RELEASES Four long-term prisoners were released from Robben Island along with the veteran ANC leader, Govan MBEKI, on 5 November 1987 before their sentences had expired. John NKOSI was freed from a life sentence imposed in June 1963, when he was a school student, for conspiracy to commit sabotage with other PAC members. Thomas MASUKU, an ANC member, had served 10 years of his 20-year sentence imposed in November 1977 for undergoing military training and assisting others to do so. Michael Sello MATSOBANE, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in June 1979 for his part in organising and undergoing military training for the PAC, was released after eight years. He was released on parole on condition that he does not engage in political activity until September 1990; he was also placed under police supervision. Walter Sifozene TSHIKILA who had served 10 years of his 13-year sentence imposed under the Terrorism Act in March 1977 for organising PAC activities was also freed. Details regarding terms of release were reported only in Matsobane's case.
A number of other political prisoners are known to have been released recently on completion of their sentences.
- Lumko HUNA, sentenced in January 1978 for recruiting people in Guguletu, Cape Town, to undergo military training with the ANC, was released on 14 October after serving a nine-year sentence on Robben Island.
- Johanna LOURENS was released on 20 November last year after serving a four-year sentence for assisting the ANC. She was immediately 'listed', a restriction which makes it illegal for the media to quote her.
- Patricia HANEKOM, a Zimbabwean national, was released from Pretoria Central Prison at the end of a 38-month sentence in November and was then deported to Zimbabwe. First detained in December 1983, she was convicted in September 1984 for obtaining documents which showed that the SADF was training, paying, and supplying anti-government groups in Mozambique, Angola, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe as part of its destabilisation strategy.
- Kingdom Masehlane MPAHLELE, a teacher from Lebowakgomo, Pietersburg, who was sentenced for refusing to testify in a Terrorism Act trial, was released from Robben Island in April last year after serving a two-year sentence.
- Pierre-Andre ALBERTINI, a French national who was sent to prison for four years in March 1987 for refusing to testify for the state in the trial of Rev Makhenkhesi Stofile and others, was released early in September 1987 in a prisoner exchange negotiated by the French government.
PRISONERS STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS Political prisoners have fought long and hard to establish their basic rights and their political status. There have been a number of recent reports of such action by prisoners.
In September Litha MLAHLEKI, who is serving a 42-year sentence imposed in November 1978 for attacks on policemen, began a hunger strike and refused to obey prison warders or submit to strip-searches as a protest against the conditions of his imprisonment. He was seeking a general improvement in conditions at Brandvlei Prison, Worcester, where he is held with non-political prisoners, and a transfer to Pollsmoor Prison where other political prisoners are held. Originally held on Robben Island, he was transferred to Worcester in May 1987 without his relatives being notified. In October 1987 he was found guilty on nine charges under the Prisons Act arising from his protests and was sentenced to six lashes.
After a year-long struggle that began with a hunger strike at the end of 1986, 11 prisoners in a Ciskei bantustan prison established their right under prison regulations to see their lawyers. The successful application to the Supreme Court was brought by the brother of Vulindlela MVABASA who was sentenced in March 1985 to three years' imprisonment for refusing to testify as a state witness in a political trial.
At the end of July five long-term white political prisoners held in Pretoria Central Prison started an 18-day protest against their physical and mental treatment and in particular the action of the prison authorities in December 1986 in splitting them up as a group. They were Carl NIEHAUS, Robert ADAM, Roland HUNTER, Eric PELSER, and Stephen MARAIS. In September the five men applied to the Transvaal Supreme Court to order the prison authorities to hold them in the same section of the prison.
Political prisoners in Klerksdorp, Pretoria and Robben Island prisons instructed their lawyers in August 1987 to make a court application seeking to end racial segregation in South Africa's prisons. Prison conditions vary considerably for prisoners according to their apartheid classification.
DEATH IN PRISON A Uitenhage Youth Congress member, Mzamo BABA (20), died on 18 August while serving an eight-year sentence in Goode Mode Prison, Aliwal North. He was convicted of public violence in 1985. No further details are available.
