In December and January 54 anti-apartheid activists were served wide-ranging restriction orders under the emergency regulations. Many are prevented by the orders from continuing their education or their employment. The restrictions last for the duration of the State of Emergency. Most of the 54 were detained in the Western Cape under the Internal Security Act on 25 October, the day before the emergency was extended to Cape Town, and were then held under emergency regulations. Five others in the Transvaal are already under similar restrictions.
- Forty-five community activists, including teachers, school and university students, church workers, journalists and most of the leadership of the Western Cape branch of the UDF were released from detention at Pollsmoor and Victor Verster prisons on 30 December and immediately placed under restrictions. Most of them had been detained on 25 October. Many are confined to the magisterial districts in which they live. The individual banning orders vary, and include bars on involvement with the UDF or from entering educational premises or criticizing the government 'in any way'. Many students are effectively prevented from continuing their education.
- Rev Robin PETERSEN (28), detained in Cape Town on 25 October and released on 4 December, was immediately restricted to the magisterial district of Wynberg. He is forbidden from involvement in activities of the Ecumencial Action Movement (TEAM), the UDF and COSAS; from entering educational premises; taking part in the production of any publication or attending any gatherings at which the government or local authorities are criticized, or any student gatherings. Petersen, a member of the Churches Urban Planning Commission, is prevented from continuing his job with TEAM.
- Abdullah OMAR, a lawyer who has defended many opponents of the regime, was restricted to Wynberg on his release from detention on 12 December. Omar was first detained for six weeks from 23 August and redetained on 25 October. He is prohibited from taking part in UDF affairs, from contributing to any publication, entering educational premises and attending meetings criticizing the government or local authorities. Omar cannot continue his present practice in the Cape Town magisterial district.
- A German Lutheran pastor, Gottfried KRAATZ, also detained on 25 October and released on 12 December, was restricted to Wynberg and subject to the same restrictions as Omar.
- Three school teachers from Mitchell's Plain and two school students were banned from teaching or attending school after they were released from detention on 8 January. The teachers, Gordon EDWARDS (31), Shahied HARTLEY and Yussuf MOHAMED (24) and pupils, Christopher HENDRICKS (15) and Mark LACKAY (19), are also banned from assisting in the production of any publication, attending public gatherings or entering educational institutions.
- In the Eastern Cape, the General Secretary of the Motor Assembly and Component Workers' Union (MACWUSA) and the General Workers' Union (GWUSA), Dennis NEER was confined to the Port Elizabeth magisterial district on his release from detention in December. He may not enter educational premises or take part in activites of MACWUSA, the Port Elizabeth Youth Congress, the UDF, the Release Mandela Committee or the Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation. Neer was detained on 21 July, the first day of the emergency, along with many other community and union leaders. He said that while in detention he was tortured and repeatedly assaulted during numerous interrogation sessions.
On 21 December 1985 Winnie MANDELA was served with a revised banning order and immediately arrested for contravening it by being in an area from which she is excluded. Since 1977 Mandela had been confined to Brandfort, in the Orange Free State under a series of orders. However, since her house and clinic in Brandfort were damaged by a firebomb in August, she has defied her ban, returning to her home in Soweto and addressing various meetings. She spoke at a mass funeral in Mamelodi and a meeting to commemorate Benjamin Moloise.
Police served a notice on Mandela in November, ordering her to return to her house in Brandfort after it had been repaired. She refused, and the Minister of Law and Order finally issued a revised order which ended her confinement to Brandfort, but forbade her from entering the magisterial districts of Roodpoort and Johannesburg, in which Soweto is situated. She is no longer required to report to a police station and may attend social gatherings of students but remains banned from all political gatherings and from entering educational premises; she may also not be quoted or communicate with other banned people.
When Mandela refused to co-operate with police delivering the order, she was forcibly removed from her home and driven to a hotel on the outskirts of Johannesburg. She returned home and was arrested the following day, held in custody overnight and appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrates' Court on 23 December. She was warned to appear again on 22 January to face contravention charges. Following a further arrest and court appearance, she was released on bail of R500. It was later reported that she was in a 'safe place'.
In the meantime Mandela had lodged an urgent application with the Rand Supreme Court against the Minister of Law and Order and the Commissioner of the South African Police, challenging the revised ban as unreasonable and invalid. On 13 January her application was dismissed, but leave to appeal against the ruling was granted.
The fourth banning order served on Florence MKHIZE (49), a leading anti-apartheid activist since the 1950s, expired on 30 June last year. Mkhize was first banned in 1962. She was an organiser of the ANC Women's League for Natal in 1956 and an ANC organiser in Natal from 1955 until its banning in 1960. During 1960 she became prominent in the newly established Federation of South African Women and was a founder member of the Natal Release Mandela Committee.
Kwedi MKALIPI was banished on his release from prison.
