# POLITICAL TRIALS ## COMPLETED

Recent political trials drew attention to the scale of the armed struggle across the country, and to the co-ordinated nature of the response to this development by the regime's repressive forces. A marked feature of many trials has been the regime's preference for seeking guilty pleas rather than revealing its evidence in court.

GIWU and QEGU

Mzimasi Isaac GIWU (31) and Sivuyile Botwa QEGU (31) were each sentenced to effective prison terms of 12 years in the Bisho Supreme Court of the Ciskei bantustan on 31 October. The two men had faced six charges arising out of their involvement in the ANC's armed struggle. Giwu and Botwa were detained in December 1985 when bantustan police raided a house in Mdantsane. Rifles, ammunition and hand-grenades were discovered.

The state alleged that the two men had left the country in 1982, subsequently receiving military training in Angola, Zambia and elsewhere. They allegedly returned with arms and explosives in November 1985. Although they pleaded not guilty to all the charges, on 24 October the men handed in statements to the court containing substantial admissions on the basis of which they were convicted. The trial took only a day, apparently with only witnesses in mitigation of sentence being called. After an adjournment the men were each sentenced to eight years for undergoing military training, six years for importing rifles and ammunition and six years for importing explosives. Certain of the terms were to run concurrently, giving a total sentence of 12 years each. (DD 22/25.10.86, 1.11.86)

KOPMAN

Marelane KOPMAN (36) received a sentence of 20 years' imprisonment in the Umtata Supreme Court of the Transkei bantustan on 22 October. He faced a main charge under the Transkei Public Security Act of endangering the maintenance of law and order in the bantustan by being in possession of hand-grenades, rifles and live ammunition. He pleaded guilty to an alternative count of possessing arms but this was rejected by Justice Mitchell who convicted him on the more serious charge. He was also found to have undergone military training outside South Africa between 1981 and 1985. He allegedly then returned with a companion to set up bases and recruit members for the ANC.

Kopman was detained on 22 December 1985 when police, backed up by the bantustan army, raided a house in Butterworth. (DD 10.6.86; DD/Star 23.10.86; BBC 24.10.86)

MAGONGO AND OTHERS

Six youths from KwaMashu who were alleged to have tried to leave the country to undergo military training were acquitted in court in Scottburgh in October. Dikuba MAGONGO (20), Vuyani SHEZI, Sibusiso MSIMANGO and Ndumiso MAQASA (all 19) plus two unnamed youths of 17 years, were arrested in June by the Railways Police at the Golela border post between South Africa and Swaziland. It was alleged that Magongo had instigated his co-accused and others to undergo military training, thereby furthering the aim of overthrowing or endangering the state. Several of the accused were also said to have recruited people in Natal for the ANC.

The magistrate acquitted the men after criticising the state's evidence. He said a 'cloud of suspicion' hung over one witness's testimony. Another witness, Vusumizi MTSHALI, refused to testify and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

After their acquittal police reinforcements converged on the court and re-arrested the youths. They were held to appear in court on a number of offences allegedly committed during their period of detention: public violence and malicious damage to property.

Heavily armed police were said to have outnumbered the defendants' numerous supporters throughout the trial. Nevertheless, freedom songs and slogans frequently filled the courtroom. In April this year another KwaMashu youth, Andrew Sibusiso ZONDO, was sentenced to death in Scottburgh. (WM 17.10.86; CP 19.10.86)

MARAIS

Stephen Johannes MARAIS (29) was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in the Johannesburg Regional Court on 27 October after admitting support for the ANC.

Marais, a field worker for the Environmental Development Agency (EDA), was detained on 10 March. Although newspaper reports said he had been held in Aliwal North, his employers testified that he was taken initially from an EDA workshop in Herschel in the Transkei bantustan by members of the security branches from both the bantustan and regular forces.

Marais first appeared in court on 15 August after five months in custody and was then allowed to meet his lawyer for the first time. His trial was set for October and some details of the charges were reported. He was alleged to have undergone military training with the ANC and helped the organisation by providing it with maps, disseminating publications and acting as a courier. In February he allegedly drove with Marion Sparg (see below) from Lesotho to East London with limpet mines concealed in the car. He was said to have helped Johnson Thabo, an ANC member, enter the country and to have recruited or attempted to recruit Patricia Henderson and Doris (Desiree) Sipos to the ANC. Henderson, a worker for the Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA) and Sipos, an EDA member, were both detained in April 1986. (See FOCUS 65 p.7) Marais was also charged with inciting Michael Vermeulen to infiltrate the SADF.

On 27 October Marais pleaded guilty to some of the offences: acting for the ANC by posting two letters and transporting an ANC member on their behalf; importing limpet mines; and receiving instructions (but not practical training) in the use of arms and explosives. No evidence was led, though Marais spoke in his defence before being convicted of 'terrorism'. (Star/DD 21–30.10.86)

MDLALANA

Wiseman Ndodomzi MDLALANA (25) of Gugulete pleaded guilty to a charge of 'terrorism' in the Cape Town Regional Court on 3 November. He was charged with possession of two hand-grenades which were allegedly found on him when he was detained in April. (See FOCUS 65 p.7 where the name was given as Dududomi MDLALANE)

Mdalana said he received the weapons from an ANC combatant named Mzwandile Lucky Madubula who escaped arrest. Mdalana was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, two years of which were suspended. It was reported that the magistrate took into account that Mdalana was not a member of an organisation. (CT 4.11.86)

SPARG

Marion SPARG (28), a former journalist on the Daily Dispatch and the Johannesburg Sunday Times, was sentenced to a total of 25 years' imprisonment on 6 November after being convicted of treason, arson and attempted arson. Sparg pleaded guilty to all charges and the state led no evidence except for a statement she made to a magistrate shortly after her detention in March and an unposted letter to her mother found in her flat at the same time.

The arson and attempted arson charges arose from petrol bomb attacks in 1981 carried out by Sparg and two accomplices on Progressive Federal Party offices in protest at their refusal to join the anti-Republic Day campaign. The main charge of treason covered Sparg's activities after she left South Africa in 1981 and joined the ANC. She said that she worked for the ANC in Lusaka, at one time on the journal Voice of Women, and underwent military training in Angola. She admitted bringing limpet mines into the country in February this year and causing an explosion on 19 February in the Cambridge police station, East London. On 4 March she placed limpet mines at John Vorster Square police headquarters in Johannesburg and Hillbrow police stations, though the latter bomb did not explode.

Justice van der Walt sentenced her to concurrent periods of five years and three years on two charges of arson and one of attempted arson, and an additional 20 years for treason. He accepted that she was sincere in her beliefs but in considering sentence said the fact that she was white was an 'aggravating factor'. Sparg's lawyers subsequently sought leave to appeal against sentence, citing grounds that the judge misdirected himself on this matter. Leave was initially refused. (CP/DD/Star/The Independent (London) 4–9.11.86; WM 21.11.86; MS 29.11.86)

CONTINUING

MAZIBUKO AND OTHERS

Seven former COSAS activists appeared before a judge and two assessors in the Pretoria Supreme Court in August charged with 'terrorism', attempted murder, unlawful possession of arms and malicious damage to property.

Joseph Titus MAZIBUKO (18), John MLANGENI (21), Samuel LEKATSA (19), Humphrey TSHABALALA (19), Johannes Veli MAZIBUKO (18), Hosea LENGOSANE (20) and Cedric DLADLA (19) pleaded not guilty to all charges. (See FOCUS 65 p.10 when Johannes MAZIBUKO was not 18 so could not be named.)

They were detained in June 1985 after a number of incidents in which eight other activists were killed. The deaths were apparently caused by the use of 'booby-trapped' hand grenades and explosives which had no time-delay mechanisms but exploded immediately on being set. Five of the defendants were maimed in the incidents. The State alleges that they underwent training on 24 June 1985 and launched attacks the following night on the homes of a number of former community councillors and policemen in Duduza, Tsakane and KwaThema.

Evidence from a number of doctors revealed that police interrogated the accused shortly after they had undergone surgery and without the approval of the doctors treating them. Mlangeni, who had his right hand amputated, made a statement before a magistrate 11 hours after the operation. Tshabalala was interrogated 17 hours after his fingers were amputated even though he was reportedly suffering from trauma, shock and loss of blood and at one stage had difficulty in speaking. The first five defendants who were all injured made statements within 55 hours of surgery.

In a 'trial within a trial' into the admissability of these statements, an anaesthetist called by the defence said it was unethical for statements to be obtained from patients while they were under the influence of post-operative drugs. Mlangeni told of being slapped on the face by a policeman while lying on a stretcher in a corridor shortly after surgery. J T Mazibuko said he twice refused to make a statement in the Natalspruit hospital to Magistrate P H Marx because he was too ill, but on the third day agreed to do so 'to get rid of' him. Magistrate B N Fourie took down statements from Lekatsa, Tshabalala and J V Mazibuko in a hospital bathroom. A nursing sister and an interpreter described the youths as being in severe pain while Fourie declared they were 'relaxed'. Mazibuko was in a wheelchair.

In a ruling on 10 November Justice Stafford found that statements by J T and J V Mazibuko were inadmissible as evidence. However, while acknowledging that all the accused were in pain and grieving over their lost limbs, he ruled that Lekatsa, Tshabalala and Mlangeni were in sound and sobre senses when making their statements. He found that Magistrate Marx, an interpreter and Warrant Officer Karel van Dyk were all 'untruthful witnesses' and subsequently, after widespread protest, Marx was suspended pending an investigation by the Judge President of the Transvaal.

Lengosane, who suffered a severe head wound before his arrest, was said to have developed 'major mental and intellectual defects and [lack of] insight regarding his condition'. He suffers from epileptic seizures.

A number of state witnesses were cross-examined by the defence on their own role in the violence in Duduza and KwaThema. Former Duduza councillor Steven Namane and his brother David, a businessman, were said to have hired a certain Billy Dlamini to kill political activists. Dlamini had confessed his own involvement and implicated them in the murder of Alexander PAILANE, a Duduza Youth Congress member. (FOCUS 60 p.8)

The defence also presented to the court a letter addressed to the Attorney General of the Witwatersrand from lawyers acting for the Anglican diocese of Johannesburg. It pointed to the involvement of policemen in a number of petrol bomb attacks in KwaThema, including one on the home of the suffragan bishop of Johannesburg, Simon Nkoane.

In a continuation of the tight seclusion of the defendants the judge ruled that a staff shortage prevented him allowing any contact between family members and the accused either in court or in the police cells. (S 12/29.8.86, 2.9.86; Cit 13.8.86; Star 13/19.8.86; S/Star 12.8.-12.11.86)

DEATH SENTENCES

Death sentences passed on four men convicted of murder between August and November 1986 brought to 16 the number of people facing execution for political offences. Ten of these have been sentenced since June.

Concern was growing that the State would seek to make further examples of other people facing similar charges. The reported jailing in the period under review of at least 57 more people, often young and for long terms, provides further evidence of increasing numbers of political prisoners.

Josiah TSWANE (29) and Daniel MALEKE (19), both from the Sebokeng township, were sentenced to death in the Vanderbijlpark Circuit Court in late September. In passing sentence the judge said that there was 'no doubt' that the killing of Sergeant Letsele of the Vereeniging Security Police was a premeditated political act. Tswane and Maleke had accused Letsele of being responsible for the arrest of Tswane's elder brother and other members of the Congress of South African Students. No other reports of this case appeared in the press. (FOCUS 67 p.1; CP 28.9.86)

Desmond MAJOLA (27), Dickson MADIKANE (36) and Patrick MANGINDA (23) are to appeal against the death sentences passed on them for the alleged murder of a community councillor in November 1985. This was announced in October by their families who live in Bongolethu near Oudtshoorn in the Eastern Cape. During two raids by the police in 1985, the year of the murder, some 500 of Bongolethu's population of 4,000 were arrested.

Majola has two children aged three and five. His mother aged 70 and her husband depended on his earnings as a factory worker. Madikane is reported to have been suffering for two years from a mental problem which had virtually confined him to his house, but no evidence of this was given in court. (FOCUS 67 p.7; New Nation 22.10.86)

No further developments have been reported in two cases involving three other people sentenced to death: Eile WEBUSHE, Solomon Mankopane MAOWASHA and Alex Matshapa MATSEPANE. (FOCUS 66 p.5)

The appeal of six Sharpeville residents against the death sentences passed on them over a year ago for the murder of a community councillor in 1984 was due to be heard in October but appears to have been postponed. Those under sentence are Oupa Moses DINISO (30), Duma Joshua KHUMALO (26), Francis Don MOKHESI (28), Reid Malebo MOKOENA (22), Theresa RAMASHAMOLA (24) and Mojalefa Reginald SEFATSA (30). (FOCUS 63 p.1; Repression Monitoring Group 8.9.86)

A trial which revealed details of the close relationship between community councillors, the police and armed vigilantes ended in the Port Elizabeth Supreme Court on 28 November when Mlamli Wellington MIELIES (22) and Mnyanda Moses JANTJIES (21) were sentenced to death. (FOCUS 64 p.7, 65 p.11)

With eight others they had been charged with the murder of Uitenhage community councillor Benjamin Kinikini and five others, four of them his relatives. The deaths occurred when an angry crowd burned down Kinikini's business premises on 23 March 1986. The attack came two days after the police had shot dead at least 20 mourners in a funeral procession at Langa, Uitenhage. (FOCUS 58 p.5, 59 p.1)

On 16 October the State halted its prosecution of four of the accused: Godfrey Tobile MAHLAHLA (19) and his younger brother Sakhumzi, Nqgondo VENA (26) and Lungile BOBBY (22). Mielies and Jantjies, Zandisile NDWANYA (18) and two unnamed youths aged 15 and 17 remained on trial. The fate of a tenth defendant, an unnamed youth aged 16, was not reported.

The main evidence in the case came from an unnamed witness ('D') who was brought from St Alban's prison to give evidence. He is serving a one-year prison sentence. The witness admitted being a police informer and active in a vigilante group known as the Peacemakers, who made arrests and conducted mock trials with the support of the local police. On the day of the killing a number of children and youths were taken at gunpoint from their homes at 4 am and held in the cold storage room of the Kinikini funeral parlour before being handed over to the police. Mzobanzi Christopher KAMNTENI, one of those kidnapped, told the court Witness D was among those who abdicated and 'sjambokked' him. Evidence showed that a large crowd had gathered outside Kinikini's premises demanding to know the whereabouts of the abducted youths.

It was also revealed in evidence that Silumko Kinikini, who was killed on 23 March, had fired at the demonstrators. He was already facing charges in connection with the shooting of a certain Vumile in an earlier incident.

In ruling that a statement given to police by Mielies was admissible as evidence, despite the defence submission that it had been made under duress, the judge commented on the 'remarkably few material discrepancies' in the evidence of four policemen about their treatment of Mielies. He said they had 'corroborated each other ... and on face value acted as one would expect a diligent police team to act.' Because of this, and even allowing for the fact that Mielies 'was not experienced in giving evidence', he discounted claims by Mielies that to force a statement from him the police had handcuffed him until his wrists were marked, assaulted him and fired a shot over his head. According to the report, the court found that 'besides the alleged shot fired over his head the assaults he claimed to have been subjected to were of a singularly mild nature'.

On 28 September Ndwanya was sentenced to an effective 20 years' imprisonment and Sidwell Thobekile MPUMLO (18) (previously unnamed) to an effective 19 years for murder and public violence. The unnamed youth of 15 received an effective two-year sentence for public violence. (DD 20-28.2.86, 11/13/18.3.86, 1.13.5.86, 17.10.86, 6.11.86; Star 6/7/12/29.11.86; MS 9.11.86)

In September in the Port Elizabeth Supreme Court it was reported to have been an AZAPO member who was killed at Kwazakele on 8 June, 1985. The State alleged that his death was a response by the accused to the burning down of Ngoyi's home two days earlier. This was denied by the UDF's regional vice-president, Henry Fazzie, when he gave evidence on 16 September. He stated that the UDF was opposed to violence.

Accused with Ngoyi were Eunice NGOYI (58), Lulamile MKALIPI (22), Xolisile PHETHA (19), Stephen DZEDZE (30), Fumanekile SIYANI, Nkitini MANELLI (23) and three unnamed youths, two aged 17 and one of 15. (DD 17.9.86; CP 21.9.86)

Dabula's 16-year sentence was to run consecutively with another of six years imposed on him at the end of October for culpable homicide. Two other men were sentenced with him: Skhumbuzo MENZIWA (20), who received 10 years and Bonakele SNYDERS (19) five years (both sentences possibly in part suspended).(DD 31.10.86)

  • Obed THULO (32), Moffat SKOLOMO (21), Mavova TSHOTSHONI (57) and 17 other Randfontein gold miners – the last of 97 originally accused of public violence and the murder of two white policemen during clashes last January – were acquitted on 17 October. The Attorney General withdrew all charges against them. Two days earlier Thulo received a four-year jail sentence, suspended for five years, after being convicted of possessing an AK-47 rifle, four grenades and bullets. The defence expressed concern about Tshotshoni's absence from court. He had not been seen since he was admitted to hospital four months previously while in custody.(FOCUS 64 p.7, 65 p.11; CP 21.9.86; Business Day 16.10.86; Cit 18.10.86)

CROSSROADS AND ZOLANI TRIALS

In the period under review 10 of the 15 unrest-related trials reported in the press as completed were in the Western Cape, including four arising out of the struggles of Crossroads residents against repressive actions by the police and vigilantes.

On September 9 Thabo MEMANI (35) was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for an attempted murder in January last year, while Douglas NTSELE (34), a photographer who lost an arm after being shot by police during clashes with residents at Langa in February 1985, was sentenced to two years for public violence. Both men lodged immediate appeals. Memani's co-defendant, Christopher TOISE (51), the leader of the Portland squatters camp which was devastated by vigilantes, was ac-quitted, as was the squatters' leader at the Nyanga Extension, Alfred SIPHIKA (41), who had been charged with the attempted murder of a vigilante leader.(CT 23.8.86, 10.9.86; Star 7.10.86)

Some 200 Zolani residents appeared in three cases related to repression by police and vigilantes and the activity of informers. In the Cape Town Supreme Court on 16 October eight people including Phyllis FANTE were accused of the attempted murder of a woman who gave evidence against Fante's husband in December 1985 and who was said to be an informer. In the Montagu Magistrates' Court in mid-September charges were dropped against all but 30 of about 115 Zolani residents accused of public violence during clashes with police and vigilantes in May 1985.

Earlier in the month 32 Zolani residents were sentenced in the Worcester Regional Court. Three adults were jailed for ten years for attacking the homes of vigilantes in November 1985, while 29 others aged from 13 to 18 received sentences of seven and eight years.(CT 3/4; 5.9.86; FT 3.9.86; MS 4.9.86; S 5.9.86; DD 5.9.86; S Trib 7.9.86; WM 19.9.86; Star 17.10.86)

CENSORSHIP TRIALS

Sentences have been handed down in several trials related to the possession of banned political literature and the display of ANC slogans.

CRADOCK COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS

Along with Johannes Maische BOPAPE (24) — who was arrested separately and released on bail — the seven were charged under the Internal Security Act with furthering the aims of banned organisations. These arose from the funeral in July 1985 of Matthew GONIWE and three other local activists when the flags of the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress were flown. Bopape was released at their first court appearance in January in the Cradock Magistrates' Court. He had been arrested in the same month. The remaining seven accused were detained in September 1985.(WM 31.1.86, 27.3.86)

However, five of the accused were subsequently redetained under emergency regulations and failed to appear at the subsequent hearing in the Uitenhage Regional Court in August. The trial was then postponed until January 1987. Two more people charged in connection with the case were also due to appear on that date.(DD 5.8.86)

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