By 12 June 1986 emergency powers to detain people without trial had been in force continuously for two years. Several of the reports on this page focus on the use of these powers.
In the period between the declaration of a State of Emergency on 12 June 1986 and 30 April 1988, 49 detainees, many of them held under emergency regulations, filed 24 court applications alleging torture and assault and seeking court orders restraining police from engaging in similar actions. Evidence in support of the applications has been consistent with that revealed in cases reported in previous issues of FOCUS.
On 23 May, 24 detainees held in Protea police station sought a court interdict restraining police from assaulting them. Emergency regulations prohibit the publication of evidence submitted to the court until the action is completed. Abbey LEKOALETSOE, the main complainant, was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital to be examined by independent doctors as agreed by legal representatives of the two parties. Police, through their counsel, undertook not to unlawfully assault another of the detainees, Samson Seleke MOKGOETSI, until the case was concluded by the court. Various independent bodies and lawyers testified to the ill-treatment of those detained.
DETAINES' BID FOR FREEDOM
During the period of their incarceration, detainees have made legal and other efforts to secure their freedom. Between June 1986 and April 1988 at least 59 court applications were made involving 182 emergency detainees contesting their continued detention. In some cases detainees petitioned the Minister of Law and Order demanding their release. The government's Board of Review considered 154 cases while at least 71 detainees made representations to the Minister. None of these actions resulted in release.
Clause 3(1) of the emergency regulations provides for the detention without trial of a person considered 'a threat to the maintenance of public safety and order'; or one who 'delays the termination of the State of Emergency'.
In response to challenges by detainees either through the courts or through their lawyers, the State has generally provided similar kinds of reasons for detention. Membership of a legal organisation considered 'subversive' by the government, such as the National Education Crisis Committee (NECC), has been given as one such reason. Association with so-called alternative structures like 'street committees' and 'people's courts' has been another. In some cases the government has been unable to substantiate its allegations as in the case of Zwelakhe SISULU whom the Minister of Law and Order claimed was an executive committee member of the NECC but whose lawyers proved he was not.
Although the state gives such reasons for detaining large numbers of people, few detainees are charged and brought to court. According to government sources 1024 detainees had been charged since June 1986. This represents less than 8 per cent of the detainees. In 1987 only 3.6 per cent of the detainees were charged and 1.2 per cent convicted of any charges, according to David Webster of the University of the Witwatersrand. Emergency detentions appear to be used to deny anti-apartheid groups their effective leadership as the example of the Eastern Cape region shows.
EASTERN CAPE LEADERS DETAINED
Although emergency detentions have affected most parts of the country, they focussed with particular intensity on certain areas. In the period covering the first 18 months after June 1986, 36 per cent of all those known to have been detained came from the Eastern Cape. In this region, as in others, emergency detentions were combined with other forms of repression to undermine organised opposition. The selection of those detained bears this out.
Dennis NEER, Congress of South African Trade Unions' Secretary for the Eastern Cape, had by June this year been in detention for two years. He was reported to have been tortured. In addition almost the entire regional leadership of the NECC was detained, following the national pattern. Although most South African Youth Congress leaders until recently escaped detention the leadership of the SAYCO - affiliated Eastern Cape Youth Congress (ECAYCO) was almost entirely swept into detention by the end of last year.
These repressive actions followed successful campaigns in the region. In early 1986, 27 out of the local 45 councils in the Eastern Cape could not operate after 173 councillors resigned in the face of popular opposition to the councils. During 1986 stay-aways in the Eastern Cape, such as one on May Day and on 14 July in protest at the State of Emergency, received almost 100 per cent support. Consumer boycotts organised in protest at the 1985 State of Emergency resulted in the bankruptcy of a number of white-owned businesses. Although the region had been deprived of its known top leadership, the scale of the response to the rally to welcome Govan Mbeki in November last year, and the extended rent boycotts, indicate the capacity in the region to organise resistance.
TWO YEARS OF EMERGENCY DETENTIONS
*Unless otherwise indicated the following statistics are derived from independent monitoring groups.*
- By June 1988 over 30,000 people had been detained under emergency regulations since the declaration of the State of Emergency in June 1986.
- At least 1,000 emergency detainees had been held for two years.
- Over 75 per cent of those detained were UDF members, 50 per cent of whom were officials.
- A quarter of those detained were trade unionists and workers.
- At least 3,000 people were in detention in April, 1,750 of whom were believed to have been detained since the beginning of 1988.
- Approximately 300 of those in detention in April were children under the age of 18. Between January 1987 and February 1988 at least 84 juvenile detainees were hospitalised, according to government figures.
- Between June 1986 and April 1988, nearly 1,000 detainees were involved in 15 known hunger strikes in seven different prisons protesting over a number of issues.
WOMEN IN DETENTION
Three thousand women were detained in the first 18 months of the Emergency. Provisions for women held in detention often proved inadequate for their special needs. In a recent publication The Women's Place Is In The Struggle, Not Behind Bars, women testified that they were denied sanitary towels during menstruation.
In other instances women were detained during their pregnancy as in the case of Daisy MATLOU. She was given no special diet or proper medical attention. Deborah MARAKALLA (23) was also pregnant when detained on 7 July 1986. At the time when she was due to give birth, she was alone in a cell and cried in vain for help. The baby died before help came. She also had one of her fallopian tubes removed while in detention. Marakalla has since been released and served with orders restricting her movements and participation in political activities. She will no longer be able to continue her work at the Tembisa Black Sash office. She was also a member of the Tembisa branch of the Detainees' Parents Support Committee.
YOUTH LEADER TORTURED
Peter MOKABA, the President of SAYCO, was reportedly tortured soon after his detention under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act on 21 March 1988. According to an affidavit by his sister Mapula Mokaba, Mokaba informed his mother who briefly saw him in leg irons at Pietersburg police station, that he was chained to a chair, then beaten, deprived of sleep and denied water and access to a toilet. A former detainee reported having seen Mokaba in police custody badly assaulted and covered in mud. He was said to be suffering from backache, kidney problems and pains in his stomach.
Mokaba's sister sought an injunction prohibiting the police from further assaulting and threatening her brother. Police told the court that they only used 'necessary force' during Mokaba's arrest and denied assaulting him subsequently. He was allegedly hit twice on the head with a revolver and butted three times in the side with a R1 rifle. Mokaba's mother Priscilla MOKABA was detained under Emergency Regulations soon after disclosing the news of her son's condition. This meant that she was unable to testify in court. Although Mapula Mokaba's allegations were consistent with the statement by Mokaba to the visiting chief magistrate and district surgeon, the judge dismissed her evidence as hearsay. His lawyers were considering an appeal.
Lawyers have been told by investigating officers that Mokaba might be charged. Although police often respond in this way when pressured to release detainees, without prosecutions necessarily following, fears of such a trial were increased by the number of detentions of SAYCO affiliate members in the Transvaal in particular.
