETAINES MARKUS KATEKA Permission to visit Markus KATEKA, who was sentenced to death on charges under the Terrorism Act in October 1980 and later had his sentence commuted to 17 years imprisonment, was refused by the prison authorities to a member of his family. According to a letter in the Windhoek Observer, a relative was told that he was not allowed to visit any member of his family because he himself had been in prison. This was confirmed to him by the head of Windhoek prison after a further inquiry (FOCUS 32 p.1, 32 p.2; WA 7.11.81).
PRISONS An amendment to the Prisons Act would probably be implemented on 1 December 1981, according to an official of Windhoek Central Prison. Differentiation on the basis of colour would no longer apply, and previous racial segregation in cells would be abolished.
A Prisons Amendment Bill, providing for the transfer of the Administration of the Prison Service in Namibia to the authority of the Administrator General, was being processed in June 1981.
The continuing evidence of racial discrimination, ill-treatment and torture of political prisoners and detainees in Namibian prisons and detention camps suggests that this measure may prove to be of a cosmetic nature. (WA 17.6.81; WO 31.10.81; see also Remember Kassinga, IDAF Fact Paper No. 9, 1981).
SWAPO MEMBERS SENTENCED A group of twelve SWAPO members were arrested at the Botswana border near Gobabis at the beginning of August 1981 and charged with trying to leave Namibia illegally. The charges were brought under Act 34 of 1955 known as the Departure from the Union Regulation Act. Nine of the group were sentenced at Gobabis magistrate's court to one year's imprisonment, of which six months were suspended for five years. They are:
Jason ANGULA, SWAPO Secretary for Labour, Nikolaas EKELA, Chairman of SWAPO's Elders Council, Daniel HAMUTENYA, Johannes SHITALENI, Petrus UUGHULU, Karel MUUKUA, Magdalena SEVERIS, Miriam EPA-NGERUA, Maja ABSALOM. The other three, who are minors, were sentenced to one year, all suspended for five years (WA 7.10.81).
NEW POLITICAL TRIAL Three SWAPO combatants captured in white farming areas in Namibia were expected to appear in court on charges under the Terrorism Act at the end of 1981. The three were reportedly members of a group of 22 guerillas who infiltrated the Tsumeb-Grootfontein-Otavi triangle in April 1981.
The Attorney General said in Windhoek that the three would first appear in lower courts at centres in the north of Namibia, from where they could be referred for trial in the Windhoek Supreme Court, probably in early 1982 (WA 20.11.81).
