Security police continued their repression of trade unionists with a nationwide swoop on 27 November. Detentions were also aimed at students and anti-SAIC campaigners. The authorities in Venda intensified their security measures by detaining more people and restricting movement. The Detainees Parents Support Committee grew in strength with the new detentions. Increasing evidence of torture of detainees came to light.
The South African authorities in Venda continued the high level of repression which followed the October guerilla attack on Sibasa police station. Twenty one people were held under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act and in January eighteen were still in detention after two were released and one died. Two detainees were reported to have needed hospital treatment.
The Attorney-General said that there would be a court investigation into the death of Tshifhiwa MUOFHE who died in detention in November. Two post mortems were carried out and reports suggested that he suffered internal bleeding and showed signs of torture. On 14 January Lilian MUOFHE was detained for several hours and questioned about her husband's politics. A family friend and Dutch Reformed Church missionary, Rev.Faure Louw, was expelled from Venda in January.
The Evangelical Lutheran church feared that the detention of four of its nine full-time ministers working in Venda might be a prelude to the nationalisation of the church. Most of the detainees and 60 per cent of Venda's population belong to the church which refused to participate in Venda's independence anniversary celebrations. The four detained ministers were involved in youth and community work. Ms. Mukhesi, whose release is reported in the current FOCUS, was admitted to hospital during her detention.
Dean Farisani was returned to detention from hospital on 14 January. In December, Dr C MNGADI, a Durban Inkatha member, died suddenly in Venda while being held on a firearms charge. His relatives demanded an inquiry after a pathologist discovered internal bleeding.
Chief F M RAMOVHA, Venda's Minister for Posts and Telecommunications was arrested and charged with seven others with the murder of a teacher in January 1981.
Prominent members of the Indian community were detained following the successful campaign against the South African Indian Council (SAIC) elections. On 27 November police in Durban detained two executive members of the Natal Indian Congress, Pravin GORDHAM, and Yunus MAHOMED. The banned Wits student leader, Feroze CACHALIA and Prema NAIDOO, assistant secretary of the anti-SAIC committee, were also detained. A former Robben Island prisoner, Shirish NANABHAI was detained on 5 January. Ismail MOMONIAT, secretary of the Transvaal anti-SAIC committee, was taken from his home in Lenasia by twelve security police on 20 January. Relatives were concerned for the health of Momoniat, a lecturer in mathematics at Wits University, who suffers from a heart complaint.
Widespread protest from the trade union movement and beyond greeted the detentions in November and December of trade union workers and leaders including two general secretaries and two presidents. Four top South African Allied Workers Union (SAAWU) officials were detained including Thozamile GQWETA and Sisa NJIKELANA, for the fifth time. The organising secretary of the General and Allied Workers Union (GAWU), Rita NDZANGA, whose husband died in detention in 1977, was amongst those redetained in December under the Terrorism Act.
Steven KITSON, a British national, was detained on 7 January during a visit to South Africa to see his father DAVID who is serving a 20 year sentence for sabotage in Pretoria Central Prison. Police alleged Kitson took photographs and drew sketches of the prison to help prisoners escape.
The Commissioner of Prisons, General Mike Geldenhuys, issued a press statement the day after Kitson's detention alleging that Kitson's 'principals' were also involved in the escape of three ANC political prisoners, Stephen Lee, Timothy Jenkin and Alexander Moumbaris from Pretoria Central Prison in December 1979.
The day after Kitson's detention four people connected with the escapees were detained. They are Michael JENKIN, his wife Kathy HUNTER, a friend Daphne SMITH and Ralph WORTLEY, Stephen Lee's former employer. The two women were released on 15 January while the other two were redetained under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act.
Steven Kitson was released and flown home to Britain on 12 January. Steven Kitson's aunt, Joan Weinberg, was found murdered in her Johannesburg flat on 13 January. Ms. Weinberg visited David Kitson regularly at Pretoria Prison.
On 5 February Dr. Neil AGGETT (28) died in detention in the John Vorster police cells in Johannesburg. Aggett was the Transvaal Secretary of the African Food and Canning Workers' Union and was detained on 27 November 1981 and held under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act.
An official police statement claimed that he was found hanged in his cell and that indications were that he had committed suicide. Friends and relatives of Aggett found it impossible to believe the police account. David Lewis, of the General Workers' Union, said 'I would say he was a remarkably stable kind of a guy. Either he was subjected to pressure beyond belief or he was killed'.
The number of detainees rose from 134 to 159 between early November 1981 and 5 January 1982 according to figures obtained from the Security Police by Helen Suzman.
The increase in the number of people detained under the Internal Security Act as potential witnesses supports the prediction that there will be a number of major security trials in the near future. Witnesses can only be held for a maximum of six months before commencement of the trial. The authorities can however circumvent this restriction by detaining potential witnesses under alternative acts and transferring them shortly before the trial.
Branches of the Detainees' Parents Support Committee were founded in Soweto, Durban and Cape Town. Publicity for detainees was obtained through weekly placard demonstrations, public meetings and prayer services.
