More than two years of emergency rule, the detention of thousands of activists, far-reaching censorship of the media and tight restrictions on political activity have failed to prevent mobilisation of resistance. The regime has had to continue to use the police and army to enforce its bans and restrictions on meetings.
Mass mobilisation has been severely affected by the State of Emergency, but there is evidence of adaptation to the conditions of heightened repression. In a radio interview at the end of November last year the head of the Security Branch, Lt-Gen van der Merwe, stated that 'after the revolutionary climate subsided somewhat last year it is now on the increase again' and 'radical organizations are busy reorganizing'.
The response to the calling of a rally in Port Elizabeth on 28 November to be addressed by Govan Mbeki, at short notice and under the difficult conditions imposed by the emergency regulations, indicated a high level of political mobilisation. Other speakers were to include Winnie Mandela and Albertina Sisulu.
On 25 November the magistrate for the area granted permission for the rally to be held. On 27 November the Police Commissioner for the area banned the rally, using powers under the emergency regulations, to 'ensure public safety and the maintenance of order'. The head of the Security Branch said that the rally had been banned because the speeches 'would have contributed significantly to increasing the revolutionary climate'. He said that over 55,000 people were expected at the rally, although according to another press report police had evidence that up to 100,000 people planned to come.
The banning was upheld by the Supreme Court after an emergency appeal against the order – the court ruled that the Police Commissioner had acted within his powers under the emergency regulations. The organisers of the rally – the Interdenominational African Ministers’ Association of South Africa (IDAMASA) and the South African Council of Churches (SACC) said that the banning showed that the police and army could overrule the courts, which had originally sanctioned the rally.
For 11 years all outdoor political gatherings have been banned under the Internal Security Act, unless held with permission from a magistrate or the Minister of Law and Order (for the last two years the ban had included all indoor gatherings for organising boycotts). The State of Emergency regulations also give divisional police commissioners power to ban meetings within their area. After the re-imposition of the State of Emergency in June last year the police powers were used to re-impose standing restrictions on funeral gatherings. The restrictions were imposed in over 60 townships by Police Commissioners for the East Rand, West Rand, Soweto, Port Natal, Natal and Eastern Province. There were orders restricting specific funerals in other areas as well.
In spite of these restrictions – and in some cases similar restrictions under the Internal Security Act – communities frequently gathered in defiance of the regulations to commemorate the deaths of victims of police actions. Funerals of alleged ANC combatants were attended by many hundreds – examples include the funerals of Andrew Mohuhu METLAPE (20), killed in combat in the Northern Transvaal in September; Ashley KRIEL (22), shot by police in July and Paul Sello MOTAU, assassinated in Swaziland in July. At Motau’s funeral a large contingent of police and 22 SADF vehicles were present.
Other funerals which were reported to have drawn large crowds included that of Nobandla Elda BANI, who died in detention in August, after a year in custody. The death of Bani, a member of the Port Elizabeth Women's Organisation and her local street committee at the time of her detention, was reported in the last issue of FOCUS. The Queenstown funeral of a former detainee, Taitus SONDLO (87) was attended in October by 5,000 mourners defying restriction orders. A leading member of the local community organisation, Sondlo had been released from emergency detention on 13 June, one year and one day after being detained. According to his son the elderly man had been in good health before his detention and contracted asthma while in custody.
