The outcome of recent trials reported in the press gives some indication of the harsh and often brutal treatment that is meted out to activists in the struggle against apartheid. Severe sentences have been imposed after arbitrary arrest, police brutality, prolonged detention, and the stress of a lengthy trial. In many cases long terms of imprisonment were imposed on juveniles and children. The Minister of Justice stated that, although normally first offenders can apply for parole, this will be refused to 'public violence' offenders.
A number of trials of community activists in the townships have recently ended. In one case, seven men from Duncan Village, East London were found guilty of public violence for taking part in the stoning of a police vehicle in September 1985. Thethinene Joe JORDAAN, an executive member of the township's residents' association, Ben XELE, Allem MANGEMA, Mbyuiselo WONI, Sindile ZILENI, Nyalisele MGITHU, and Milton KENENE were each given a two-year suspended sentence on 3 July in the East London Regional Court. According to police evidence, a crowd of people on the main road began stoning a police vehicle. The police response was to open fire on the crowd, and then the officer in charge commanded his men to single out the 'ring leaders' whereupon several officers left the vehicle and arrested ten suspects.
In court Jordaan testified that, in fact, he was waiting for a taxi into town when heavily armed policemen dragged him to the police van, hitting him on the back with a gun when he fell. The court found it had no reason to dispute Jordaan's evidence. Furthermore, the defence attorney submitted that no one was injured and there was no evidence of any damage to the police vehicle. Nevertheless, the court found the seven men guilty of a 'very serious offence' and did 'not blame the police for the incident or the end result'.
In passing sentence, the magistrate said he had taken into account that the accused had been assaulted in Duncan Village police station. Jordaan described in court how he was tortured by security police after his arrest. Taken from his cell at night and told to lie naked on a bench, he refused to inform on someone he knew. A tube was pulled over his face and an electric shock was administered to his spinal column. As a result of repeated beatings he was hospitalised and had to be carried into court at his first appearance in September 1986. By June 1987 he was still unable to stand for more than thirty minutes. In June 1986 while awaiting trial Jordaan was detained under the emergency regulations and applied for an interdict restraining police from assaulting him. He was still being held in detention at the time he was sentenced.
A young man, Mzuzu MAKALENI (18), and four children aged between 13 and 15 were found guilty of public violence for taking part in an attack on policemen in the Soweto squatter area near Port Elizabeth in September 1986. After nearly a year awaiting trial, Makeleni was jailed for three years and four months by the New Brighton Regional Court on 21 July. The four children were sentenced to corporal punishment of between four and five lashes. According to the police, people living in shacks in the area had barricaded their street with a burning tyre. When a patrolling police vehicle stopped to remove the tyre, someone in a group of about 17 people hurled a petrol bomb at the vehicle, which caught fire. People threw stones at the policemen escaping from it and there was a hail of shots. The police chased the group and arrested the five youths.
On 25 June Melekude NQWENISO (34) from Duncan Village was sent to prison for two years by the East London Regional Court after awaiting trial for a year on a charge of public violence. Nqweniso, who has had a leg amputated, denied that he had led a 'mob' of people who stoned an army vehicle in July 1986.
Thirty-two people from Zolani, Ashton, had heavy sentences of ten, eight and seven years halved by the Supreme Court in Cape Town on 3 August. In September 1986 they were convicted of arson for setting fire to houses and a vehicle belonging to three leading members of a vigilante group in November 1985. The appeal court noted that Zolani was a poor, isolated overcrowded community with a high unemployment rate and that the vigilante group appeared to enjoy the tacit support of the South African Police.
In June Nelly MZIZI (50) and Fana SHABANGU (21) were acquitted on a charge of arson for burning policemen's houses in Sebokeng last year, after a six-month trial in the Vereeniging Magistrates' Court. After a schoolgirl witness had withdrawn her previous statement, the court found there was insufficient evidence to convict.
A 17-year-old youth sentenced to three years in November 1986 in the Parow Regional Court for throwing stones in Bonteheuwel the previous April had his sentence suspended on appeal.
Nigel TITUS who was sentenced by the Parow Regional Court in March 1986 to five years imprisonment for stoning vehicles in Bellville South in July 1985 was given leave to appeal by the Bloemfontein Appeal Court in May this year.
## YOUTH AND PUPILS On 4 June Thandisile JADA (20) was convicted in the Butterworth Regional Court in the Transkei bantustan on three counts of sabotage, on the basis of his own confession, and was sentenced to five years in prison. His fellow accused, Siphiwe Gary TYULU (22), was acquitted. Jada took part in the burning of two secondary schools in Ilinge township, Queenstown, in October 1985 after pupils had presented a list of grievances to the school principal. Jada had already spent 18 months in detention before being sentenced.
Seven pupils at senior secondary schools in Wynberg were recently sent to prison for throwing stones at a rally that was broken up by police. Initially charged with possessing explosives, they were convicted on a charge of public violence in October 1986, after an eight-month-long trial. Although no one had been injured and no property had been damaged, Wayne JORDAAN (19) was sentenced to three years, and Venetia DE KLERK (19), Dee DICKS (19), Julian STUBBS (19), Shoukie ENOUS (18), Naasir MASOET (18), and Igshaan AMLAY (18) were sentenced to one year in prison. They began their sentences in June this year after their application for leave to appeal had been rejected.
The case attracted widespread protest. The Wynberg Crisis and Relief Centre organised a petition in support of their appeal application signed by more than 30,000 people including religious leaders and academics. In July the European Parliament deplored the 'harsh and unreasonable sentences' and called on the South African government to release the 'Wynberg Seven' immediately. The day before they entered Pollsmoor Prison, their lawyer Dullah Omar told a large meeting at the Wittebome Civic Centre that the seven were not alone: 'All over our land young people, children as young as 11, are being shot down and imprisoned, young people who aspire to nothing other than that you and I should be free... We live under the strictest censorship this land has ever known... You and I do not know one-tenth of what is going on.'
A high school pupil from Bonteheuwel, Norman SCHEEPERS (20) was due to start a one-year sentence in Pollsmoor Prison at the end of September after his appeal had failed. He was convicted on a charge of public violence for throwing stones.
Leon BROWN, another pupil at a Western Cape school, began a one-year sentence for public violence at Pollsmoor Prison on 26 March.
A 16-year-old pupil at Mohlakeng Higher Primary School was sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Randfontein Magistrates' Court on 23 June for public violence and possession of a petrol bomb on 16 April 1986. No other details were reported.
## BANNED ORGANISATIONS Demonstrations of support for banned organisations, namely the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), through the display of flags, the painting of slogans, and the possession of publications issued by them, have resulted in sentences after long periods awaiting and on trial.
David Mmeshi MATLALA (22) was jailed for two years by the Johannesburg Regional Court on 15 June for having copies of magazines published by the ANC and by the SACP at his home in Alexandra last year.
In June a technical college student, Peter NEWMAN (20), was sentenced under the Internal Security Act to a year's imprisonment for spray-painting slogans at a sports ground in Bredasdorp in December 1985. They were interpreted as 'furthering the aims of the ANC'.
At the end of a trial which lasted 20 months, seven people, all members of the Cradock Residents' Association or Youth Association, were convicted under the Internal Security Act of furthering the aims of banned organisations – the ANC and the SACP – by displaying their flags at a funeral. Temba Jimmy BASINI (42), Lwandile NQURU (21), Mpumelelo FAXI (21), Mtutuzeli NTOMBELA (29), Vulindlela PUWANI (24), and Thami MADOLO (40) were given two-year suspended sentences and a 16-year-old youth a one-year suspended sentence. Charges against two others, Johannes BOPAPE and Obed BAPELA, were withdrawn in June this year but Bapela, a community activist from Alexandra, was remanded in custody charged with treason. The seven Cradock activists who were sentenced were all held in custody from September 1985 until released on bail in March 1986, and were then detained under the emergency regulations on 12 June 1986. Three were released soon afterwards but the other four, including the youth, remained in custody and were taken away in handcuffs by the police after receiving suspended sentences.
The ANC and SACP flags were displayed along with the Soviet flag, at the funeral on 20 July 1985 of the murdered Cradock Residents' Association leaders, Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlawuli which was attended by forty thousand people.
