Popular resistance and rejection of the bantustan system was evident in the past year in the Transkei bantustan, as were repression and violence. Developments in education and labour and the evidence in political trials reveal continued opposition to the system.
Soon after the collapse of Matanzima's authority in September 1987, his successor, Stella Sigcau, lifted bans on a number of individuals and released some detainees. The military council which took over direct control from her short-lived regime in December 1987, also attempted to present a less repressive image without abandoning repression. Most recently in January 1989 banning orders on 15 organisations including the South Africa Council of Churches were lifted.
LABOUR
In August a member of the military council announced that workers' organisations would be established, if workers and employers agreed. He said Transkei labour groups were unorganised, lacked collective bargaining powers and remained voiceless about unsatisfactory wages, conditions of service and unfair dismissals. The authorities had not yet decided whether the new organisations should be trade unions or some other form of representation. In the past bans on a number of unions and restrictions on strikes made it virtually impossible for trade unions to operate in the bantustan.
A survey of bantustan civil servants which was published in August, revealed that as many as 12,000 such workers favoured the formation of a staff association. The idea for such an association was endorsed by the chairman of the Military Council, Bantu Holomisa, although his reasons for doing so were not made clear.
In August, all nurses at the Umtata hospital went on strike demanding an increase in wages. According to the nurses, who were later joined by others from another hospital, their grievances dated back to 1982. At least 27 other hospital workers joined the strike, resulting in the detention of one of them, Nomvuyo DAYILE. Twenty-two hospital workers were later charged under the bantustan's Public Security Act.
At least nine strikes, involving over 600 workers took place in August. In response the authorities banned all strikes, work stoppages and boycotts in terms of the bantustan's Public Security Act.
EDUCATION
The University of Transkei (UNITRA) has previously experienced student boycotts and the expulsion of lecturers who were thought to be sympathetic to students' protests. This continued in March 1988 when students from UNITRA boycotted lectures in protest against the detention of their fellow students. In June, the students responded to a national call by COSATU for a three-day stay-away in protest against the banning of organisations in February and the Labour Relations Amendment Bill. They staged a demonstration outside the university. University authorities closed down the halls of residence and insisted that all students reapply for admission to them, a measure aimed at excluding some students.
On 8 July, some members of the university staff took part in the launching of the Union of Democratic University Staff Associations (UDUSA) at the University of Durban-Westville. The organisation had an initial membership of 4,000, from 16 universities throughout the country. The union, one of whose aims is to work for the 'elimination of discrimination based on race, gender, class and creed in universities and our society' is opposed to the very concept of bantustans. It noted that police action and restriction of movement by campus control officers was a daily reality in black and bantustan universities.
ARMED STRUGGLE
A growth in the number of armed incidents has resulted in the detention of, activists and in some instances their being shot in circumstances that appear to constitute summary execution. Political trials of people charged with participating in the armed struggle in the bantustan have revealed the extent to which it has spread. Those involved ranged from students to senior civil servants and a former magistrate.
The indictments in most of these trials mention Atwell Mazizi MAQHEKEZA, a former magistrate and ANC guerrilla who was shot dead in March 1988 while receiving treatment in a Lesotho hospital for gunshot wounds sustained in an earlier incident. They allege that he had been operating in the Transkei bantustan between 1984 and 1987 as an area commander of the ANC's military wing - Umkhonto we Sizwe.
In the trial of Ernest SONTSU and Pasike NTSHOBANE, the state claimed that eight clerks from various departments of the bantustan authority were part of a unit whose responsibility was to recruit people into the ANC. They would then form units which would translate and distribute ANC literature. A state witness known only as Mr 'A' said another civil servant from the Department of Commerce, Vuyani NOBONGOZA, provided the group with district maps of the Transkei. A clerk in the bantustan Prime Minister's office allegedly stole a confidential document from his office which gave details of the June 1985 sabotage of the bulk fuel depot, power station and water pipelines and of ANC preparations in the Transkei rural areas. The accused allegedly gave assistance to Maqhekeza. Ntshobane was later acquitted.
In a separate but related trial of Teko MOKHOU, a clerk in the Department of Justice, the state alleged that he acted as a 'pilot' to check for roadblocks before guerrillas were transported through the territory. He also allegedly formed ANC cells and possessed arms and explosives. Mokhou was also accused of undergoing military training under Maqhekeza in the small town of Cala and in Khwezi township in Umtata. He allegedly bombed a telephone booth and a post office in April 1986. Maqhekeza's ability (perhaps with the support of his unit) to mobilise such a wide range of people is consistent with the ANC's strategy of people's war whereby guerrillas reproduce themselves by training and involving new recruits in their operations.
DETENTION AND TORTURE
Also revealed through these trials are the excessively long periods for which people may be detained before appearing in courts. Section 47 of the Transkei Public Security Act allows for detention without trial for purposes of interrogation for an indefinite period and has been used to allow torture, assault and other ill-treatment of detainees.
In Mokhou's case, a witness known only as Mr 'B' testified that during six months in detention he changed his statement to the police five times because they were forcing him to say things incriminating himself and others. He told the court how he was handcuffed with his hands behind his back and had an electric cord tied around his ankles. He also had a canvas bag filled with water placed over his head and face until he began to suffocate. During this period he was kept naked and was being kicked and punched by police. He sought court protection after police threatened him saying that if he were released he would not remain alive for more than a year and that the prosecutor was 'one of them'.
In another case Dr Warren NOMBE, Mhleli MADAKA and Lungisa Livingstone MATUTU were all facing charges of harbouring guerrillas, including Maqhekeza, and of engaging in 'terrorist' activities. All three were acquitted in December as the state's evidence was found to be inconsistent and incoherent. Madaka was detained in August 1985. Matutu was detained in the Bophuthatswana bantustan in September 1987 and later brought to the Transkei where he was reportedly tortured by police. His eyes were damaged and he had bruises and various abrasions on his body. His lawyers said that he was mentally confused, had no insight into his circumstances and was disoriented. His case is one of at least 40 similar claims for damages which are pending, arising from police violence against people suspected of having links with anti-bantustan activists.
