Two trials recently completed in the Johannesburg Magistrates' Court highlighted popular rejection of official administrative and judicial structures and attempts to establish alternative ways of dealing with community affairs.
On 20 July, Moses MASEKO (30) was sentenced to four years' imprisonment in a trial arising out of his participation in an Alexandra yard committee (a residents' group formed to represent community interests and resolve local disputes) in October 1986. Maseko was convicted on four counts of intimidation and assault.
Five Soweto men were convicted of charges relating to their involvement in 'people's courts' between March and August 1986, a period when the government stepped up its attempts to break the sustained rent boycotts. Repression was particularly intense in Soweto. The period also saw the establishment in Soweto of a system of 'street committees' as part of the rejection of official administration.
The five, Alfred NTSHILELE (62), Joseph MODIBEDI (18), Joseph NTSOELENGO (21), Ellis KHETHA (20) and Ezekiel MOTHAMAHA were sentenced to an effective three years on 5 August 1988. They were found guilty of sedition and assault after the court heard evidence of their involvement in 'hearings' to settle local and domestic disputes. The magistrate decided however that the prosecution had not proved the other charges of kidnapping and intimidation, commenting that letters requesting people to attend the 'trials' did not amount to intimidation.
Nonetheless, he found that they had undermined the authority of the state and usurped the role of the police by holding a 'people's court' and in sentencing them, he said 'people cannot be permitted to take the law into their own hands'.
