POLITICAL TRIALS COMPLETED TRIALS
HLONGWANE On 30 April, David HLONGWANE (32) was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in the Klerksdorp Regional Court. Very few details of the case appeared in the press except that Hlongwane faced two counts of 'terrorism'.
Hlongwane was detained in October 1984. The State alleged that he left the country in 1981 and underwent military training in Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and the Soviet Union. The only witness mentioned in press reports was his stepsister who wept as she gave evidence. Hlongwane was convicted of throwing a hand-grenade in Khuma, near Stilfontein, on 27 September 1984. He was sentenced to five years on one count and ten years on the other, with an order that the terms should run concurrently as the offences were 'closely related'.
MALI AND OTHERS On 3 April four of the accused in a trial arising out of the stayaway from work in November 1984, failed for the second time to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrates' Court to answer charges of subversion under the Internal Security Act. Bail of R2,000 each was estreated for Thami MALI (26), Themba NONTLANTANE (30) and Ephraim 'Oupa' MONARENG (26), all of the Transvaal Regional Stayaway Committee (TRSC), and Peter MAKGOBA (21) of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS). Charges against the fifth accused, Moses MAYEKISO (36), Transvaal secretary of the Metal and Allied Workers Union (MAWU), were then provisionally withdrawn. In May three of the accused, Mali, Monareng and Nontlantlane were reported to be in Botswana.
MASERUMULE Frans Tlokwe MASERUMULE was sentenced to a total of ten and a half years' imprisonment in the Middelburg Regional Court on 29 March. He was charged with a number of contraventions of the Internal Security Act (not the Terrorism Act as previously reported).
The state alleged that Maserumule left the country in 1980 to undergo military training with the aim of committing acts of 'terrorism', furthering the aims of the ANC and recruiting people for ANC activities. He was also charged with the attempted murder of three people in Nebo, in the Northern Transvaal, in October 1983. No details of this incident have appeared in the press. Maserumule (24) was detained on 15 June 1984, at the same time as George MANTHATA (see CONTINUING TRIALS). His trial began on 13 March.
A state witness, Selatule MAMPURU, (22) alleged that during September 1983 Maserumule had shown him and six friends how to use and strip down an AK47 rifle. Maserumule had told him that he had undergone military training in Angola and Mozambique and urged them to listen to Radio Freedom.
Maserumule told the court that he was 'proud to be an ANC member'. He was convicted and sentenced to five years for undergoing military training, three years for furthering the aims of the ANC and two and a half years for firing at three people.
MDZE On 25 April Milton MDZE (34) was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in the Mdantsane Regional Court for possessing prohibited documents.
Mdze also faced charges of being a member of the ANC and participating in its activities by recruiting members for the organisation or distributing its propaganda material. However, after a trial marked by resistance from at least four state witnesses, the state prosecutor in his final speech declined to address the court on the more serious charges.
The State's case relied on the evidence of a number of state witnesses who had been detained for long periods before the trial. They were 'warned' as accomplices and granted indemnity from prosecution if they testified satisfactorily. On 20 March Vulindlela MVABAZA (29), an official of the Ciskei Agricultural Corporation detained since October 1984, was sentenced to three years for refusing to testify. On the same day Thozamile FENI (42), branch chairman of the South African Allied Workers Union (SAAWU) in Duncan Village, was charged with perjury in Mdantsane Magistrates' Court after being discredited as a witness. He was released on R500 bail to appear in the Zwelitsha Regional Court on 29 April.
Also due to appear on a charge of perjury on 29 April was Priscilla MAXONGO. Maxongo named eight Ciskei bantustan policemen who had assaulted her in detention. It was alleged that Mdze had gone to Lesotho with Maxongo and others in 1984 and contacted ANC 'opera-tives' there. In evidence she denied this. Although released on R200 bail on 23 March, Maxongo was again detained between 27 March and 9 April (see DETENTIONS).
The state alleged that Mdze told Godfrey SHIBA, a former branch chairman of SAAWU, to join the ANC. On 26 March, after seven months in detention, Shiba was discredited as a witness. He said his dealings with Mdze were solely about trade union matters and that he had gone to Lesotho 'only as a driver. He was charged with perjury on 28 March and remanded on R200 bail to appear in court on 1 May. When questioned about signed statements they had made, both Maxongo and Shiba told the court they were given papers to sign without being allowed to read them.
On 25 April Mdze was convicted of possessing prohibited documents and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. The magistrate decided that the books would encourage people to revolt against the government. They included copies of the African Communist and Sechaba as well as Lenin's 'To the Rural Poor', 'A Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare' by Nkrumah, 'Smash the White Republic' and 'A Message to the People of South Africa' by O R Tambo. He also had 19 ANC stickers and 16 SA Communist Party stickers which the magistrate found he had intended to distribute.
MORULE In the Bloemfontein Court on 26 March, France Kasinyane MORULE (24) pleaded guilty to two counts of 'terrorism' under the Internal Security Act. In April he was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.
Morule, from the township of Bochebela camp, was detained on about 30 May 1984. He was first brought to court on 24 October when he appeared without representation and refused to answer questions until he had seen his lawyer. He told the magistrate: 'I am a member of the ANC and as a result of this I have been charged'.
In a document presented to the court on 26 March, Morule admitted undergoing military training between 1979 and 1983 and having been an active member of the ANC. A third charge of providing Andreas Sejeng with explosives in Lesotho was dropped by the state in December.
NGOBESE AND OTHERS At a court appearance by NGWENYA and others in the Johannesburg Magistrates' Court on 18 April, indictments were served on three of the fourteen accused, Jabu Marines NGOBESE (21), Xolani NDUNA (24) and Zanemvula MAPELA (25). All three were charged with treason or alternatively 'terrorism' under the 1982 Internal Security Act. Ngobese faced further charges under the Terrorism Act and the 1950 Internal Security Act (both now repealed).
The court alleged that Ngobese was a member of the ANC who left the country in 1982 to undergo military training in Swaziland and Angola. He was charged with establishing arms caches in Soweto, Daveyton and Vosloostr between 1982 and 1984 with items such as rifles and hand grenades and making them available to other ANC members.
Xolani Nduna, an official of the Chemical Workers Industrial Union, was charged with accommodating Ngobese and a companion named 'Maxwell' between April and June 1984 and helping them bury weapons. Mapela, a member of the Paper, Wood and Allied Workers Union, helped Nduna in this respect and also took care of two AK47 rifles for Ngobese and 'Maxwell'.
On 20 May in the Rand Supreme Court the three, who were shackled in leg-irons for part of the proceedings, pleaded guilty. Ngobese admitted membership of the ANC, undergoing military training and establishing arms caches. Nduna and Mapela denied membership of the ANC but admitted acts in furtherance of the aims of the organisation. All were convicted of treason and all alternative charges were dropped. Before sentence was passed Colonel J H Buchner of the Security Branch gave evidence on his research into the activities of the ANC and PAC and a policeman from Soweto told of digging up a bomb in the front yard of Nduna's home in Daveyton, Benoni. Great secrecy surrounded the raid on Nduna's home in June 1984 and the detentions which followed.
On 27 May Ngobese was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. Nduna and Mapela were each jailed for five years.
PAYI AND XULU; MOLOISE On 2 May Justice Kriek refused Clarence Lucky PAYI (20) and Sipho Machina XULU (25) leave to appeal against the death sentence he passed on them in February. He ruled that there were no extenuating circumstances. Payi and Xulu, both members of the ANC's armed wing, were convicted of the killing of Benjamin Langa whom they believed to be a police informer. In previous cases after all legal procedures have failed, lawyers have petitioned the State President for clemency.
The Release Mandela Campaign (RMC) has launched a campaign against the hanging of Malesela Benjamin MOLOISE who was sentenced to death in June 1983. Moloise was convicted of killing a policeman who had played a role in the conviction of many political opponents. The ANC claimed responsibility for the policeman's death stating that Moloise was not involved. The RMC's campaign was launched in April with a public meeting in Dieploof. Among the speakers were Moloise's mother and the mother of Marcus Motaung, who was executed in June 1983, as well as Tsivi Malewa, of the Azanian Students' Organisation (AZASO), and the veteran activist Greta Ncapai. The speakers condemned the South African government for 'shooting young people and hanging the youth while the international community is paying tribute to it (the youth) by celebrating the International Year of the Youth'.
SEJENG A trial on charges of 'terrorism and murder' in the Bloemfontein Supreme Court ended dramatically on 29 April when charges against Andreas SEJENG (29) were withdrawn and he was released after almost a year in custody. The decision to drop charges was taken by the Attorney-General after evidence of severe assault by security police.
Sejeng, a hypermarket worker from Rocklands, faced seven charges of 'terrorism' one of murder and one of attempted murder in connection with five bomb explosions in and around Bloemfontein during 1983 and 1984. He was one of ten alleged ANC guerillas whose detention was reported on 30 June 1984. Two others, France MORULE and Bobby SEBOTSA, have also been charged.
Sejeng spent four months in solitary confinement before being brought to court in October 1984. During that period he was allowed no visitors or reading material and was reported to have become depressed. He went on hunger strike to force the authorities to bring him to court.
Two days of the trial, which began on 16 April, were taken up with the extensive cross-examination of Warrant-Officer M J Swanepoel, investigating officer in the case. Sejeng's defence lawyer said that the accused was taken into a room with a skull and crossbones on the door and assaulted. He accused Swanepoel and W/O Prinsloo of threatening the accused repeatedly and disputed statements allegedly made by Sejeng to the police.
Other evidence in the trial came from two unidentified witnesses: one, described as a former member of the ANC, identified Sejeng as having stayed with her in a secret house in Maseru, Lesotho, which she said was known by the ANC as the 'Ordinance House'. The other witness, an 11 year old worker in an amusement arcade, gave evidence about a bomb allegedly placed by Sejeng which he defused.
On 29 April the Attorney-General decided to stop the prosecution of Sejeng. The state prosecutor said the State did not concede that Swanepoel had in any way been dishonest or that the accused was in any way assaulted or maltreated while in police custody.
MPETHA In May the Bloemfontein Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of Oscar MPETHA (76) against his five-year prison sentence. Mpetha was reported to be in hospital
CONTINUING TRIALS
MANTHATA George Tladi MANTHATA (27) pleaded not guilty in the Middelburg Regional Court on 11 April to charges of 'terrorism' and furthering the aims of the ANC. Manthata, who was detained in June 1984, was charged under the now-repealed Terrorism Act as well as the current Internal Security Act.
The state alleges that between 1977 and 1983 Manthata underwent military training in Angola, the Soviet Union, Zambia, Lesotho, Mozambique and/or the German Democratic Republic. It is further alleged that he entered South Africa from Swaziland in May 1983 and attempted to recruit people to the ANC and Umkhonto we Sizwe in the Northern Transvaal in July 1983. In the Moutse area he allegedly organised meetings to politicise the general public and found an appropriate place near there to instruct ANC recruits militarily. In September 1983 he conspired with others to smuggle weapons into South Africa from Swaziland. Moutse is an area in the Northern Transvaal disputed between the bantustans of Lebowa and Kwa Ndebele.
A number of witnesses have shown resistance in the court. On 11 April Selby MATHEBE was warned to answer questions. Another witness, Kingdom MPHAHLELE, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for refusing to testify. He claimed to have made a statement under police pressure. Two schoolteachers called as witnesses have been charged with perjury.
MASHELA AND OTHERS Ten people detained during October in the Vaal Triangle appeared in the Oberholzer Magistrates' Court in April charged with subversion and two counts of murder. They were remanded for trial in the Pretoria Supreme Court. Only four of the accused were previously known to be in detention: Samuel MASHELA, Michael PHAKWE (Khoase Michael PHUKWE), Maria SOBEKWE and Mayfair ZWANE. Also charged were Playmatic KOLOBE, Lazarus KOLOKOTO, Kule MAILE, Khula MTHEMBU, Zwelakhe MUZWANE and Sydwell RATHELA.
NDLAKUHLOLO AND MFOBO Mpumelelo Shadrack NDLAKUHLOLO (28) and Margaret MFOBO (36) appeared in the Hermanus Regional Court in April charged with being members of the ANC and furthering its aims, endangering or attempting to overthrow the authority of the state and instigating a number of people to do so, possessing copies of pamphlets which propagated the aims of the ANC and subversion. Ndlakuhlolo, a teacher, and Mfobo, a hairdresser, were amongst a number of people detained in November 1984. Also held were Daniel FUTWA and Lindiswo MFOBO who were subsequently detained under Section 31 of the Internal Security Act, which refers to potential state witnesses.
The evidence heard so far relates to the charge that Mfobo was instrumental in obtaining false Transkei bantustan passports for two men who were subsequently detained on the border between South Africa and Botswana. An unnamed Cape Town teacher told of a visit she made to Botswana with Mfobo in 1984. The evidence of a witness described as a 'Tswana-speaking alien whose identity and occupation may not be disclosed by order of the court' revealed new details about South African cross-border police operations. Two men with ammunition in their pockets were detained in the Bophuthatswana bantustan on 26 September 1984. On the same day two other men were detained on the Botswana side of the border, allegedly with AK47 rifles. According to the witness the Botswana police refused to hand the men over to the police on the South African side and 'the men were fetched by security police in a helicopter'.
On 25 April the trial was adjourned to 15 July for further evidence.
NGWENYA AND OTHERS The trial of Sipho NGWENYA and thirteen others who first appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrates' Court in December, has now been split into four separate trials. All the accused face charges of high treason. Every court appearance of the 14 has been marked by intensive security measures by the state. The accused were brought to court in Casspir armoured vehicles. Regular and riot police were deployed as well as members of the Security Branch. The defendants, some of whom have now been detained for a year, appeared in court in leg irons.
On 20 May the trial of Ngobese, Nduna and Mapela commenced in the Rand Supreme Court. On the same day Matthews KEKANE, Albanus LESOTHO and Kingsley SITHOLE were remanded to 12 August. Sipho NGWENYA, Joseph LEEPILE and Justice NGIDI were remanded to 2 September. James DUBASI, Jongumzi SISULU, Lumkile MKEFA, David MATSOSE and Joseph MAJA were remanded to 16 October.
RAMGOBIN AND OTHERS Sixteen UDF leaders charged between December 1984 and February 1985 with high treason and alternative charges under the Internal Security Act were granted bail on 3 May after a prolonged attempt by the defence.
A Durban magistrate had earlier refused bail on the orders of the Attorney-General who was acting under Section 30 of the Internal Security Act, which allows him to prohibit bail to persons arrested on specific charges, one of which is treason. The full bench of the Pietermaritzburg Supreme Court referred the matter back to the magistrate and required the Attorney-General to explain his reasons: in its opinion a warrant of arrest was not proof that the decision to charge someone had been taken. On 25 April when the decision about bail was to be reconsidered the defendants were served with indictments and remanded to the Supreme Court for trial. Lawyers then applied to the Supreme Court for bail, which was granted by the Judge President of Natal, Justice Milne, on 3 May after the Attorney-General's certificate refusing bail had been withdrawn.
Bail conditions were tight, including a requirement to report daily to a police station and severe restrictions on movement. The defendants may not communicate with any of the state witnesses of whom 117 have been named. Nor may they take part in any activities or meetings organised by any organisation or their affiliates referred to in the indictment.
Bail was set at R15,000 each for Mewa RAMGOBIN, Essop JASSAT, Curtis NKONDO, Thozamile GQWETA, Sisa NJIKELANA, Sam KIKINE and Isaac NGCOBO; at R10,000 for Aubrey MOKOENA, Frank CHIKANE, Cassim SALOOJEE and Ismail MOHAMED; at R5,000 for George SEWPERSADH, M J NAIDOO, Archie GUMEDE, Paul DAVID and Albertina SISULU.
On 20 May the trial was adjourned to 11 July for legal argument about the indictment which is 587 pages long. The trial is expected to commence on 5 August.
Outside the court 13 people among a crowd of 200 supporters were arrested. Eight were subsequently charged under the Demonstrations in or near Court Buildings Prohibition Act.
