Further confirmation of the nationwide character and the intensity of popular resistance came in a report released on 12 November by the Detainees Parents' Support Committee. It said it was 'no longer practical or possible to record details of the large number of public violence and related trials which have poured into the courts as a result of police action in every corner of the country from the main centres to remote villages'.
POLICE DEATHS According to figures announced by the Minister of Law and Order on 29 November at least 27 policemen had been killed and the homes of about 550 policemen burnt down since September 1984.
- Twenty five Motherwell residents appeared before Port Elizabeth magistrates on 11 September accused of the murder of a policeman. No evidence was led or pleas sought, and the hearing was adjourned to 4 October.
- In the Ciskei bantustan a former detainee, Vuyisile Mabuti MDA (21), appeared in the Zwelitsha Magistrates' Court, along with five other men and a minor, on a charge of murdering a policeman in September. Public violence and arson were also alleged. However, proceedings were delayed in mid-October when Mda's aunt obtained an undertaking through the court that the police would not assault or unlawfully interrogate him. A further delay occurred on 21 October when his aunt sought the consolidation of the undertaking in the form of an interim interdict restraining the police. This was refused in favour of the chief magistrate making a statement in court about Mda's mental and physical condition on 25 October. The hearing of the charges against the seven was postponed to 11 November.
- At the Cape Town Magistrates' Court on 24 October three men appeared in connection with the death of a policeman during a Muslim funeral at Salt River on 11 September. They were Albert ALEXANDER (32), Adenaar RESTER (22) and Adenaar BATCHELOR (30). A large crowd of fellow-Muslims gathered outside the court and prayers were said. No formal charges were put and the three were released on bail of R2,000 each. Their next court appearance was set for 28 November.
- Five men were given prison sentences for the murder of a policeman in November in the Bophuthatswana bantustan. Eleven other adults and two minors were also sentenced to imprisonment. For details see list of prisoners.
LABOUR TRIALS * In Howick, Natal, the first of no less than thirty hearings at the Regional Court involving over 300 workers charged with public violence and arson began on 1 November. The defendants were present or former employees at the local Sarmcol tyre factory which is owned by a South African subsidiary of the British company BTR.
In April 1985 the management issued dismissal notices to all 950 of its black hourly-paid workers. Their union, the Metal and Allied Workers Union, called a strike but the company recruited 800 non-unionists to operate the plant in their place. Angry demonstrations by the dismissed workers took place in the Mphophomeni township and three strike-breakers were killed.
On 16 June 30 workers appeared before Howick magistrates. Ten were charged with murder and the rest with intimidation and assault. The courtroom was crowded with fellow trade unionists, who marched at lunchtime to the factory and tried to prevent strikebreakers leaving it.
In the first of the resumed hearings on 4 November at the Howick Regional Court, Victor ZUMA (19) pleaded not guilty to charges of public violence and arson. He denied being part of a crowd of about 500 who stoned and burned down the house of a strikebreaker in Mphophomeni. The case was to continue on 5 November.
- A total of 718 student nurses and auxiliary workers employed at the huge Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto were warned to appear at the Protea and Orlando Magistrates' Courts on 29 November but after the Rand Supreme Court ordered the reinstatement of 1,740 dismissed students and auxiliaries on 19 November all charges were dropped. They had been accused, under the emergency regulations of holding an illegal gathering and taking illegal strike action, as a result of mass meetings, strikes and demonstrations in the hospital premises on 13 and 14 November, when armed security guards, police and SADF personnel were used to suppress staff protests over pay, working conditions and restrictions on personal freedom.
Released on their own recognisance those arrested included members of both the Health Workers' Association and the General and Allied Workers' Union, amongst them 574 women.
SEFATSA AND OTHERS On 3 September 1984 a community councillor named Dlamini was killed in Sharpeville, near Johannesburg during protests against rent increases. Accused of his murder in a trial which began a year later on 5 September before Oberholzer Magistrates were one woman, Theresa RAMASHAMULA (24), and seven men: Mojalefa Reginald SEFATSA (30), Reid Malebo MOKOENA (22), Oupa Moses DINISO (30), Motseki Christiaan MOKUBUNG (23), Motsari Gideon MOKONE (21), Duma Joshua KHUMALO (26) and Francis Dom MOKGESI (28). At the Pretoria Supreme Court on 23 September pleas of not guilty were entered by all the accused, who were also charged with subversion, alternatively malicious damage to property and arson.
On 4 October a state witness, 'Mr X', confirmed defence allegations three days earlier that he had been beaten in 1984 by policemen who wanted him to incriminate two of the accused, Khumalo and Mokone.
On 22 October Sefatsa gave evidence of his arrest on 9 November 1984. He described how his eight months pregnant wife had been slapped by a policeman just before his arrest and how he had been tortured while being questioned at Sebokeng police station. A doctor testified that Sefatsa had sustained injuries to his arms, chest, cheek and his left leg, and that his hearing and vision had been impaired. On 25 October Ramashamula's arm was fractured while she was being conveyed in a police vehicle. On 27 October her mother testified that her daughter had been arrested in the night at the end of 1984. During interrogation she had been stripped and tortured by means of electrodes attached to her breasts.
On 25 October Mokoena gave evidence of ill-treatment and torture when he was taken into police custody at Vereeniging police station in September 1984. After being subjected to electrical shock torture he was forced to write to the Minister of Law and Order implicating himself and others in Dlamini's death. The case continues.
