HANNCHEN KOORHOF

Hannchen KOORNHOF (27), the niece of Piet Koornhof, Minister of Co-operation and Development, was fined R500 and sentenced to one month's imprisonment on 23 April in the Johannesburg Regional Court.

She was found guilty in terms of the Internal Security Act of passing on a code which could be used to communicate with ANC members in Botswana. She was taught the code by her estranged husband who lives in Botswana and is an alleged ANC member. She was fined for being in possession of banned literature.

Koornhof was released on 23 May after serving one month prison sentence but had been eight months in custody as she was held for seven months as a Terrorism Act detainee.

ADAM AND THEMBA

Robert Martin ADAM (26) and Mandla THEMBA (25) were found guilty on 1 June of conspiring to blow up the Brixton television tower in Johannesburg and to destroy television transmitters with limpet mines.

They were sentenced in the Johannesburg Supreme Court to a total of 15 years imprisonment, Adam receiving 10 years and Themba five years. They were convicted under the Terrorism Act and the Internal Security Act.

APPEALS

MONTY MZINYATHI

The appeal by Archibald Monty MZINYATHI (31) against his conviction under the Terrorism Act and seven year jail sentence was upheld by the Pretoria Supreme Court on 28 April.

Mzinyathi was arrested with his stepfather, Bingo Bentley, in April 1979 and convicted in October 1980 of undergoing military training in the Soviet Union in 1977. State evidence against the accused was his own statement and sketches which he made after being tortured by security police.

At the trial, the court refused permission for evidence to be taken on commission in Lesotho to prove that Mzinyathi had been there at the time he was alleged to have been in the Soviet Union.

The Supreme Court found that there had been a miscarriage of justice and acquitted Mzinyathi.

MAZWAI AND FOUR OTHERS

The application for bail pending the outcome of an appeal by Thami MAZWAI, the news editor of the Sowetan, Thabo NDABENI, national organiser of AZAPO, Carter SELEKA, President of Azanian Youth Unity (AZANYU), and two AZANYU members, Stephen Sipho SOMACELE and Solomzi SELANE, was rejected for the third time on 23 April in the Rand Supreme Court.

The five were sentenced to 18 months jail for refusing to testify in the trial of Khotso Seatholo and Masabata Loate.

OTHER TRIALS

WORKERS AND TRADE UNIONISTS

  • The lengthy trial of 52 Port Elizabeth Post Office workers ended at the beginning of April with 16 receiving jail sentences or fines and 36 either receiving suspended sentences or being acquitted. Eight received a year's jail term, one nine months, one was fined R100, five R250 and one R500. Bail pending appeal was allowed to five of the workers sentenced to a year's imprisonment.

The trial arose from a strike by 180 workers at two Port Elizabeth Post office yards in October last year. 76 workers were arrested and charged under the section of the Riotous Assemblies Act which deals with intimidation. Twenty four had the charges withdrawn.

  • Two members of the South African Allied Workers Union, Robert GQWETA and Melvin MAMPUNYE, were found not guilty in the East London Magistrates Court on a charge of collecting contributions without authorization. The state failed to prove that the accused had intended to commit an offence or that they were aware that they had committed an offence.
  • Two former employees of the Flekser metal firm in Wadeville appeared in the Katlehong circuit court on 8 April as the result of a strike at the company.

Philemon NDLOVU and David MPHUTI were charged under the Riotous Assemblies Act with intimidating workers. About 240 workers were dismissed after the strike.

  • At the end of March more than 500 workers downed tools at the South African Paper and Pulp Industries mill at Mandini, Durban. They were demanding the release of two colleagues detained by the police in connection with alleged assaults.

The strike stemmed from a dispute over canteen food. The two who were arrested appeared in the Ingoli Magistrates Court on 29 March.

YOUTH AND STUDENTS

  • About 1,500 Fort Hare University students were arrested by Ciskei police on 3 May for refusing to disperse during a demonstration on the campus. The demonstration was a sequential to an attack on the motorcade of President Lennox Sebe of Ciskei and members of his Cabinet on 1 May.

The students paid R50 admission of guilt fines, but 22 who were detained on 1 May were held for two weeks before they appeared in the Alice Magistrates Court. They were charged with public violence but were not asked to plead. Bail of R400 was granted to each student.

  • Five youths appeared in the Retreat Magistrates Court in early April in connection with a fire at the Parkwood Primary School.

The five were charged with arson but were not asked to plead. The case was postponed to a later date.

  • Three students of the University of the North at Turfloop were found guilty of public violence in early April by the Pietersburg Regional Court. They were sentenced to 18 months jail each. Twelve months of the sentence were suspended for three years.

The case arose out of a students anti-Republic Day protest march at Turfloop on 1 June last year.

MISCELLANEOUS TRIALS

  • Three men were sentenced on 1 April to three years jail, two years suspended for five years for harbouring one of the three ANC prisoners who escaped from Pretoria Prison in December 1979.
  • Michael JENKIN (35), brother of one of the escapees, Shirish NANABHAI (44) and Prema NAIDOO (33) pleaded guilty in the Johannesburg Magistrates Court to the charge under the Prisons Act.
  • An attorney, Graham Derrick DYSON (30) appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrates Court on 10 and 25 May charged under the Prisons Act.

The state alleges that he tried to smuggle messages from a client out of the Fort Prison in December last year. A state witness admitted that the 'messages' were only poetry but could have contained a code.

Judgement was due to be given on 10 June. Dyson is out on his own recognisances.

It is alleged that the accused stoned and burnt shops and vehicles at Reiger Park in May last year.

The 24 were not asked to plead and were due to appear in court again on 28 June.

  • Maxwell MUFOKA was granted R1,000 bail after appearing in the Bloemfontein District Court on 24 March. He faces charges of having brought into South Africa a banned book and ANC sweaters. The trial was postponed for further investigation.
  • The state withdrew charges on 23 March against 50 women and a man who appeared in the Benoni Regional Court on charges under the Riotous Assemblies Act.

They were charged with holding an illegal gathering in Wattville, Benoni, in October last year. They were marching to the Wattville Community Council Chambers to hand over a petition protesting against rent rises.

DEATH SENTENCES COMMUTED

The death sentences imposed on three ANC guerillas, Ncimbithi Johnson LUBISI (28), Tsepo Petrus MASHIGO (20) and Naphtali MANANA (24), in November 1980, have been commuted.

The three appealed against their sentences but the appeal failed in the Bloemfontein Appeal Court on 7 April. As a result an international campaign was mounted to save the lives of the men. On 9 April the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution (No. 503) demanding that the South African Government commute the death sentences. It further urged all states and organisations to act urgently in conformity with the UN Charter to save the lives of the three men.

Inside South Africa a wide range of organisations called on the government to grant clemency and for the immediate and unconditional release of the men.

The three men will now serve terms of life imprisonment instead.

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