Between June to September the State of Emergency dominated public awareness of detention without trial. This reflected both the large number of people detained under the emergency regulations, and the frequency of challenges in the courts - largely unsuccessful - to the validity of the regulations.
By September unofficial estimates of the number of people detained under the State of Emergency regulations ranged from 10,000 to 12,000. When in August and September the government published lists of over 9,500 names of people held for more than 30 days under the regulations, monitoring groups pointed out that many others had been released after less than 30 days.
A list of 4,000 names of people unofficially reported as having been detained under the emergency regulations was published in *IDAF Briefing Paper No. 22*. This issue of *FOCUS* does not name people held under the emergency regulations, but concentrates in the space available, on people detained under the Internal Security Act and people detained under laws or regulations in force in particular bantustans. (Star 27.8.86)
COURTS AND EMERGENCY REGULATIONS
Since June courts throughout the country have handled cases brought by or on behalf of people detained under the emergency regulations. Most applicants sought to have specific detentions declared invalid. Others sought orders restraining police from assaulting particular detainees, or orders allowing lawyers access to detainees. Still others attempted to improve conditions in particular prisons. Although some cases led to rulings which declared sections of the emergency regulations invalid, only a small minority of the thousands held under the regulations enjoyed the benefits. On the other hand one consequence of the actions was that names of detainees otherwise unobtainable, were published in press reports of court proceedings.
While the courts may not challenge laws passed by Parliament (which at present encompasses three segregated chambers and a state-appointed President's Council), some lawyers have tried to challenge the validity of regulations made in terms of such laws.
In July the Metal and Allied Workers Union brought an action in the Natal Supreme Court against the Minister of Law and Order which sought, among other things, to invalidate a clause of the emergency regulations forbidding detainees access to lawyers. This part of the application was successful and a number of detainees in Natal were visited after lawyers applied to the Minister. However, access was not always permitted. Two weeks later the Minister of Justice repealed the rule he had issued prohibiting legal representatives from visiting detainees without the permission of the Minister of Law and Order or the Commissioner of Police.
When Solomon Lechesa TSENOLI, the UDF's Publicity Secretary in Natal, was released from detention on 11 August after a ruling in Durban by the Natal Supreme Court declaring two key clauses of the emergency regulations invalid, lawyers throughout the country applied for the release of their clients. However, in a similar case another Natal court upheld the emergency regulations and the Rand Supreme Court halted all applications for the release of detainees pending the outcome of the State's appeal against the Tsenoli ruling. (Star 12/14.8.86)
In the case of Tsenoli the court decided that clauses 3(1) and 3(3) of the emergency regulations were *ultra vires* going further than Parliament could have intended when it passed the Public Safety Act in 1953 to provide for the promulgation of emergency regulations.
Clause 3(1) provides for the arrest, without a warrant, of a person by any member of a 'Force' (including the police, army and prison service) if they consider it necessary for the maintenance of public safety or order, for the termination of the State of Emergency or for the safety of the person detained. Clause 3(3) enables the Minister of Law and Order to order anyone so detained to be further held for any period he may specify while the emergency is in force. (GG 12.6.86; CT 12/13.8.86; FT 10.9.86)
On 14 August a Natal Supreme Court sitting in Pietermaritzburg concluded that the Tsenoli ruling was incorrect. The release of Peter KERCHHOFF, the organiser of a local church agency, was refused on the grounds that Parliament had 'conferred a far-reaching discretion on the State President' by empowering him 'to make such regulations as appear to him to be necessary or expedient'. An appeal was lodged against the ruling. However, one month later Kerchhoff was released without explanation. On 30 September the Appeal Court overturned the Tsenoli judgement and dismissed Kerchhoff's appeal. (Star 15.8.86; DN 17.9.86; CT 2.10.86)
In another case, six detainees who successfully applied for their release from Westville Prison, Durban, were re-arrested under the Criminal Procedure Act. Some further successful applications for the release of detainees were mostly based on the Tsenoli ruling, or on the argument that the arresting person could not have been acting in good faith. The Detainee Parents Support Committee reported that by the end of August 18 people had been released as a result of legal applications involving 124 detainees. (Star 13.8.86; WM 12.9.86)
Three urgent applications restraining police from assaulting teenagers held at Westville Prison were granted by the Durban Supreme Court in July. In August the Minister of Law and Order agreed to restrain police from assaulting Rev Smagaliso MKATSHWA, the Secretary General of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference. However, he did not concede that any assault on Mkatshwa had taken place. (Star 11.7.86; DD 29.8.86)
BANTUSTANS
Repression in the bantustans has received relatively little public attention. However, even the incomplete information available concerning detentions underlines the fact that resistance in these areas is widespread and organised.
- Bophuthatswana Action against opponents of the authorities was taken in two operations at the end of August.
On 31 August bantustan police and army personnel surrounded Winterveld and arrested 45 people after searching houses. The bantustan police said two days later that they had detained three men and four youths suspected of being ANC members.
Around the same time at least 24 members of an opposition party were reported detained, including the party's leader. The Chairman of the Seoposengwe Party, the meetings of which had recently been banned, said the arrests were an attempt to intimidate people from supporting the organisation. (Star 2.9.86; BBC 2/4.9.86)
- KwaNdebele Resistance to authorities focussed on opposition to incorporation of two areas into the bantustan - Moutse and Ekangala (see FOCUS 63 p.3) - and to the imposition of 'independence'. As a result of widespread resistance, plans to declare the bantustan 'independent' in December were shelved and in mid-August about 200 people were released from detention. Press reports did not indicate what powers had been used to detain them. However, the emergency regulations were extended to non-'independent' bantustans on 18 June, and specific regulations imposing a curfew and strict controls on movement were applied to the KwaNdebele area. (DN/Star 14.8.86)
- Venda On 1 April the African township of Vleifontein, near Louis Trichardt, was incorporated into the bantustan against the wishes of its residents. Many people had moved there when another township was incorporated in 1980. The Vleifontein Crisis Committee was set up to resist incorporation, and its chairman, Rev David RAMEHLAPHE was detained on 29 May.
On 14 June at least twelve more residents were detained. It was reported that they had been held under the Maintenance of Law and Order Act introduced by the Venda bantustan authorities in March 1986 to replace the Terrorism Act. This had continued in use in the bantustan after it was replaced in the rest of South Africa by the 1982 Internal Security Act. (S 30.5.82; Star 18.6.86; CP 6.7.86; Amnesty International 19.8.86)
- Lebowa A large number of people were detained in the Lebowa bantustan under the emergency regulations (See Briefing Paper No.21 for names listed under Nebo, Potgietersrus, Pietersburg). These detentions affected youth and student organisations as well as community organisations, all of which have played a part in resistance to the Lebowa bantustan authorities. (See FOCUS 64 p.1, 65 p.6)
Among the organisations affected was the Northern Transvaal Advice Office, a community advice centre assisting families of detainees and other victims of police actions. The centre's director, Khangalo MAKHADO was detained on 25 March under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act and had still not been released by mid August. (FOCUS 65 p.7; Amnesty International 12.8.86)
- Transkei Those detained included several students at the University of Transkei, the scene of a sustained boycott starting in May after the eviction from the bantustan of two students at the university. (See FOCUS 66 p.3)
On 29 July, the day of an armed attack on the police station in Umtata, three people were detained, including a former leader of the Democratic Party Hector NCOKAZI. One of the others, Synod MADLEBE, served a three-year sentence in the 1960s as a result of PAC activities. He was detained without trial in 1976 and in 1977 and for nearly two years from December 1978 to September 1980. (FOCUS 36; CP 24.8.86; DD 6.9.86)
- Ciskei Youth, pupils and teachers formed a significant proportion of those detained during the first part of 1976, reflecting the continuing struggle over education in the area.
In the days preceding the declaration of a State of Emergency by the central government, several people were detained in the Ciskei area. They included community leaders from Sada, three of whom had recently been acquitted of charges of subversion (Victor SHANGE, Xolile MALOBOLO and Joseph MDLALO), and six UDF officials and activists.
