RELEASES
- Three releases from Robben Island were reported in the press between March and May.
Two former students, Mzwabantu LUMKWANA (25) and Monde MBEKWA (25) were released from Robben Island at the beginning of March. They were convicted of sabotage in 1977 in Grahamstown.
A former member of the banned Soweto Students' Representative Council (SSRC), Ma prison MOROBE (27), was released in the middle of May after serving three years on Robben Island. He was among 11 students convicted of sedition in Kempton Park in 1979.
- A former Rhodes University social science student, Devandiren PILLAY (21), was released on 26 March after spending a year in prison.
He was sentenced with a Rhodes lecturer in journalism, Guy Berger (25), in Port Elizabeth Regional court on 16 March 1981 to two years imprisonment. On appeal both Pillay and Berger had their effective sentences halved.
Both were convicted under the Internal Security Act for being members of the ANC, of furthering its aims and of possessing and distributing banned publications.
- The former secretary of the African Food and Canning Workers' Union in East London, Sibongile Philemon NORSHE (35), was released from a prison near Pretoria on 8 April after serving a year for refusing to give evidence in a political trial.
