The number of people detained under both the emergency regulations and other laws continued to rise throughout October and November. At the same time families and lawyers of detainees attempted to use the courts either to gain improvements in conditions of detention or to protect detainees from torture and police violence. In several areas detainees themselves took actions in the form of hunger strikes.
The number of people detained was unclear. By 28 November, 7,006 people had been detained since 22 July, with 1,229 still in detention. (The first figure includes 745 Soweto school children held for one day in August).
Outside of the areas covered by the State of Emergency declared by the central government, there were a large number of detentions in Queenstown and the Ciskei and Transkei bantustans.
Several other urgent applications to court have concerned attempts by parents to obtain orders preventing the police from torturing or assaulting detainees. Such applications have brought to light considerable evidence of violence against people held both under the emergency regulations and other legislation.
TRANSKEI BANTUSTAN Hundreds of people were arrested or detained without trial in the Transkei bantustan in the months following the imposition of a curfew on 22 July last year (one day after the central government declared a State of Emergency). The curfew regulations were promulgated in terms of a State of Emergency declared by bantustan authorities in 1980 and renewed annually since then.
Large numbers of people appeared in court charged with contravening the curfew regulations or other emergency regulations directed specifically at students and pupils, including a prohibition on being out of classes without permission. (Court cases involving 800 people were reported in FOCUS 61)
The number of people detained without trial was not known, but the Transkei Council of Churches said in October that it knew of 880 people who were detained in September alone. Only a few names of those detained in August and September were reported in the press (and are included in the lists in this, and the previous issue of FOCUS).
During October repression in the bantustans was largely focussed on events surrounding the killing by police of Batandwa NDONDO, a former student leader at the University of the Transkei and a community health worker at the time of his death.
Batandwa Ndondo was shot dead in daylight in front of several residents in his home-town of Cala, after being taken from his home. His body was taken directly to the police station and then to the hospital. Police involvement was confirmed by the head of the bantustan CID.
Although a murder inquiry was opened, no statement on its progress had been made a month after the event, and the conduct of the authorities awakened suspicions of a cover-up. Within days of the shooting several friends and relatives of the dead man were detained, some of them only hours before an identity parade was due to take place. On 11 October the bantustan 'president', Kaizer Matanzima, alleged that Ndondo had been involved in an explosion which destroyed the Umtata fuel depot on 26 June, implying that that was why he had been killed.
Several students at the university were arrested after demonstrating in protest at not being allowed to hold a commemorative service, and the funeral had to be postponed by one day after a prohibition on its being held during a weekend. The funeral itself was held under tight security, with no one other than an ordained priest being allowed to speak. Over two hundred mourners were arrested: some were soon released but the police confirmed two days later that 108 were being detained.
At the end of October six relatives and friends of Ndondo were released from detention and banished to various districts. By that date several students, some of whom had been present at the University demonstrations or the funeral, had also been banished.
HUNGER STRIKES Hunger strikes were held by detainees or awaiting-trial prisoners in at least four areas of the country between September and October in protest at their conditions or at the State of Emergency.
Queenstown During September a group of people detained in Queenstown under Section 50 of the Internal Security Act held a hunger strike in protest at the conditions in the police cells in which they were held, and because they were not told under which law they had been detained.
The police used Section 50 to arrest over 70 people during September, in an attempt to suppress the consumer boycott in Queenstown (not covered by the State of Emergency). The boycott was still in progress at the end of November. The police denied knowledge of the hunger strike, but one of those involved, Andile SISHUBA, said on his release that the group of about 15 people who had been on hunger strike included leading officers of the Mlungisi Ad Hoc Residents Association and other youth and community organisations involved in the boycott.
Ciskei bantustan Seven people detained on 26 October under the National Security Act in the Ciskei bantustan and who had gone on hunger strike against their continued detention, were released on 11 November shortly before an urgent court application for their release was due to be heard. Six of the seven were teachers, and all seven had been among 111 people arrested and charged with attending an illegal gathering.
Much of the repression in the Ciskei bantustan during September and October was aimed at suppressing the school boycott in the area. Reported detentions included those of several teachers, the executive of the Ciskei Teachers Union, five Fort Hare students and at least 129 youths from Sada, including members of the Sada Youth Organisation. Arrests on charges of attending illegal gatherings included over 600 youths at meetings concerned with the boycott at the beginning of September. Over 2,900 people were arrested at a meeting in Mdantsane, including executive members of the Border Consumer Boycott Committee.
Oudtshoorn Seven awaiting-trial prisoners in Oudtshoorn started a hunger strike on 6 November. There were reports on 13 November that they had been admitted to hospital, but the prison authorities refused to comment on the reports. They do not appear to be any reports of the demands of the hunger strikers or of their identity. It was believed that they were due to face trial on 'charges in terms of security legislation, which could include allegations of sabotage'. In June last year the police linked the arrest and appearance in court of 15 people in Oudtshoorn to documents allegedly seized in the SADF raid on Gaborone during the same month.
Emergency detainees A hunger strike started on 9 November by 32 people detained in Pollsmoor Prison under the emergency regulations was joined by over 300 detainees in the Victor Verster Prison in Paarl.
A hunger strike with similar demands was started by detainees at Diepkloof prison in Johannesburg on 27 November. About 400 detainees were said to be involved, according to a statement at a press conference organised by the Transvaal Indian Congress.
On 13 November the prison authorities said they would not release any further detailed information on hunger strikes in prisons under its control, saying that the release of such information was not in the interests of 'the administration of discipline and good order in prisons'.
