During July, August and September the use of detention reached a level unprecedented since the early 1960s. Between four and five thousand people were detained during this period under the Internal Security Act, State of Emergency regulations and bantustan legislation.
By 18 October, according to the South African Police, a total of 5,196 people had been detained under the emergency regulations in force since 21 July. Of the total, 3,987 had been released and 1,209 were still in detention. About two thirds of the detentions had been in the Eastern Cape and one third in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging area.
At the same time the Internal Security Act was used extensively in areas outside those covered by the emergency regulations. There was a particularly sharp increase in August. Police figures indicate that in the fortnight ending 26 August alone, 67 people were arrested and detained under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act and 265 under Section 50 (allowing detention for two weeks and designed for 'dealing with situations of unrest').
The lists in this issue of FOCUS reflect the increase in detentions, but they are far from complete. They do not list those detained under the emergency regulations (because of space limitations) and few of the detentions under Section 50 of the Internal Security Act are included, as there is little information available.
Preliminary analysis of the patterns of detentions by the DPSC led observers to conclude that the government was using its emergency powers to mount 'a concentrated attempt to crush the United Democratic Front and its student affiliate, the Congress of South African Students.
Several urgent court applications during August and September seeking to restrain police from assaulting or torturing detainees, brought to public light further examples of widespread and systematic police violence against detainees.
During September an Eastern Cape Supreme Court judge granted an order restraining police from assaulting detainees in two Port Elizabeth prisons and all future detainees in the Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage magisterial districts.
In papers supporting an urgent application for the restraint order, the district surgeon said that she had seen many detainees, often as many as 360 a day. Many had complained of assault and showed to her injuries consistent with their complaints. She said that she was overwhelmingly convinced that detainees were being systematically assaulted and abused after their arrest and before admission to prison, as well as after interrogation at the police headquarters in Port Elizabeth. She said that the police appeared to think that they enjoyed complete immunity under the emergency regulations and were quite unrestrained in the abuse they inflicted on detainees.
There were four applications to courts in Natal concerning detainees under ISA 29:
- Billy NAIR (a UDF leader and former political prisoner). An interim injunction was granted in mid-August and confirmed a fortnight later, restraining the police from assaulting him, in the light of evidence that he had been assaulted by two policemen, suffering a perforated eardrum as a result.
- Vusi DLAMINI (15) (school pupil). Detained on 27 August. His mother was granted an urgent interim interdict in early September, stopping police assaulting him, after he had telephoned her from hospital telling her that he had been assaulted and as a result was partially deaf in one ear, with a broken jaw and suspected fractures of skull and arms, and that he would be undergoing surgery the following day.
- Sipho NGUBANE (20) (detained on 7 August). The police were ordered to show reasons why they should not be restrained from assaulting him after his mother had learnt that he had received serious injuries and was in hospital.
- Shurish SONI. Detained in July, he was hospitalised in early August in a very depressed state and considered to be a suicide risk. In September a judge granted an order temporarily restraining the security police from interrogating him, after being told by a psychiatrist that Soni was suffering from acute psychosis, severe depression, and was a 'totally broken man'.
In Johannesburg a 15 year old boy was hospitalised for treatment after two weeks of detention under the emergency regulations. Johnny MASHIANE was admitted to a psychiatric ward at the Johannesburg hospital shortly after his release on 6 August. Described by his mother as a lively boy before his detention, on his admission to hospital he was hysterical, unable to sleep and refusing to eat. The hospital described him as psychotic.
In Port Elizabeth a temporary interdict was granted restraining police from assaulting Benedict HABASISA (36) who was detained for a second time in September after being assaulted on two occasions in front of his mother.
In a case of a different kind, an 11 year old boy was held for 57 days after being charged on 11 July with public violence in a case arising out of an incident in Alexandra township. Fanie GUDUKA (11) was twice refused bail, on the grounds that he might 'flee the country' or be induced by others not to stand trial. On his release on bail after an application to the Rand Supreme Court, he said that he was beaten by the investigating officer and forced against his will to make a statement.
During August and September there were further deaths of people in police custody in circumstances pointing to violence against them either during their arrest or afterwards.
Three people, one of them a boy of 15, who died in police custody during August and September, were all members of the King William's Town Youth League, an organisation affiliated to the UDF. All were from the township of Ginsberg, part of King William's Town, in an area of the Eastern Cape which falls under the emergency regulations.
On 23 August the police confirmed that George TEMBALAKHE (15) and Loyiso NDZANDZE (20) had died in hospital during the previous week. The police said the two had been arrested when police broke up illegal gatherings in Ginsberg and 'while in custody' it was established that the two boys were seriously injured and required hospital treatment'.
Mbuyisela MBOTYA (35), described in a press report as a political activist, died on 21 September only hours after his arrest. According to the police, he became ill after being arrested and was taken to a hospital in King William's Town by the police. Mbotya's family say that he was 'dumped' outside the hospital by police who would have driven off but were spotted by nurses.
Two other people died in detention during the same period. According to police accounts neither had been involved in political activities but the circumstances of their deaths are similar to those reported above.
Sonnyboy MOKOENA (24) of Soweto died in police custody in the Eastern Transvaal area of Pilgrim's Rest on 17 August, less than 48 hours after being arrested on charges of robbery and dealing in drugs.
Two policemen repeatedly hit and kicked Mokoena at his grandmother's house in front of two witnesses. They took him away and brought him back later to fetch some clothes unable to speak or walk properly. His family were told two days later that he had hanged himself in a cell.
Patrick MANYANE (16) died in a police station shortly after his arrest on 24 August. The police said that he had broken into a railway ticket examiner's office with a friend and that a railway employee who had been sleeping in the office hit Manyane on the head with an iron bar in self-defence; the boy with Manyane escaped. Manyane's mother said that when the police brought him to his home to collect change of clothing, he had stitches on his for head and was being carried by a policeman. He was unable to speak or respond in any way.
