There have been relatively few political trials under the secondary security laws since the last issue of FOCUS. The trials that have taken place are mostly trials which have been postponed over a long period and which relate to events which took place many months ago.
Five youths from Beaufort West, whose average age is 16, were found guilty of arson in the Beaufort West Regional Court in October last year. One was sentenced to two years imprisonment suspended for five years and the others were sent to a reformatory. They were found to have been responsible for burning down the Administration Board offices in the local African township.
Forty-four students from the University of Cape Town appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrates Court on 30 November 1981 on a charge of holding an illegal gathering. They were arrested in May last year while demonstrating outside the Good Hope Centre where the Fourth World Meat Conference was being held. The hearing was postponed to 10 March and bail of R50 was granted. One of the students, Gavin EVANS, whose trial was separated from that of the 46 other students who were arrested at the time, was fined R60 (or 30 days) in the Cape Town Magistrates Court on 26 November 1981. The Magistrate said that Evans had shown a reckless disregard for consulting proper legal sources. Evans had believed that police officers needed to warn demonstrators three times before they could be arrested. The law had since been changed.
Fifty-one rent protesters appeared in the Benoni Magistrates Court on 25 November last year, charged with holding an illegal gathering in Wattville, near Benoni. No evidence was led and the case was postponed to 14 January. The accused were arrested on 7 October 1981 while marching to the local administration board offices to protest against the recent rent increases.
Six people appeared in the Cape Town Magistrates Court on 10 December last year on a charge of holding an illegal gathering outside the Supreme Court during the trial of Oscar Mpetha and 18 others in March last year. The hearing was held in camera because two of the accused were youths. The trial continues.
Nicholas KELLERMAN (20) of Paarl East, was found guilty of public violence in the Paarl Magistrates Court on 16 November 1981. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment conditionally suspended for five years. Police evidence was that Kellerman was the leader of a crowd of 200 people who stoned police cars. While throwing a stone at a policeman who went to arrest him, he was shot by another policeman. He was in hospital for six months and is now paralysed on one side of his body.
The former president of the banned Transkei Youth League, Prince MADIKIZELA, appeared briefly with 10 others in the Engcobo Magistrates Court on 7 December 1981 on charges under the Transkei Public Safety Act. The case was postponed until 29 January. According to the charge sheet, the group conducted an illegal gathering in contravention of Transkei emergency regulations. Madikizela was released on R1,000 bail while the others were allowed out on R500 bail each.
Four people, including a 15-year-old girl, were arrested after they allegedly attended an illegal anti-Republic Day demonstration on 31 May last year. They all pleaded not guilty and explained that they had merely been spectators and not part of the demonstration. The accused were on R50 bail, except the 15-year-old who is in her parent's custody.
