In November 1985 Tsepo MALGAS (26), a schoolteacher from Cala in the Transkei bantutan, was acquitted of charges under the Transkei Public Security Act in the Umtata Regional Court. He was first reported to be in detention in June 1984.
Malgas was charged with harbouring an alleged guerilla and possessing offensive weapons. The state alleged that he had accommodated Sisa Ngobane knowing him to be a 'terrorist'. Police claimed to have searched Malgas' house in the absence of Ngobane and found a hand-grenade and a shotgun, but admitted that Ngobane did not return to the house. The magistrate ruled that there was no prima facie case against Malgas and discharged him.
The trial of 13 people charged in the Estcourt Supreme Court in connection with the ANC's armed struggle ended in December 1985 with the conviction of seven of the accused. The charges stated that four trained guerrillas established arms caches and bases in the Ingwawava district of the KwaZulu bantutan, close to the Swaziland border and recruited local people for training in the use of weapons.
Evidence was given by members of various branches of the police force who had participated in operations in the area between 13 and 24 December 1984. A lieutenant in the Special Task Force, based in Pretoria, told of shooting dead an alleged guerilla named as Linda Fikekahle in a cave hideout said to contain arms, ammunition, food and cooking utensils as well as ANC and SACP literature.
On 5 December Justice Wilson James Wilfred MAPUMULO, Robert DUMISA, James MARUPENG and Norbert BUTHELEZI guilty of 'terrorism' in that they were active members of the ANC. The four had refused to participate in the trial, neither appointing a lawyer nor cross-examining witnesses themselves, stating that as members of Umkhonto we Sizwe they should be granted prisoner-of-war status.
Dumisa was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment, Buthelezi to 10 years' and Mapumulo and Marupeng to eight years' each. Vusumuzi Zeblon NYAWO and Dumesweni MYENI were convicted of 'terrorism' for aiding the first four accused in the furtherance of their activities. They were each sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. Also convicted was Boy MVUBU, for failing to report the actions of the other accused although he knew of their illegal activities. No details of his sentence appeared in the press.
The remaining accused were acquitted on the basis of a 'defence of necessity'. The judge ruled that they had not acted freely when undertaking training. They were Vusumuzi Nyawo's mother, Nokuhamba, Bafana MAFU, Bhekizazi MTHETHWA, Amos MAFULEKA, Joel MAKHUNGA and Mfinywani BAMALI.
Jan SHOBA (26), Mlandeli Morris KETYE (30), Alby JULY (26), Michael Mosana SQAMANA (23) and Bonise Raymond IKABINDE (26) who were charged with furthering the aims of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) were convicted and sentenced to the Benoni Regional Court in December 1985. All had pleaded not guilty to four main charges under the Internal Security and Terrorism Acts and four alternative charges. The alleged offences included undergoing military training, recruiting people for the PAC (and military training) and unlawfully entering South Africa with the intention of overthrowing the government.
The trial began in the Potchefstroom Regional Court and was transferred to Benoni between 28 October and 18 November. Although trials may be transferred from one court to another, this should normally occur before the accused have pleaded or evidence has been lead. In this case, according to newspaper reports, the accused pleaded in Potchefstroom and 'a trial within a trial' commenced to decide on the admissability of confessions allegedly made by the accused. The press did not report the outcome of the procedure nor the circumstances surrounding the move to Benoni.
The main evidence against the men came from David Simon MAGWAZA who was allegedly an accomplice who turned state witness. The six had been detained on 30 January 1984: some at Park Station, Johannesburg, and July and Ggamana in Mafikeng.
On 9 December the five were convicted of 'terrorism'. Nkabinde was also convicted of being in possession of a forged passport and Shoba of being in possession of an unlicensed firearm and 40 rounds of ammunition. Shoba was convicted in absentia as he was in hospital.
In mitigation of sentence the defence said that the PAC had not carried out any acts of violence since 1982. However, the magistrate sentenced Nkabinde to eight and a half years, Shoba to eight years and July, Ggamana and Nkabinde to seven years' each.
The trial of Salusha Malinga ZONDO (70), Kathazile MAPHUMULO and Cornelius Mzama ZULU (45) was split into two separate trials and the proceedings were moved from Estcourt to Eshowe Regional Court. The charges followed an operation by armed police in the Nongoma region of the KwaZulu bantutan in January 1985.
In early November Zulu pleaded guilty to two main charges of furthering the aims of the ANC and possessing firearms. He had worked as a chauffeur to King Goodwill Zwelithini but was dismissed by bantutan leader Gatsha Buthelezi. He then worked as a driver for the Swaziland government. He told the court he became an ANC sympathiser because of the regime's removals policy and the killing of Saul Mkhize in 1983. He agreed to act as a courier for the ANC and find accommodation for their members in his home district of Nongoma. He admitted conducting three armed ANC men to Zondo's homestead. They then left for Vryheid via Maphumulo's place, where a shootout with police occurred in which two of them were killed along with a policeman and another person.
Zulu was sentenced to nine years', four of which were suspended for five years. It emerged that his first defence lawyer had withdrawn from the case after his house was burnt and property destroyed.
Zulu was later brought from prison to court to testify in the trial of Zondo and Maphumulo. The court was told that Zondo was unaware that the men brought by Zulu were ANC members. The trial was due to continue.
Eight youth activists appeared in the Burgersdorp Regional Court in December charged with 'terrorism', subversion and furthering the aims of a banned organisation, in a trial aimed at linking unrest within South Africa to the ANC. They are Zukile GXAVU (22) and Ncedile MAKU (21) both of Port Elizabeth and Denmark, TUNGWANA (21), Lungile NOMEVA (26), Ntsikelelo QAKU (29), Andile XINTOLO (35), Tembeni SAMUEL (22) and Simon SPEELMAN (18) all of Queenstown. The accused, most of whom were active in the Congress of South African Students which has since been banned, were detained in August 1984.
The charges alleged that they attempted to bring down the government by violent and other means through recruiting people for the ANC's armed wing, distributing ANC publications and propaganda, planning acts of subversion and sabotage and mobilising people in boycotts and other protests against government policy. One person named as a potential recruit was Professor BACELA, who was detained at the same time as the accused.
The prosecution sought to prove that certain organisations were 'fronts' in a 'total onslaught' on the government, orchestrated by the ANC. These organisations included COSAS, the Queenstown Youth Organisation, the South African Allied Workers Union, the African Food and Canning Workers Union and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU). This was this 'total onslaught' which linked together apparently unconnected events which allegedly occurred in Queenstown, Port Elizabeth and Maseru and featured in evidence. An unnamed state witness described as a trained ANC member testified that she had been sent from Maseru to co-ordinate the activities of the group.
According to defence counsel much of the evidence concerned SACTU, which he noted was not a banned organisation, and alleged contacts between the defendants and the ANC. He stated it was not an offence to visit or be in the company of ANC members 'whether you are accused number one in this trial, an illustrious businessman or a Stellenbosch University student'. Furthermore, COSAS was not a banned organisation at the time of the alleged offences and it would not matter if its aims coincided with those of the ANC. Judgement was reserved to 10 March.
Three men appeared in the Johannesburg Regional Court in September 1985 charged in connection with an alleged conspiracy to launch armed attacks. Daniel MOTAUNG (25), Phoza (Charles) MBEZA (33) and Esau RAMONTSHU (27), who were detained in March 1985 were not asked to plead to charges of 'terrorism' and membership of an unlawful organisation or alternative charges under the Arms and Ammunition Act. The trial was postponed until 9 January.
The state alleged that Motaung left the country in 1982 to undergo military training on behalf of the ANC. He returned in January 1985 with a rifle and hand-grenades and the aim of recruiting people for military training. He is alleged to have trained Mbeza and Ramontshu and to have conspired with them to attack either Jabulani or Protea police station or a church in Krugersdorp.
