At least 44 people were facing execution at the end of November after trials arising out of political protest. Six of them, residents of Sharpeville who were sentenced to death in December 1985, had their appeal rejected by the Appeal Court shortly after an execution went ahead despite calls for clemency.
In spite of repression organisations in South Africa continued to call for an end to political death sentences in such cases. The South African Youth Congress (SAYCO), which launched the campaign, has suffered a number of detentions as well as bans on its pamphlets, posters and meetings.
The Detainees Parents Support Committee has begun to monitor death sentences and a special appeal was made by the Port Elizabeth Youth Congress (PEYCO), three of whose members are facing execution: Vuyisile Daniel GONI from Walmer; Tsepo LETSOARE (22) for the killing of an alleged informer, and Benjamin Mlondolozi GXOTHIWE (27) for the shooting of a policeman.
PEYCO also appealed on behalf of Gilindoda GXEKWA (22), a member of the Uitenhage Youth Congress, sentenced to death last August for killing an alleged informer in Kwanobuhle in March 1985. This killing, like that of Councillor Kinikini and his family for which two people were executed in September, occurred after the police massacre of at least 21 mourners at a funeral procession in nearby Langa and during a period when vigilantes were terrorising Kwanobuhle. Three months after his death sentence was pronounced Gxekwa appeared in the Port Elizabeth Supreme Court, alongside three others, on another murder charge.
Michael LUCAS became the fourth person from Bhongolethu in Oudtshoorn to be condemned when in August the Cape Town Supreme Court sentenced him for shooting a bus inspector. Lucas, who was described as a 17-year-old youth during the trial, was subsequently sentenced to death after the court found him 'to be between 20 and 21 years old'. No details of how his age was determined were reported, nor whether his defence accepted the finding. The death sentence is not compulsory, even after a conviction for murder without extenuating circumstances, if the accused was under 18 on the day of the crime. Lucas was still at school, having completed Standard 8, when arrested.
Lucas had pleaded guilty to a charge of culpable homicide, saying he shot the inspector by accident during an attempt to set alight a bus belonging to the South Cape Bus Service. There was little reporting of the case but presumably the court rejected Lucas's reduced plea. The people of Bhongolethu daubed slogans in support of him on walls in the township when the sentence was announced. Lucas and three other local men sentenced earlier, Patrick MANGINDA, Desmond MAJOLA and Dickson MADIKANE, are all appealing against their sentences.
A number of death sentences have been passed on people allegedly responsible for killing policemen. In one case in the Pretoria Supreme Court, Sibusiso Senele MASUKU (23), already serving a 10-year sentence for planting a landmine, was sentenced to death along with Oupa Josias MBONANE (21) for allegedly killing a policeman in Soshanguve in February 1986. The constable was killed during a night vigil for a man believed to have been shot dead by police. Initially police arrested some 95 youths for the killing – most of them 'between the ages of nine and 13'.
Johannes MOSEKI (23) was sentenced to death in the Rand Supreme Court on 19 October for his alleged part in the killing of a Tembisa policeman in March 1986. Moseki was one of eleven youths, five of them under the age of 18 years, who faced charges of murder and public violence. One was acquitted on all charges, eight were acquitted on the more serious charges and Moseki and Freddie MASHIGO (22) were convicted of murder. Justice Steyn found extenuating circumstances (the nature of which were not reported) in the case of Mashigo, whom he sentenced to 14 years. Moseki was refused leave to appeal. Evidence in the trial indicated that a large crowd was involved in the killing of the police constable.
Another killing in Tembisa, of a councillor in May 1986, led to a death sentence passed on Joseph CHIDI (23) on 16 September in the Rand Supreme Court. His co-accused, a youth of 16 years, was sentenced to a prison term of 17 years by Justice le Grange who reportedly 'wished' to give him the death sentence also.
Daisy MODISE (25) became the second woman known to be under sentence of death for actions arising out of political unrest when she was condemned in the Temba court of the Bophuthatswana bantustan. Modise and two fellow-members of the Stinkwater Youth Organisation, Thomas CHAUKE (27) and Johannes TSHABALALA (18), were sentenced in May 1987 but the news was only reported more widely in October, consistent with the generally poor media coverage of events in bantustans. Few details were available though reports spoke of them being charged in connection with 'people's courts' and 'necklacings'.
EXECUTION On 6 November the authorities executed Mlongisi LUPHONDO (21) in spite of a last-minute campaign to save his life. Luphondo was sentenced to death on 5 March 1987 for the killing of Matholi Alina Maphatsoe. He was originally charged with five others although charges were dropped against three, including a 16-year-old youth, and they were used as state witnesses.
Maphatsoe was killed with her fiance, Mtutuzeli Jacobs, on 1 April 1986 after he had stopped to offer assistance to a group of men stranded without petrol or food on the Jamestown-Dordrecht road. Jacobs, who was a Ciskei bantustan official, was shot dead by one of them, Luthando Madolwana, whom he had refused a lift. Maphatsoe, who was asleep in the back of the car, woke up and began screaming and was shot by Luphondo.
Justice Cloete, presiding over the Grahamstown Supreme Court, found extenuating circumstances in the case of Madolwana whom he sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. He said he had reached a point of desperation through lack of food and had shot Jacobs 'on the spur of the moment' when his hopes of a lift were dashed. However, he discounted any such factors in the case of Luphondo although his circumstances were apparently very similar. He sentenced him to death and refused him leave to appeal. The third accused, Sizwe Maqina, was given a five-year sentence for being an accessory after the killing. The men's defence was that the killings had not been premeditated.
A plea for clemency to the State President was rejected and the execution set for 6 November. Shortly before this a campaign calling for a reprieve was launched and supported by a number of organisations within South Africa and internationally. A service at Khotso House, headquarters of the South African Council of Churches, was addressed by members of the Azanian National Youth Unity, of which Luphondo was a member, the Media Workers Association (MWASA) and the All-African Students Action Committee. Other appeals were made by the National Forum, the Azanian People's Organisation, the National Congress of Trade Unions and the United Democratic Front, whose president Albertina Sisulu appealed directly to President Botha. Dr W Kistner, senior director of the SACC, appealed for mercy saying 'Perchance, he may still repay his debt to society in a way that will enrich all of us'. The UN Special Committee, the Africa Group at the United Nations and the UN General Assembly, through its president, all made urgent appeals on Luphondo's behalf.
Some reports spoke of Luphondo as a member of the African Allied Workers Union and on the day before his death he was visited by the general secretary of AAWU, Cunningham Ngcukana, a relative of his. In a statement condemning his execution the PAC representative in Zimbabwe referred to him as a PAC member.
APPEAL FAILS On 1 December the Appeal Court in Bloemfontein turned down an appeal by six Sharpeville residents condemned to death in December 1985 for the killing of a Lekoa town councillor, Jacob Dlamini. The five men and one woman commonly known as the Sharpeville Six were the first people sentenced to death for participation in the mass protests which swept the country from September 1984 onwards. Their much-delayed appeal had been eventually heard on 3 November in the Bloemfontein Appeal Court following which the five judges reserved judgement.
Dlamini was killed by an angry crowd on the first day of the Vaal uprising when he refused to join a protest march against rents increases and instead fired on the demonstrators. Thousands of people were involved in the protest and at least one hundred people participated in the attack on Dlamini. The appeal court ruled that, as part of the crowd, the six were responsible for Dlamini's death even though their own actions did not cause it. In fact the state's evidence linking the accused to the scene of the killing was weak and contradictory.
The unreliability of the state's evidence was a subject raised by the defence both in the trial and on appeal. In particular one state witness who implicated two of the accused, Duma Joshua KHUMALO and Francis Don MOKHESI, in the manufacture and throwing of petrol bombs at the site of the killing, subsequently made a statement to a solicitor saying the police had told him to incriminate the men. The defence was refused permission by the trial judge, Justice Human, to cross-examine the witness on the statement, as it was regarded as a 'privileged' communication. One of the main grounds of appeal contended that the judge had erred in not allowing this questioning but it was rejected.
A number of defendants, including Theresa RAMASHAMOLA the only woman accused, were tortured after their arrest. She was accused of inciting the crowd to kill Dlamini and not of participating in the attack herself. A single unnamed witness, whom the defence described as unreliable, said he overheard her saying 'He's shooting, let's kill him' when Dlamini opened fire on the crowd. Ramashamola denied this. She said she had attended part of the march – in fact she was hit on the head by a police rubber bullet earlier the same morning. However, the crowd outside Dlamini's house was dispersed by police using teargas and it was only later that he was attacked and killed. In November 1984, when Ramashamola was arrested, she was stripped and tortured with electric shocks. She suffered further injury during the course of the trial when her arm was broken in a police vehicle.
The first accused, Mojalefa Reginald SEFATSA, suffered probably the worst abuse in custody – sustaining a broken jaw as well as damage to his sight and hearing following physical assault and electric shock torture. The two eye-witnesses who claimed to have seen him participate in the attack on Dlamini contradicted each other as to his role – one claiming he had thrown a stone at Dlamini, the other saying he had wrestled with the councillor for his weapon.
Reid Malebo MOKOENA was also said to have thrown a stone at Dlamini – on the basis of a statement extorted from him under duress but nevertheless ruled admissible. In fact, Dlamini died after being burnt with his car. No evidence linked any of the accused to this fatal attack – they all face execution because of the legal ruling on ‘common purpose’. Indeed, the only evidence against Oupa Moses DINISO was that the deceased’s pistol was allegedly found at his home some two months later. At the original trial Diniso cast doubt on the authenticity of the pistol produced in court, saying it was not the same one confiscated from his home.
In a statement on 2 December the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference called on President Botha to commute the death sentences saying that he should regard as a 'mitigating circumstance' the fact that 'in the present political climate in South Africa, killing people who are perceived as collaborators with the system of apartheid is seen as a political, not criminal, act.'
Lawyers for the six immediately began to draft a petition for clemency to the State President. Support came from the DPSC, the SACC and the UDF and a series of public meetings were called. Sefatsa's wife described him as 'still very strong' while his mother declared 'I just can't believe they can hang my son. I know he is innocent.'
