Although recent issues of FOCUS have been able to cover only completed trials a large number of major political trials are presently going on throughout the country.
The trials in progress include two treason trials arising from the organisation of resistance in Alexandra. Ashwell ZWANE and Moses MAYEKISO are the principal accused in each case. The Vaal Treason trial (Patrick BALEKA and others) is moving towards a conclusion in the Pretoria Supreme Court after almost three years. Judgment is due in November. Nineteen defendants remain on trial, all but three of them on bail. Also moved to Pretoria is the treason trial of Ebrahim Ismael EBRAHIM, who was kidnapped from Swaziland in December 1986. During September ANC leaders gave evidence on commission in London to rebut the state's case against him and the other two accused.
As one major trial in the Western Cape drew to a close (see FORBES and others below) another was due to begin on 18 October – that of Tony YENGENI and 13 others, five of them women. Two of the accused are on bail. In the Eastern Cape over 30 people face charges of ‘terrorism’ in at least four separate trials while other cases continue in the bantustans.
