As fears increased for the lives of a number of condemned prisoners whose appeals had failed, campaigns for all those facing execution were stepped up. Appeal court rulings in late 1988, which led to release for some prisoners and the replacement of the death sentence by prison terms for others, could not disguise the essentially repressive nature of the legal system. Nevertheless, calls for mandatory appeals in capital cases are being made, pending a moratorium on the use of the death sentence, or even its total abolition, a demand being made with increasing urgency.
Two miners from the Vaal Reefs gold mine, Solomon Mangaliso NONGWATI and Paulos Tsietsi TSEHLANA, were acquitted and released from Pretoria Central Prison on 1 October. They were convicted in May 1987, with Tjeluvuyo MGEDEZI, of the murder of four team leaders at the mine. Mgedezi won his appeal in respect of two of the convictions but still faces execution on the two other counts of murder.
In January the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) launched a major campaign to save Mgedezi and another NUM leader Lucky NOMGANGA who was sentenced to death in September 1988. Nomganga, a shaft steward at the Western Holdings gold mine in Welkom, was condemned for his alleged part in the killing of a mine engineer and a security guard during protests against dismissals at the mine in June 1987. Eight other NUM members were sentenced to lesser terms for murder with extenuating circumstances. The prosecution alleged that Nomganga initiated the fatal attack, rather than physically participated in it.
Mgedezi too, the leading shaft steward at No.5 shaft of the Vaal Reefs Gold mine, was convicted on the grounds of 'common purpose'.
In December, the Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union launched a petition on behalf of one of their shop stewards, William Mzazile NTOMBELA, who recently lost his appeal against the death sentence. He was convicted following a dispute at Nel's Dairy in Johannesburg in June 1986.
Three others who recently lost their appeal are Patrick MANGINDA, Dickson MADIKANE and Desmond MAJOLA from Oudtshoorn's Bhongolethu township, who were convicted in September 1986 of the murder of a local councillor. Since their trial an important new eyewitness, the niece of another councillor, has come forward. Her evidence in particular supports that of Madikane and Manginda who both deny being present. The Appellate Division refused to reopen the trial to hear her evidence and also rejected their appeal against conviction. Lawyers then petitioned President Botha to reopen the trial.
Justice Lategan, who sentenced them to death, was recently the subject of a legal storm when a death sentence he had imposed was overturned in the Court of Appeal on the grounds that it was 'shockingly inappropriate'.
The United Nations Secretary General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, intervened personally on behalf of condemned ANC combatant Robert McBRIDE when he met President Botha in Pretoria in September. A petition for clemency was submitted in June 1988.
On 16 September Thembile LUBELWANA (24), from Port Alfred, was acquitted and released after spending 19 months on Death Row for allegedly killing a police informer. His sentence was not previously reported in FOCUS.
At the end of November Thembiseli BANETI was freed from Middledrift Prison in the Ciskei bantustan where he had been awaiting execution since his conviction a year earlier. Baneti and his four co-accused won their appeal against both conviction and sentence on the grounds that the state witnesses were unreliable.
Miki YELANI was also acquitted and released on appeal. He was convicted of murder for 'presiding' over a meeting at which a suspected arsonist was allegedly 'sentenced to death'. The man was killed two days later though not by Yelani. The appeal court decided the court had not 'beyond reasonable doubt' that the meeting Yelani was in charge of had indeed condemned the man.
Two other appeals were partially successful. Josiah TSAWANE and Daniel MALEKE, convicted of killing a policeman in Sebokeng, are now to serve 12 years each. They were sentenced in September 1986. Bekisizwe Philip NGIDI, a Soweto schoolboy, has had his death sentence for killing a policeman replaced by a 10-year prison sentence.
