The placing of an effective banning order on the Detainees Parents Support Committee (DPSC) and the Detainees Support Committee (DESCOM) on 24 February reflected the fact that their monitoring of repression had succeeded in exposing what the government wished to hide. Although the DPSC was prevented from continuing most of its work, other organisations immediately acted to give voice to its campaigns on behalf of detainees.
National Detainees Day on 12 March, organised every year since 1982 by the DPSC, was this year sponsored by the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC). Meetings were held in all the main urban centres, and the meeting in Johannesburg, held at Regina Mundi church in Soweto, drew over 2,000 people making it the biggest ever meeting to mark the day.
'Scores' of residents of the Kwandebele bantustan were reported to have been detained during February in a continuing attempt by the authorities to defeat the anti-'independence' campaign.
Amongst those detained were four members of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA). The congress, which was launched on 22 September 1987 with traditional leaders from the Kwandebele bantustan playing a major role in its formation, provided an organisational voice for the opposition to 'independence' being imposed on the area. It is affiliated to the UDF. It aims to unite traditional leaders throughout South Africa on the basis of democratic relationships with all sectors of the population and joint action over the demands of communities.
Although broad-based opposition forced the authorities to shelve plans to impose 'independence' in August 1986, they were determined to proceed with the plans and since then have engaged in sustained repression involving detentions of leaders, activists and residents in the area.
In February the bantustan authorities confronted the traditional leaders opposing 'independence'. On 5 February the Paramount Chief, shortly before he was due to address a meeting of thousands of people, was served with a banning order under the emergency regulations restricting him and his family to his home and prohibiting him from leaving the bantustan, holding press interviews or preparing material for publication. Shortly afterwards at least four chiefs were detained, as well as 'scores' of other opponents of 'independence', presumably under the emergency regulations. A senior magistrate and a former school circuit inspector were amongst those detained. At least 15 traditional leaders fled the area after being summoned to a meeting by the authorities who told them they would be dismissed from their positions if their opposition continued.
Affidavits submitted to the Pretoria Supreme Court in January revealed incidents of violence and torture against people detained in the bantustan during October and November last year. In one, a DPSC worker Frans PATHLANE (33) described being given electric shocks. In another, Johannes MEKITLA (55) said that a policeman 'took a piece of car tube and covered my nose and mouth. He tied the tube tightly behind my head.[They] commenced questioning me again as to the whereabouts of ... rifles ... I was confused and struggling for breath.' He said that he was beaten, kicked and gagged.
Responding to other affidavits by reporters of the Sunday Star who had witnessed violence and assaults against detainees when they themselves were detained in May last year, Brigadier Lerm, the Commissioner of Police for the bantustan, said that the assaults were 'not serious' and that no policeman had been suspended because 'no one was killed'.
The killers of Sicelo Godfrey DHLOMO (18), shot dead on 24 February shortly after being interrogated about his part in a television documentary on torture, had not been identified by the beginning of April.
The police have tried to create the impression that he was killed by members of an anti-apartheid organisation with different views from Dhlomo's. But neither these suggestions nor assurances from the Minister of Law and Order that everything would be done to find the murderers have succeeded in deflecting suspicions that the police played a part in Dhlomo's death.
A statistical review of detention during 1987 was published in February by the Repression Monitoring Group (RMG). It revealed shifting patterns in the use of detention under both the emergency regulations and other laws.
- From June 1987 to early 1988 an estimated 4,000 were detained under the emergency regulations. * In March, according to figures published just before National Detainees Day, it was estimated that 2,500 people were in detention. Of these, 1,000 were believed to be 'long-term detainees', most of whom had been held for more than a year - they included the entire national leadership of the National Education Crisis Committee (NECC) and key UDF activists. * Of those in detention at the beginning of March, 234 were children of 17 or under, according to the Minister of Law and Order. * During 1987, 519 people were detained under the Internal Security Act, according to the Minister of Law and Order, and at least another 286 under laws in force in the 'independent' bantustans, according to the RMG. * Women have formed an increasing proportion of those detained. Of the 25,000 detained during the 1986-1987 State of Emergency, approximately 3,000 were women.
In February the police offered a R5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Dhlomo's killers. Two days later they named two youths as the suspected killers, both of them members of the Azanian Students' Movement (AZASM). However it was revealed by the president of the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) that the two had left the country in 1986, long before Dhlomo's death.
More than 3,000 pupils came from different areas of Soweto to a memorial service for Sicelo Dhlomo at his school on 4 February. The service was addressed by speakers from the Soweto Students Congress, the DPSC, SACC and Federation of Transvaal Women. It was cut short when the army threatened to enter the school premises - they had surrounded the school with ten military vehicles. Three days later thousands of mourners were turned away from the funeral by police enforcing emergency regulations which restricted the number of mourners to 200. After the funeral police used teargas to disperse a crowd of 400 mourners outside Dhlomo's home.
At least 20 people referred to in the list of detainees opposite were alleged to be either guerrillas or their supporters. Their detention, in several parts of the country and during a period in which at least 20 incidents of armed struggle were reported in the press, reflects a continuing high level of activity in this sphere. The fact that all but five of them are unnamed illustrates the degree of secrecy with which the police operate in relation to the armed struggle. During 1987, for example, FOCUS recorded the detention of 120 unnamed people alleged to be connected with the armed struggle.
Statistics relating to armed struggle during 1987 were issued by the police in December last year and by the Institute of Strategic Studies of the University of Pretoria in March. The two sets of figures are inconsistent with each other and neither can be independently verified. However, within their limitations they show broad trends consistent with what has been revealed in a more fragmentary way in trials and press reports. Together these sources confirm trends outlined in a review of the armed struggle in FOCUS 72 which noted developments reflecting the adoption by the ANC of the strategy it terms 'people's war'.
In particular the figures highlight an increase in armed attacks on police and army compared to an earlier emphasis on destroying economic installations and administrative buildings with explosives, when what is termed 'armed propaganda' was the dominant aspect of armed struggle. In the first nine months of 1987 the police said they recorded 81 attacks on police and army, but only 37 during the whole of 1986.
Equally significant was a shift towards the training of guerrillas inside the country and the development of support structures. The police said half the alleged guerrillas they detained (132) or killed (32) during the first nine months of 1987 were trained inside South Africa - 80 were known to have been trained in the country. In addition to the 132 trained combatants said to be arrested, the police said they detained 187 supporters (recruiters, couriers or people otherwise engaged in support of combatants.)
Such sources also indicate that since the middle of 1986 there has been a sharp increase in the number of alleged guerrillas killed by the police, and also the number of police killed.
Some of the detentions recorded opposite involved shooting. On occasion people alleged to be guerrillas are killed or injured. Because the only source of information about the circumstances of many such incidents comes from the police or army, it is often unclear whether they were killed in an armed clash with the police or whether they were shot in circumstances which posed no danger to the police or army and amounted to summary execution.
