OTHER TRIALS POPULAR RESISTANCE
More than 10,000 people were arrested between September 1984 and 22 March on charges arising out of the protests against apartheid, it was revealed by the government at the end of April. Since then many more have been arrested. It is impossible to detail the trials which have resulted, both because of their sheer number and because much of the information never becomes available.
The great majority of trials arising out of the current upsurge of popular resistance against apartheid have been brought under the common law. Others have been brought under the Intimidation Act and the sections of the Internal Security Act dealing with illegal gatherings. Some incidents of protest, such as demonstrations outside parliament, have been brought under specific laws relating to those forms of protest.
By far the most common charge for which accused face prosecution is public violence. Most trials in which this charge has been used relate to protests and demonstrations broken up by the police. In many instances these allegedly involved the stoning of police, vehicles and property. Frequently connected with this charge is the charge of malicious damage to property. In most cases where both these charges have been brought the trials arose out of stonings of the houses of community councillors and police, stonings of buses and police vehicles, and the stonings of schools, shops and government buildings. Where petrol bombs have been used against unoccupied property the accused have been charged with arson but where such attacks have taken place against the property of agents of the state and injuries or deaths have resulted, the accused have been charged with attempted murder or murder.
The areas where most trials are taking place are those which have seen the most severe unrest, in particular in the Eastern Cape, the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging area, the Northern Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
The pressure on the courts has been so great that in certain areas special regional courts have been set up so that the 'normal' running of the ordinary regional courts would not be disrupted. In one court set up in Germstona teacher from Tembisa, Gabriel SIHLANGU (24), appeared unrepresented and was sentenced on 14 February to five years' imprisonment, two of which were suspended for five years. He was allowed out on bail of R1,000 after notice of appeal was lodged. No details of the charges are known but he was arrested at his home after sustaining birdshot wounds.
Many of the accused in popular resistance trials are minors whose names may not be mentioned, or are under 21 years of age.
An 11 year old boy appeared on a charge of public violence in the Oudtshoorn Magistrates' Court on 10 May with another minor of 16 and a third aged 20. An appeal to have the boy released to his parents was opposed by the State on the grounds that the police were still investigating the case.
A large number of trials have ended in acquittals due to a lack of evidence. This confirms claims made by defence lawyers in many trials that police were not able to identify people engaged in protests. Frequently those who have appeared in court were not arrested at the scenes of unrest but later after their names had been given to police by people who had been arrested. In a trial of seven people from Fort Beaufort, Albert LAMANI (19), Ernest BIKO (20), Madoda MATU and four youths, all on charges of public violence, the defence counsel explained that on the day on which the incident — of stonethrowing — took place the police had difficulty in arresting offenders. The State's case, as well as the identification of the accused, was based on the evidence of one person. None of the accused was arrested at the scene of the unrest but later in the day at their homes.
Many trials involve large numbers of accused in the same trial. These are usually trials resulting from mass demonstrations held without permits. Sixty nine women from New Crossroads were convicted in the Wynberg Magistrates' Court on 11 March for attending an illegal gathering in January. The women, part of a group of 169 who were arrested, received sentences of R50 or 25 days' imprisonment, suspended for five years. The trial arose out of a protest march over rent rises.
Allegations of torture by police have been made in a number of cases. Two accused in a trial of seven people in the East London Regional Court, who are charged with attempting to throw a Railways Police security policeman off a moving train, alleged that they were assaulted or tortured by Railways police after their arrest. Sheila JAFTA (30) alleged that she was hit with an open hand and kicked after being assaulted following the incident. Michael SKWEYIYA (20) alleged that he was locked in a station office and assaulted. Later he was taken to a Railways Police office and ordered to remove his clothes. He was then covered in a blanket, a tube was placed over his face and he was sat upon in an attempt to suffocate him. When he refused to sign a statement he was beaten with a baton and had his private parts pricked with a pin.
In another case Stoffel OLIFANT (30), of the Mamelodi Parents' Committee, and Freddy MOTALE (27), a committee member of the Mamelodi Youth Organisation, alleged that they were assaulted at the Mamelodi Police Station. They later had to be taken to hospital: Motale with a fractured arm and Olifant with an injured leg. Both appeared, with six others, on charges of public violence in the Pretoria Regional Court on 1 February.
Sentences imposed on people for attacks on police and police homes have been severe. Four men convicted for attacking a policeman's house with sticks and stones were each sentenced to four years' imprisonment in the Kinkelbos Magistrates' Court on 24 April. Twenty other people who appeared on the same charge were acquitted. Frank MODINGWANE (20) was sentenced on 26 April to three years' imprisonment, 18 months' suspended for three years, after being sentenced in the Johannesburg Magistrates' Court for public violence. It was alleged that he threw stones at policemen in Katlehong in January.
Long sentences are expected in the trials of people who are facing charges of murder, incitement to murder and attempted murder of policemen and other government agents.
Two men, Reginald Madoda MALI (18) and Mandla Derrick NETI (20), appeared in the Uitenhage Magistrates' Court on 26 April charged with setting a man alight. Seven people were due to appear in the Pretoria Regional court on 27 May to face murder charges for allegedly petrol-bombing the home of a policeman in Atteridgeville in February. A policeman died as a result.
A branch secretary of the Cradock Residents' Association, Madoda JACOBS, appeared in court in Cradock on 6 February on charges of murdering a policeman. The policeman was killed when a crowd of youths attacked his home.
One of the leaders of the Crossroads squatter community, Johnson NXOBONGWANA (43), was granted bail of R15,000 when he appeared in the Wynberg Regional Court on 26 April – on condition that he remained in the King William’s Town magisterial district until his trial resumed. Nxobongwana was detained in January following an uprising in the camp over increased rents. He has been charged with five others with arson, Intimidation, public violence and incitement to commit murder. The others are Themba MPETHA (28), David BENGU, Elsie MKHUMBU, Nora NCAPAYI and Roseberry MSONTSO.
WORKERS ON TRIAL
With a continuing high level of industrial action in the face of recession, workers taking strike action and engaging in picketing during the first part of this year have on many occasions been charged with intimidation, illegally striking and attending illegal gatherings.
- In February, 75 workers, members of the Orange Vaal General Workers Union (OVGWU) employed by the Sasolburg Electricity Department, appeared in court. They were charged with failing to vacate their hostels, after their dismissal for striking against the sacking of a colleague.
- Also in February, four bus drivers (among a group of 226 on strike over the dismissal of a colleague) at the Mzimkuku Bus Company in Margate (Natal) were arrested on charges of intimidation and malicious damage to property. Their arrests followed an incident in which buses were stoned. A bus driver was killed when his bus went out of control.
- Two hundred and seventy workers, members of the South African Black Municipal and Allied Workers' Union (SABMAWU), appeared in three separate courts in Potchefstroom on 20 February, charged with attending an illegal gathering following a wage dispute at the local municipality. They were released on bail and the case was postponed.
- At the Rosslyn plant of Continental China, police arrested 241 workers picketing outside the factory gates in April. The workers, mostly women and members of the South African Allied Workers Union (SAAWU), were demanding their reinstatement and that of 409 colleagues dismissed in a dispute over wages in November last year. They have been charged with intimidation.
- In May five members of the Metal and Allied Workers Union (MAWU) were arrested on charges of intimidation following a strike by over 900 workers, in a long-standing recognition dispute at the BTR Sarmcol Rubber Factory in Howick, Natal.
- In a further incident involving MAWU, 40 members of the union were charged in the Johannesburg Magistrates' Court on the 1 May, with holding an illegal gathering. They were arrested outside the Johannesburg City Hall where Industrial Council wage negotiations for the metal industry were taking place. A crowd of workers had gathered outside to await the outcome. After postponement of their case and release on bail of R100 each, the workers were rearrested by riot police on identical charges when they marched through the streets of Johannesburg on their way back to their union office.
- In several trials workers were acquitted of charges against them or released without being charged. Five Roodepoort miners were acquitted on charges of intimidation and participation in an illegal strike in the Roodepoort Magistrates' court on 21 January. The arrests arose from a strike at Durban Roodepoort Deep mine in September last year. The magistrate found that the charges were incorrectly framed in terms of the Labour Relations Act.
