The campaign by detainees in South Africa for their release reached a new level in February as over 600 of them joined an indefinite hunger strike started on 23 January by 20 detainees at Diepkloof Prison in Johannesburg. This hunger strike was the culmination of various unsuccessful efforts by detainees to secure their freedom or improve their conditions since June 1986 when a State of Emergency was declared.
The earlier action by detainees included 36 hunger strikes as well as court applications to have their detention nullified, representations to the government through lawyers and petitions sent through various prison authorities. Over a hundred of those in detention in January had been held continuously since 1986.
Although there was originally a plan for the progressive escalation of the hunger strike, with 20 detainees joining each week, the repressive reaction of the prison authorities and the government resulted in a rapid increase in the number of detainees participating, and in the number of police stations and prisons affected. Within two months about 610 detainees had joined the action throughout the country. They sent open letters to the Minister of Law and Order outlining their demands. Central to these was the issue of their 'unjustified and prolonged detention without trial'.
The prison authorities reacted to the hunger strike by removing the original group of 20 hunger strikers to a remote part of Diepkloof Prison and depriving them of hot water. Some of the detainees in Pietermaritzburg New Prison were moved to various police stations in Natal in an attempt to break the strike, according to their lawyers.
Medical attention was also withheld from some of those on hunger strike. On 6 February four detainees held at St Albans Prison in Port Elizabeth were in the prison hospital undergoing treatment for depression when the hunger strike started in that gaol. When they joined the action they were evicted from the prison hospital by the district surgeon, Dr de Kock, who said he was 'clearing this over-populated hospital' by removing those who were 'not sick enough'.
Detainees reacted angrily to statements by the Minister of Law and Order that the hunger strike was 'orchestrated by the enemies of South Africa outside prisons'. The allegation provoked further hunger-strike actions in other areas.
The emergency detainees were joined by 18 detainees held in terms of the Internal Security Act which provides for indefinite detention, incommunicado and in solitary confinement.
In a statement these detainees, held at John Vorster Square, said: 'We are subjected to a systematic mental torture calculated to render us nervous wrecks ... we are left to sleep all those hours of confinement on a cold concrete floor without any mattress ... no instigator from outside is needed to tell us to act.'
At first the prison authorities attempted to conceal the conditions and actions of the detainees. But this failed when the health of the original group deteriorated and they were taken to hospital. The resulting alarm on the part of the national and international public forced a change of strategy from the regime which could no longer conceal the fact that hunger strikes were taking place.
Doctors at hospitals sent back to prison a number of detainees in Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg because they allegedly refused to eat. At least one detainee, Lawrence BAYANA, was only offered treatment on condition he started eating. There were reports of some family members being denied permission by police to visit their relatives in hospitals. A district surgeon in Pietermaritzburg refused to grant a lawyer access to his client who was in hospital, until the lawyer threatened legal action. Very few of those who had been taken to hospital were among those released at the end of February.
The detainees' action provoked a variety of solidarity activities in South Africa and the rest of the world. Forty-two lawyers representing some of the detainees embarked on a 48-hour fast in solidarity with their clients. Their action ended with a public meeting on 11 February attended by about 250 people in defiance of a government ban on all public events in support of detainees. The ban, imposed only a day before the meeting, led to the cancellation of some meetings, but failed to stop other supportive action by the public.
Archbishop Stephen Naidoo of the Catholic Church led a 12-hour fast and vigil in Cape Town and announced that a weekly church service would be held until National Detainees Day on 12 March. On 14 February the President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Dr Allan Boesak, started an indefinite hunger strike and wrote an open letter to the Minister of Law and Order. On the same day Archbishop Tutu convened a special meeting of 80 clergy and laity after which he announced his decision to fast for three days each week. He invited all Anglicans to join him in this action. A solidarity meeting of 1,500 people was held in Cape Town's Central Methodist Church in support of detainees and their families.
Parents of the hunger-striking detainees formed a committee in Johannesburg in February and sent a letter to a meeting of Commonwealth Foreign Ministers in Harare, appealing for their intervention. Later that month they addressed a meeting in Cape Town organised by the Kagiso Trust and attended by 20 diplomats, where they requested them to urge their governments to intervene. They later had a meeting with the Minister of Law and Order, and then addressed a rally of 4,000 people at the University of the Western Cape.
Over 300 people joined a march to the police headquarters in Johannesburg organised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Police used batons and teargas to disperse the marchers. They also confiscated films from a photographer covering the event. COSATU had earlier called on employers to take a stand to demonstrate their opposition to the system of detention without trial. About 300 doctors, 600 nurses and hundreds of workers held a solidarity fast for an unspecified period in the Eastern Cape.
Some convicted and awaiting-trial prisoners also embarked on solidarity fasts. The lawyer of Barbara Hogan, who is serving a 10-year sentence for treason, reported that she had decided to join the hunger strikers for 48 hours. Unconfirmed reports indicated similar actions by some prisoners on Robben Island. A group of people facing trial in the case of Yengeni and Others on charges of 'terrorism' and membership of the ANC, announced a decision to embark on a 48-hour hunger strike in support of the detainees.
Students and staff at universities and schools joined the protests. On 15 February about 300 medical students from the University of Natal embarked on a 48-hour fast while the Vice Chancellor of the University of the Western Cape, Professor Jakes GERWEL, led a seven-day fast at the university on 16 February. Presidents of Students Representative Councils at six universities embarked on a six-day solidarity fast the same day. In Soweto a number of students from various schools boycotted classes in protest. Hundreds of school students in Cape Town attended a service in March held at St George's Cathedral. On 16 February members of 32 organisations in Natal responded to a call by the Natal Indian Congress to hold a solidarity fast.
Under pressure from the spread of the hunger strike and public indignation, the Minister of Law and Order agreed to meet lawyers, church leaders and parents of the detainees. On 16 February he gave an undertaking to the lawyers to examine the cases of detainees. The Minister promised a delegation of church leaders on 16 February that a substantial number of detainees would be released within two weeks.
By the end of March it was clear that the struggle between the detainees and the government was not over. Although the government claimed that nearly 600 release orders had been issued, since 16 February, independent monitoring groups confirmed that just over 300 detainees were freed by the end of March. Anger at the failure of the Minister to release as many detainees as he had promised led to a resurgence of solidarity actions throughout the country.
