Much of the activity restricted in late 1988 was aimed at showing mass support for opponents of apartheid such as funerals for activists and protests in support of convicted trialists and prisoners.
On 6 December the Commissioner of Police banned under the emergency regulations all meetings organised in support of the Delmas trialists. He said a meeting to protest at the conviction of the 11 defendants due to be held at the University of the Witwatersrand would have 'mobilised the masses... and given rise to violence'. Armed police disrupted an alternative church service attended by 800 at the Central Methodist Church. They confiscated film and briefly held Dr Allan Boesak and Rev Frank Chikane. Armed police also dispersed hundreds who had gathered in Cape Town on 14 December to protest at the imprisonment of Ashley Forbes and threatened to charge two Visnews reporters - Tony Weaver and Craig Matthews - under emergency regulations.
A rally at Regina Mundi church, Soweto, to welcome Zephania Mothopeng on his release from prison was prohibited in terms of a four-week ban imposed on 4 December on all meetings organised for the 'purpose of honouring Mothopeng'.
Prison authorities rejected applications from Wilton MKWAYI and Ivy GCINA to attend the funerals of their relatives.
Irene MKWAYI, co-president of the Release Mandela Committee and a member of the Federation of Transvaal Women (Fedraw) was buried on 19 December in the absence of her husband Wilton Mkwayi, an ANC member jailed for life in 1964. Emergency restrictions prescribing the size, route and nature of her funeral were defied. Police arrested Fedraw member Amanda KWADI, ordered 500 mourners to be silent and forced their way into the church, where Archbishop Tutu condemned the police intrusion and criticised the government for instructing 'how and ... when [people] can weep'.
There was a strong police presence as hundreds gathered in Kwazakhele in October to bury Mthetheleli GCINA, an alleged ANC combatant shot dead by police in Gugulethu the previous month. At the time of the funeral his mother Ivy Gcina, president of the Port Elizabeth Women's Organisation, remained confined to a cell where she has been detained since June 1986 under emergency regulations. Police killed another son, Mzimasi GCINA in a shootout in Aliwal North in October 1983.
The funeral of Smangele MBENENCGE was held in Mbekweni in the Western Cape on 6 December after a weekend ceremony had been prohibited under the Internal Security Act. Mbenenge, an alleged ANC combatant, was killed on 7 November during a shootout with police in Soweto, in which another alleged combatant and five police died. A strong army presence barred journalists from the cemetery and troops escorted Mbenenge's brothers.
In December 1988, eight organisations, including five educational bodies from the Western Cape, were prohibited from engaging in any activities. This action brought to 32 the number of organisations restricted under emergency powers since February last year.
Restrictions were imposed on the University of the Witwatersrand Black Students' Society and the Rhodes University Black Students' Movement on 8 December. These campus-based organisations were among 300 organisations subjected to restrictions on meetings under the emergency regulations in July 1986. They were affiliated to the South African National Students' Congress (SANSCO), a UDF affiliate, which was restricted in February 1988.
The Mitchell's Plain Students' Congress and the Western Cape Students' Council were restricted on 14 December. School protests have been widespread in the Western Cape and in July 1988 officials estimated that attendance at Mitchell's Plain and Athlone schools was the lowest in the Peninsula. Lieutenant Bothma, a representative of the Minister of Law and Order, said that the two student groups were 'busy politicising and organising scholars in the Western Cape'. According to a press report, the Western Cape Students' Council was organising a national meeting of students.
The orders on the other four organisations were published on 29 December. One of them, the National Detainees Forum, was launched only a month previously with the intention of providing a national co-ordinating structure to monitor detainees and campaign on their behalf. Such work had been made difficult by the restriction of the Detainees Parents' Support Committee in February.
The Western Cape Teachers' Union (WECTU) and the Democratic Teachers' Union (DETU), which organised amongst Coloured and African teachers respectively, were both formed in 1985. They had been engaged in talks aimed at the formation of a single national teachers' body to be aligned with COSATU. In October 1988 WECTU and DETU took part in a meeting of six teachers' organisations which resolved not to take part in the municipal elections or allow schools to be used as polling stations. They also condemned the detention of teachers and students. COSATU commented that the meeting brought 'the ideal of a single teachers' union with more than 100,000 members closer to being realised'.
Members of both unions have been harassed. Five DETU executive members were suspended by the Department of Education in March 1988 for alleged misconduct. A support campaign was taken up by parent, teacher and student associations, WECTU and the Peninsula African Teachers' Association. A disciplinary hearing was due to be heard in February. Another of the unions included in the talks, the Cape Teachers Professional Association (CTPA), had one of its meetings banned under emergency regulations in November. The CTPA adopted the Freedom Charter in June.
The Western Cape Students' Congress is a UDF-affiliated group which, according to Lieutenant Bothma, 'also played an active role in the people's education struggle'.
FOREIGN FUNDING
In November, the government published a Disclosure of Foreign Funding Bill. It replaced the Promotion of Orderly Internal Politics Bill, which had met with opposition both inside South Africa and internationally, including threats of economic actions by the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland.
Under the terms of the new bill, all organisations and individuals who have been officially notified must reveal all sources of external funding and have their books audited. A Registrar of Reporting Organisations and Persons will be appointed to administer the new measure. There are penalties of R40,000 and/or 10 years' imprisonment for those who refuse to comply with the provisions or who use foreign funding for a purpose other than the one declared to the Registrar. The new bill does not include previous provisions which would have enabled the government to declare organisations or individuals restricted if they were engaged in any political activity.
PRESS THREATENED
Three weeks after its launch on 3 November, Die Vrye Weekblad, an Afrikaans independent weekly, was informed by the Minister of Justice that its registration was being withheld pending an investigation in terms of the Internal Security Act to determine whether it 'expressed views' of an 'unlawful organisation'. Whilst this decision was awaited the paper paid the registration fee of R30,000.
In November an investigation under the Prisons Act was initiated against the Star and Vrye Weekblad for the publication of a photograph of Nelson Mandela. The Star was also subjected to scrutiny under the Police Act following a report referring to 'police action' at a squatter camp.
On 11 January the Minister of Home Affairs informed four anti-apartheid papers that investigations under emergency regulations for publishing 'subversive propaganda' had been initiated. Al Qalam, a Muslim monthly newspaper, had not previously been warned although an issue was seized, but Work in Progress, New Era and Grassroots received warnings under the last emergency and thus their closure was subject to only one written notice. As unregistered publications they could be closed down for up to six months. In November, the Natal Witness was informed of a similar investigation and also of another investigation assessing possible contravention of the Internal Security Act following a report quoting a listed person - Harry Gwala.
