Almost 11,000 people were detained during 1985 under emergency regulations, under the Internal Security Act and under other laws in force in the bantustans. Towards the end of 1985 the consumer boycott and the armed struggle became particular targets of detention. Evidence of widespread and systematic use of violence and torture against detainees continued to emerge during November, December and January.
Altogether 7,478 people were detained during the year under the regulations promulgated on July 22, and of those 354 were, according to official figures, still being held at the beginning of 1986. At the end of November the Detainees Parents Support Committee said that 10,759 people had been held since January 1985. The total figure includes one thousand pupils arrested in mass detentions in the Transkei under the emergency regulations in force in that area.
The evidence of police violence in several parts of the country became public as a result of legal actions on behalf of detainees or former detainees and through the activities of those concerned with their welfare.
- Cape Town An interim interdict restraining police from assaulting or interrogating June ESAU (33), an organiser of the Clothing Workers Union, was granted by the Cape Supreme Court on 20 November. Esau had been detained in October under the emergency regulations. The court heard evidence that she was assaulted during interrogation, including a supporting statement by the head of the department of plastic surgery at the University of Cape Town. He had been prohibited by the police from taking pictures of the extent of her injuries, on the grounds that no photographs were allowed to be taken of people detained under the emergency regulations. Esau was released in December.
- Ciskei bantustan Amongst several detainees assaulted or tortured by Ciskei bantustan police were Mabuti MDA and Monde MXENGE whose appearances in court are reported under OTHER TRIALS.
In another instance Kholisa ZINTO (22) (see list) was assaulted after being arrested in Uitenhage by a member of the Ciskei bantustan police and taken to the police station in Alice in the bantustan. While being interrogated he said he was throttled, assaulted with fists, slapped, kicked and subjected to electric shocks. Afterwards he was returned to Uitenhage and handed over to the regular South African Police before being released.
- Port Elizabeth A temporary order granted on 25 September restraining police from assaulting detainees in two Port Elizabeth prisons and all future detainees in the Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage magisterial districts was extended on 26 November when the hearing of evidence from the police was due to be heard. The hearing was postponed to 4 February.
The original application had been by Dr Wendy Orr, at that time district surgeon, and 43 others. In December a further 93 affidavits in support of the application were filed. One of the new affidavits describes the treatment of Dennis NEER, Secretary General of the Motor Assembly and Component Workers Union (MACWUSA). Neer was released in December and banned. According to press reports Neer's affidavit states that he was beaten while still in his prison bed, taken on a 'nightmare ride' in the back of a police vehicle while teargas was sprayed at him and then assaulted so badly in prison that 'I could not stand the pain'.
- East London Six former detainees gave evidence of torture in two police stations in the East London area (the Fleet Street and Duncan Village police stations). Fundisile MATSHINI, three other men, a woman and a juvenile were held during September under the Internal Security Act.
While the judge refused an application in December for the police stations to be searched for electric shock equipment, he said that 'a strong prima facie case of assault had been established'.
All six said they underwent various degrees of beating, slapping or other physical abuse in addition to electric shocks. The four men and one youth said they were forced to strip and were hooded during the application of shocks, and that they were bound down to either a chair or bench while given shocks.
- Transkei bantustan Allegations of torture in the bantustan are common, according to the third bulletin of 'Detentions without trial in the Transkei', reviewing the period June-December 1985.
The report says that Engcobo police station cells are particularly known for interrogation and torture. Methods used include the following: whipping with sjamboks (most common); forcing people to stand naked holding a chain above the head while being whipped and pinched; being suspended naked from a broomstick positioned between two tables while being beaten; ice placed in the nose while a heater is held up close; twisting the foot beyond the point of dislocation. One detainee was transferred out of the bantustan to the Cambridge police cells in East London, where he was given electric shocks, hooded with a sack filled with teargas and pierced several times with pins.
Many of those named in the list of detainees opposite were detained in attempts by the police to weaken the consumer boycotts which had started towards the middle of 1985 and continued to spread and intensify into the new year. The development and increasingly organised character of the boycott was reflected in the number of local Consumer Boycott Committees whose members were detained. Most of them were also leading members of community organizations, civic associations or youth organizations.
People named in the list who were detained for this reason include those from the Pretoria area (Mamelodi), Krugersdorp (Munsieville and Kagiso), Queenstown and Johannesburg.
Not included in the list are two people detained on 4 January in Fort Beaufort under the emergency regulations. After one of them, Mtinzi QHINA, Chair of the local Consumer Boycott Committee, was assaulted continuously for 90 minutes after arrest, an urgent application was made to the Grahamstown Supreme Court for a temporary order restraining Fort Beaufort police from assaulting him and another man.
These detentions follow earlier use of detention to weaken the consumer boycott. One example came to light through an urgent application to the Grahamstown Supreme Court for the release of an Eastern Cape shop-keeper and his family who by November had spent four months in detention, allegedly because black people had bought goods at his shop during the consumer boycott. A young family friend who helped in the shop was also detained.
As part of the attempt to stop the consumer boycott in Queenstown, Transkei bantustan police detained at least 13 people in November in Ezibeleni, a 'growth point' near Queenstown but located inside the boundary of the Transkei bantustan.
At least 25 people referred to in the list of detainees (all but ten of them unnamed) were detained allegedly in connection with incidents of armed struggle: either bomb explosions, hand grenade attacks, shootouts with the police or the finding of arms and ammunition. The nature of the incidents and their geographical spread is consistent with the intensification of armed struggle outlined in the review in FOCUS 62, and reflected also in the large number of current political trials connected with armed struggle.
In the Western Cape people were detained on 21 and 29 November after a week in which six people, including three soldiers of the Cape Corps were injured in hand grenade attacks. Three men detained on 29 November were released two days later after questioning.
In two operations in Mdantsane in December, Ciskei bantustan police detained nine people and claimed to have found arms and ammunition in two zones of the township. On 5 December five men and two women were detained and there was a shootout after a police raid on a home: one policeman was wounded and one armed man escaped. Later in December police said they arrested two trained guerillas.
In Soweto an unnamed youth was held under police guard in Baragwanath hospital after being wounded by police on 1 November. According to the police they had returned fire after a group of youths had fired on them while they were patrolling the streets.
In another incident in Soweto, police shot dead a man whom they alleged to be a guerrilla and who they said was trying to remove the safety pin of a hand grenade. On the same day a quantity of arms was seized in Soweto and several people detained, including Boboy and Samson THABETHE. They were detained with their sister who was subsequently released.
Five out of nine people detained in Durban at the end of January were alleged by police to have been held in connection with a series of armed incidents in the area. Four of the nine are medical students, and one of them, Dr. Vijay RAMLACKAN, is a medical doctor. The five named by the police were Ramlackan, Sandy AFRICA, Qwazi SITHOLE, Tanpal NAIDOO and Lulami XATE. Police said that they were questioning two of the five, not named, in connection with a bomb explosion in a shopping complex in Amanzimtoti in December.
