During 1988 there have been several trials relating to the activities of banned organisations. The charges have ranged from membership to possession of literature reflecting the aims of the organisations. In almost every case monitored, the indictment named the ANC.
- In April, Farieda KHAN (24), a pre-school teacher, pleaded guilty to being an ANC member. She admitted joining with her husband when they went to Botswana in search of work. She was sentenced in the Cape Town Regional Court to an effective six months and began her sentence in June. Her husband was still in Botswana.
Khan was detained in Cape Town in June 1987 when visiting her family. She was detained with her mother, Rugaya KHAN (62), and her sister, Gadija KHAN (32), and held for three months under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act. An appeal against her sentence is pending.
- Nomathamsanqa MBILINI (22), an advice office worker, was acquitted in June in the East London Regional Court of attempting to further the aims of the ANC and of taking part in its activities by being in possession of a document reflecting its aims.
Mbilini told the court she had been tortured after her arrest in September 1986 and forced to sign a statement. She said she was hit on the face and feet; that her hands were bound; that plastic tubing material was put over her face and she was made to lie on the floor while water was poured over her. In acquitting her the magistrate said there was insufficient evidence and that mere possession of a pamphlet did not prove she had furthered the ANC's aims.
- In June in the Bloemfontein Appeal Court Samuel Jabulani SIBEKO lost an appeal against a sentence for unlawful possession of banned publications. He had been sentenced by a Ficksburg Regional Magistrate in July 1985 to an effective nine months.
- Allie PARKER (47), a printer, appeared in Goodwood Magistrates' Court on 22 March after being held under the emergency regulations since 22 January. Parker is believed to have spent several periods in detention over the past 20 years and been charged a number of times without being convicted. On this occasion he faces charges of printing 'subversive pamphlets', reportedly in relation to pamphlets printed for the National Education Crisis Committee dealing with the controversial registration procedures in black schools. The case was postponed.
- Other trials still continuing in July included that of two men charged with causing 'Stay-away June 16' pamphlets to be published and distributed in June 1987; and of a man and a woman accused of possessing publications relating to the ANC and the South African Communist Party.
In June the Minister of Law and Order said that there were 67 'necklace' killings in 1984-85, 306 in 1986 and 19 in 1987. Following these 392 incidents more than 1,100 people have been charged with murder. The term 'necklace murder' is loosely used in the South African press to describe politically-motivated killings.
The readiness of the press to use the term was illustrated in a case in the Eastern Cape which ended in July nearly three years after the incident which gave rise to it. Although press reports repeatedly headlined the trial as a 'necklace case' none of those accused were convicted of murder. The case also illustrated the way people in police custody are coerced into making statements.
In May, 18 Stutterheim residents aged between 18 and 32, amongst them members of the Stutterheim Youth Congress, and including the chair, Pupu MGWANGQA (32), appeared in the East London Supreme Court. They were charged with murdering a man in November 1985 and with public violence. A number of the accused had apparently been involved in consumer and schools boycotts in the area at the time.
During the trial, three of the accused, Wonke MAQUBELA (19), Neliswa Nonuna DYANTYI (21) and Mninawa David MAGALA (21), said they had been assaulted by the police and forced to make confessions.
They said they had been kicked, punched and suffocated in order to force them to make confessions. Two of them said that when they refused to make statements they had been locked in a storeroom by a policeman and tear-gassed. This happened to Maqubela three times, he said, and to Dyantyi once. The court however ruled their statements admissible. Two state witnesses also said they had been forced to make statements, one of them by a policeman who had grabbed her by the neck when she refused.
At the close of the trial the State did not ask for convictions on the count of murder and all of the defendants were acquitted on that charge. Maqubela and Dyantyi were, however, found guilty of public violence and were due to be sentenced at the end of July; the other defendants were acquitted.
- In July, four people were found guilty in the East London Regional Court of culpable homicide. The court found that in February 1986 Maxwell PELA (28); David DASHEKA (27); Elvis DYONASE (23) and a juvenile had sjambokked a man who had broken a liquor boycott. The victim, who had a heart condition, died three months later. The three men were sentenced on 13 July to five years in prison whilst the juvenile received an effective three-year term.
