Twelve women, including Constance HLATSHWAYO who has been in detention for more than two years, Gladys ZATHU (57), Jessie DUARTE, secretary of the Federation of Transvaal Women (FEDRAW) and others went on hunger strike at the beginning of June following the failure by the Minister of Law and Order, to respond to their complaints outlined in a memorandum sent to him on 24 June this year. A pregnant detainee, Lorraine MOKGOSI of the South African Domestic Workers Union, did not participate.
They also included eight pupils Cynthia LEBETHE, Rebecca MASHABA, Jenny PULE, Zanele MALAPELA, Sophie MAHLALELA, Maud KHAMBULE, Emelda NKOSI, who is asthmatic, and Seline MATABELE. The women complained of unhealthy and dirty food in which they sometimes found worms. They said doctors always prescribed tablets without proper examination of ill detainees.
Detainees have previously forwarded such petitions without getting a response despite repeated assertions that complaints from detainees are dealt with adequately through existing machinery. About 1,600 detainees have participated in hunger strikes since June 1986 in protest against their lengthy detentions without trial and the bad conditions under which they are kept. In Port Elizabeth in May emergency detainees including Ivy GCINA, a union organiser who had been in detention for over two years, went on hunger strike demanding their release.
The number of people detained for activities related to armed struggle is increasingly difficult to establish as the regime often releases contradictory reports and continues to restrict information about the identity of those detained in terms of the Internal Security Act.
In May, the Minister of Law and Order claimed in parliament that the 'security forces' 'eliminated' 490 guerrillas in 1987, 44 of whom were shot dead. This was in contrast with earlier police claims which estimated that 160 ANC members had been 'eliminated' in the same period. In the first six months of this year 106 suspected ANC members had been detained and 19 killed according to the Minister. This, he claimed, demonstrated the ability of the police to check the escalation of the armed struggle waged by the ANC.
While reliable statistics are not available as a result of censorship and secrecy, the evidence that exists indicates that the regime's claimed successes fall far short of containing the advance in the liberation movement's armed struggle. While attacks attributed to the ANC by the Institute of Strategic Studies in the period since 1985 increased fourfold, the number of ANC guerrillas captured or killed rose by 60 per cent in the same period.
The recent arrests of alleged guerrillas including those detained in the Broederstroom area revealed the extent to which the ANC had been able to get sophisticated weaponry into the country. Detention of other alleged guerrillas and the uncovering of arms caches illustrates the extent to which the armed struggle has spread throughout the country. Evidence from the trials arising out of the armed struggle reveal the low intensity war taking place in the border farming areas. In addition attacks on government institutions and its personnel increased in the first six months of this year. By April this year at least six policemen had been killed and a large number injured. Special constables and municipal police in the townships had suffered most casualties.
By the end of last year the number of detentions under the emergency regulations had increased sharply in Natal where Inkatha vigilantes were engaged in bitter attacks on anti-apartheid organisations.
Further details concerning events in the area, previously reported in FOCUS 71 and 75, were revealed at a seminar on Violence in Pietermaritzburg held in April. According to papers submitted to the conference over 600 people were known to have died in the conflict in 1987 and up to April 1988. At least 900 were detained during the same period, more than 100 of them children of 18 years and younger. The majority of those detained and killed were known to be members of organisations affiliated to the UDF or COSATU.
Although the number of those detained in the first few months of 1988 was not as high as the December peak, detentions in the region were still higher than in other areas. In addition the UDF and COSATU saw the imposition of restrictions on their organisations and leaders in the region, at the same time as they were experiencing fierce and violent attacks from Inkatha vigilantes.
The police sought to present themselves as neutral arbiters in the conflict in the region, engaging only in trying to restore 'law and order'. Records compiled by the Centre for Adult Education (CAE) at the University of Natal pointed at the collusion between Inkatha vigilantes and police against the UDF and COSATU. Inkatha members who were arrested for specific offences were freed on bail while UDF and COSATU members were detained indefinitely in large numbers.
At least 22 detainees had been held for over two years in Natal since the declaration of the State of Emergency in June 1986. In the Pietermaritzburg area alone 400 people had been held for over six months. In the Greater Edendale area there were 165 cases relating to the conflict, involving 400 people according to the Minister of Justice.
Those detained were reportedly tortured and assaulted while in detention. This was revealed in the court action brought by Zephania ZULU and Absolom Bheki NDWANDWE against Kwazulu bantustan authorities challenging the Kwazulu Act of 1987, which allows 90 days detention without trial. They also sought an interdict against Gatsha Buthelezi who is responsible for the Kwazulu bantustan police, and the Commissioner of Police and those under his command, to desist from assaulting, pressurising, interrogating or subjecting those detained to any unlawful duress. They also asked the court to give a directive that a magistrate and a district surgeon be appointed to visit them regularly.
Further revelations in April and May concerning the detention and torture of children met with concerted efforts by the regime to justify its actions and discredit evidence of witnesses and monitoring groups.
There were attempts to coerce witnesses to retract their testimonies; to silence those who were continuing to investigate these cases in spite of the banning of the Detainees Parents Support Committee; and to pretend that the ultimate responsibility for the detention of children lay with the ANC.
Among the developments leading to these responses were many meetings and conferences on the subject of children under apartheid, including a 'Children's Commission' held at the University of the Witwatersrand on 23 April and similar events in Europe, Canada and the United States. These followed the international conference held in Harare in September last year on Children, Apartheid and the Law. A film broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and a video and book based on the Harare conference and produced by IDAF, all drew strong reactions from the regime.
Addressing a Republic Day meeting on 31 May 1988, the Minister of Law and Order, Adriaan Vlok, argued that the government did not wish to detain children, but claimed that it was sometimes forced to do so by 'horrendous crimes' they were associated with in the townships. He alleged that it was difficult to take them before the courts because potential witnesses, fearful of 'intimidation', were unwilling to testify. He said that at that time there were no children younger than 16 and there were less than 100 children aged 16 and 17 years detained under emergency regulations.
Evidence from independent monitoring groups challenging the Minister's claims concerning the ages of children detained resulted in a visit to Diepkoof Prison in Johannesburg by Max Coleman, of the DPSC, accompanied by a magistrate. Five of the seven detainees interviewed confirmed under oath that they were younger than 16 years of age. A planned visit to another prison was abruptly cancelled by Vlok following Coleman's public announcement of his findings which were supported by other monitoring groups including the National Medical and Dental Association (NAMDA).
NAMDA stated that during the period between January and May this year they attended at least three ex-detainees aged between 10 and 14, and 13 between the ages of 15 and 17.
In October 1987, four days after the Minister of Law and Order said that there were no children under 15 years of age in detention, at least two 14-year-olds were detained in the Western Cape: Fuad HARTZENBERG and Lorenzo BROWN.
Abram Molefe Rapetswa (22) a Soweto student describing his treatment in detention: 'I was screaming, but because the bag was over my head the sound was muffled. They prodded me under my feet and all over my back with the sharp rod. . . They asked me why I had told the doctor that they had assaulted me. . . They threatened to kill my parents and to kill me. . . I am afraid that they will come and fetch me again and take me back to Protea to assault me. I am also very frightened by their threats to kill me.'
