MATSHOBA, Andile MBUQE, Sonwabo KWAZA, Bandile XELO and a youth of 17 were each sentenced to 18 months of which 12 were suspended.
The most recent death sentence to be made public was passed on Bekisizwe NGIDI, a Soweto school student of 19 years. He was convicted of murdering a policeman on 25 April 1986 when a large crowd of some four hundred schoolchildren attacked a police sergeant while on his way to work. Sergeant Mpedi Mokhotlane was armed with a pistol and rifle but these were taken from him after he fired at the youths.
The indictment alleged that the students were hunting the killers of fellow students killed by a Soweto gang. However, a press report at the time said the killing occurred as 'police and troops battled with youths and halted a march on a court' where 15 other students were appearing in connection with the death of another policeman the previous week.
Ngidi was originally charged alongside Bernard 'Bennet' NKABINDE (19), Sello Philip KWELA (26) and David NGOMEZULU (19). However only the first two appeared with him in the Rand Supreme Court in May 1987. On 14 May Ngidi was convicted of murder while Kwela was acquitted on charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and malicious damage to property. The lesser charges related to theft of the policeman's weapons and the stoning of his car. Ngidi was acquitted on both subordinate charges but convicted on a reduced charge of common theft. No mention was made of Nkabinde in the press report.
Ngidi made a confession after his arrest which he retracted in court, saying it had been extracted under duress. However, Justice Spoelstra ruled it admissible. The evidence showed that a large number of students were involved in the death of the policeman. Kwela was acquitted on the grounds that the state had not proved its case against him even though the judge said the court was not convinced that, as he claimed, he was at school during the incident.
SHARPEVILLE APPEAL
In June it was announced that on 10 September the Bloemfontein Appeal Court would hear an appeal by Mojalefa Reginald SEFATSA and five others sentenced to death with him. The Sharpeville residents were convicted of the murder of a Lekoa councillor killed during a mass rents protest in the Vaal Triangle in September 1984. The six, who include Theresa RAMASHAMOLA, the only woman amongst the 32 threatened with execution, have been on death row since December 1985.
In June President Botha was granted the 'freedom of the city' by the Lekoa Town Council which administers Sharpeville. The councillors are so unpopular with their constituents that they live in a specially-constructed and heavily guarded compound. The Vaal Civic Organisation distributed a pamphlet during Botha's visit with a number of demands including the freeing of the six Sharpeville residents. A rent boycott inaugurated in Sharville in 1984 remains effective to this day. Sefatsa's brother was among those interviewed who called for the abolition of rent.
MOTAUNG AND OTHERS
The trial in the Pretoria Supreme Court of 11 Duduza residents charged with the murder of an alleged police informer Rosaline Maki Skhosana killed during a funeral in July 1985, ended on 24 June with the conviction of nine accused and life sentences for three of them.
Some Duduza residents believed that Skhosana played a part in the deaths of four youths killed in the township in June 1985. A number of COSAS members were killed or maimed when hand grenades they had been given exploded prematurely. Six of the survivors were recently sentenced for illegal possession of arms. At the time local residents believed that some of the youths were killed in cold blood by the police after changing their minds about going to collect the grenades.
Throughout 1985 Duduza residents suffered police occupation and repression and a number of activists were killed in petrol bomb and vigilante attacks in which police and councillors were implicated. Skhosana was killed at the funeral of four victims shot dead by police on 5 July 1985, in an incident in which the police masked themselves with balaclavas.
Skhosana was believed by some Duduza residents to be having a relationship with Detective Sergeant Msibi who played a key role in the identification and arrest of nine of the accused. Msibi and some 120 other policemen were forced to leave Duduza in August 1985 because of their collaboration with the apartheid authorities. The defence led evidence to show that the defendants and other Duduza residents held after Skhosana's death had been seriously assaulted by Msibi and other policemen.
The state's case relied heavily on a video recording of Skhosana's death shown by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), which was admitted as evidence in spite of defence objections. Foreign reporters expressed concern at the use of the video, which was recorded by a foreign crew and sent overseas from Johannesburg by satellite. It was apparently copied by SABC and submitted to the court. A teacher at a school for the deaf was called to lip-read the words spoken in Zulu on the video by five of the accused. She alleged they called for Skhosana to be burnt. Two days later the witness returned to the court but refused to testify. She was formally convicted under the Criminal Procedure Act, warned and discharged. Justice Hartzenburg ruled that her evidence should be ignored.
At the end of the prosecution's case the defence asked for the discharge of Jacob TSHABALALA (22) and Lydia MOKOENA (24) saying the state had provided no evidence implicating them in Skhosana's killing. Both denied being present and said they had been wrongly identified on the video. Tshabalala told of being slapped across the face 15 times by Msibi. The defence's request was refused and the accused began to give evidence in their defence. Seven of the accused who admitted assaulting Skhosana but denied murdering her were: Linda Alexander HLOPHE, Daniel MBOKWANE, Sannah TWALA, Lorraine Zanele SOBUZI, Solomon MOTOSOAGAE and two youths. The remaining accused, who made no admissions, were Matlakala Elizabeth MOTAUNG and Phineas MASEKO.
In their evidence the nine accused told of their behaviour at the funeral and the combination of circumstances which led to their participation in the attack. Some of them knew the people being buried, others felt hatred for police and police informers because of police violence in Duduza. All of them expressed regret that Skhosana had died, saying they believed she should have been punished but not killed. Others said they had only joined in for the benefit of the TV cameras. It was clear from their evidence and other reports that Skhosana may well have been dead before they became involved. One defence lawyer suggested that between 200 and 450 people participated in the attack.
Professor Edward F Diener, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois, gave evidence for the defence. An expert in crowd psychology, he spoke about reduced individual responsibility in a situation of mass aggression ('deindividuation'). On 18 June Justice J Hartzenberg delivered judgment, convicting nine defendants of murder and acquitting Tshabalala and Mokoena on the grounds that it had not been proved that they were present during the attack. Before sentence was passed Rev Ross Oliver, a Methodist minister, gave evidence in mitigation. He spoke of the exceptional anger, suspicion and turbulence in Duduza at the time, and of how legitimate protests about living conditions, such as the lack of a sewerage system in the township, were met with police violence.
Sentence was passed on 24 June after police had erected roadblocks in Duduza. The judge accepted that there were extenuating circumstances and so refrained from passing the death sentence. However, Linda Hlope (26), Daniel Mbokwane (22) and Sannah Twala (23) were all sentenced to life imprisonment. Hlope's father told the court his son suffers from epilepsy and Mbokwane's sister also gave evidence in mitigation. Twala is the first woman sentenced to life imprisonment for a political offence.
Solomon Motsoagae (28) was sentenced to 15 years while a youth of 17, who was only 15 years at the time of the offence, was imprisoned for 12 years. Unlike the other defendants the youth was refused bail for almost the duration of the trial. It was clear from evidence in a bail application that he is severely disturbed. Two women, Matlakala Elizabeth Motaung (28) and Lorraine Zanele Sobuzi (33) along with Phineas Maseko (32), whom the judge conceded had not taken an active part in the attack, were all sentenced to 10 years. A 16 year-old girl was sentenced to five years jail of which half was suspended. She had already spent a year in jail awaiting trial although at that time she was only 14 years old.
Leave to appeal against both sentence and conviction was granted.
EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES
In the Cape Town Supreme Court four Muslim men were sentenced to 16 years imprisonment each for robbery, the killing of one security guard, and the attempted murder of another. The offences occurred during an ill-fated mission in November 1985 to obtain weapons with which to defend mosques from intrusion by police. The initiative was prompted by a newspaper report of the desecration by police of Park Road Mosque. The judge accepted that the defendants' religious beliefs and the fact that the killing was not premeditated constituted extenuating circumstances.
There were originally five defendants but Rushdien ABRAHAMS (29) escaped from custody. Those sentenced were two sets of brothers - Nazir BHAWOOBIEN (29), Said Ahmed BHAWOOBIEN (22), Moegamat Yusuf ABRAHAMS (22) and Nazeem ABRAHAMS (26). Nazir Bhawoodien, the alleged leader of the group, was said to be a member of the Qibla fundamentalist movement. All received sentences of 29 years but, with some running concurrently, they would serve 16 years.
