As Namibian workers showed their support for the school boycott a number of union activists were detained harassed and charged. In the most serious case Macdonald KA NTLABATHI, assistant general secretary of the Namibia Food and Allied Workers Union, was threatened with deportation from the country.
Jason ANGULA, the SWAPO Secretary for Labour, detained last October, remained in custody.
On 6 June, (Samuel) Chief ANKAMA, a former CCN employee working as a photo-journalist with the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), was severely assaulted and detained by police during school protests in Katutura. Police withheld medical treatment even though he had sjambok wounds on his legs and had been thrown to the ground and kicked. On his release he described conditions in detention as 'unbearable'.
On 15 June two union officials were detained at a roadblock outside Swakopmund. Zak BASSON, education officer of the Mine-workers Union of Namibia (MUN), and Richard PAKLEPPA, education and media secretary for the NUNW, were travelling on union business from Arandis, home to most of the Rossing Uranium mine's black workers. Police confiscated 500 pamphlets and copies of the 'Namibian Worker', the NUNW's journal, and released them without charge on 17 June after two days in custody.
On the day of their release Macdonald Ka Ntlabathi the NAFAU assistant general secretary, was detained under Proclamation AG9. On 5 July he appeared in court with Patrick MAGUDU (22) a Council of Churches employee and Ntshikilele Arthur MBETHA (19), a student from Windhoek. They were each remanded on R200 bail to appear again on 19 July and on that day were further remanded for another week.
They were alleged to have contravened Section 3 of the Residence of Certain Persons in South West Africa Act which was introduced in 1985. This section requires people not born in Namibia to obtain permission to remain in the country for longer than 30 days, unless they qualify for exemption in terms of provisions laid down in the Act.
