Vijaydave Naran PATEL (41) was sentenced to an effective prison sentence of five and a half years in the Johannesburg Regional Court on 24 March. He was convicted of being a member of the ANC, participating in its activities and possessing a banned publication, 'No to Conscription into the SA Death Force! Yes to the People's Army - MK'. Patel was also charged with undergoing military training in the German Democratic Republic and Angola but was acquitted of this, even though an unnamed state witness, described as a former ANC military instructor, gave evidence of seeing him in a camp in Angola.
Patel had spent most of his adult life outside South Africa, in Britain and Australia. He left initially in 1965, only returning briefly in 1977 and then again in 1985. He allegedly tried to recruit people to the ANC between February and December 1985 and was found in possession of the publication in May 1986.
