POLITICAL TRIALS Completed Trials Byaboi and four others Three men and a woman were imprisoned in January at the end of a trial in the Western Cape linked to the ANC's armed struggle.
The three men, all from Worcester, were found by the Worcester Regional Court to have attempted to leave the country to undergo military training with the ANC. They had been arrested before they did so. One of them, Xolile Justice BYABOI, was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and the other two, Monwabisi MAQHOQHI, 21, and Malungisi KHUMALO, 23, were sentenced to six years.
Mary NGEMTU, 43, a member of the United Women's Congress, was charged along with Caroline MAKHASI, 31, with having recruited the three men to join the ANC's military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. Makhasi was acquitted but Ngemtu was convicted of furthering the aims of the ANC. She was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, of which two were suspended. The court heard evidence that she had encouraged the men to join the ANC and go to Botswana.
Khumalo Themba Jerry KHUMALO, 31, a freelance journalist, was sentenced to an effective prison term of four years by the Johannesburg Regional Court on 1 November last year for harbouring and failing to report the presence of ANC guerrillas. The combatants were named as Vuyisile TSHABALALA, who was killed before the trial, and Oupa Alex SEHERI.
The indictment mentioned a number of well-known individuals who had allegedly assisted the combatants, but Khumalo pleaded guilty to the charges and no evidence was led. In a statement he admitted finding accommodation for Seheri in November 1986. He also said he was paid by Tshabalala to drive him around. After Tshabalala was wounded in a shoot-out with police in February 1987, Khumalo helped him get medical attention. Khumalo was previously detained for 18 months in 1977.
Masondo Shirley MASONDO, aged 26, was sentenced on 6 February to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of causing an explosion at a restaurant in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, in October 1987. Five people were injured in the blast which was caused by a hand-grenade in a bag which Masondo had left on a table. She went to the restaurant with a man, Peter DLAMINI, who was described as a trained ANC combatant. Masondo, alleged to be an ANC supporter, said in court that she was unaware of what was in the bag.
Muthwa and three others Two trained ANC combatants, Ntela SKHOSANA, 23, and Mafi MGOBHOZI, 21, were given 12-year prison sentences on 27 January by Justice Booysen in the Durban Supreme Court. They were found responsible for an attack with AK-47s on the Esikhaweni police station near Empangeni and to have been in possession of arms. A third man, Derrick MUTHWA, 27, received a five-year sentence for possession of a firearm and an anti-personnel mine and for distributing ANC publications.
The trial, in which the three men appeared along with two others, began in October last year. Charges of 'terrorism' related to several incidents of armed action in Natal during 1987, including the Esikhaweni police station attack, and explosions at the post office and Sanlam Centre in Empangeni. The two men who were acquitted were Vivian Isidore MADE, a lawyer who has acted in many political trials, and Livingstone MATHABA. Made was detained in October 1987, shortly after the attack on the police station — four other people, apparently the other defendants, were also detained then although press reports did not name them.
Other trials Labour trials Recent trials have highlighted the use of the courts as a means of repressing trade unions in periods of heightened industrial action by workers.
Transport workers On 24 February, Alfred NDLOVU (38), vice president of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) and regional chair of COSATU, was sentenced in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court to an effective five years in prison for 'terrorism' and being an accessory to attempted murder.
The court found that by associating himself with a man called Mjitha whom he knew to be an ANC member, Ndlovu had associated himself with the ANC and Mjitha's activities which allegedly included attacking an Inkatha meeting and encouraging people to leave the country to join the ANC. He was also found guilty of inciting others to kill Philip Thabete who was trying to organise bus drivers into the Inkatha-linked United Workers' Union of South Africa.
Ndlovu, a bus driver, was detained in October 1987 under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act. At the time a number of drivers belonging to the UDF-affiliated TGWU were killed by suspected Inkatha vigilantes. Their hostility to TGWU drivers employed by the Kwazulu bantustan administration stemmed from the drivers' efforts to recruit people into local UDF structures.
Notice of appeal against Ndlovu's conviction and sentence was lodged in the Natal Supreme Court on 27 February.
Four other former TGWU members who were sentenced to death for the killing of a bus driver who defied a strike of drivers employed by PUTCO, have been refused leave to appeal, and their lives depend on the outcome of a petition for clemency.
A dispute which resulted in a number of trials and four death sentences was the three-month long South African Transport Services (SATS) strike between March and June 1987. Three SATS strikers, Wilson NAKANA (33), Sophania 'Tiny' MATLOGA (32) and Edward MATHOLE (36) were acquitted in the Rand Supreme Court on 2 February 1989 of the murder of a non-striker on 27 April 1987. The man was pushed off a slow-moving train as it was leaving the station. Justice R A Solomon found that the accused had no common purpose to kill, only to stop people working and that they could not have known that their actions would result in death.
Public sector workers Workers in the public sector are particularly vulnerable to repressive action: they may not strike legally, nor may they disrupt services deemed to be essential. For example, during a dispute in Pietermaritzburg in November in which thousands of health workers were dismissed for participating in an illegal strike, 307 health workers at Grey's Hospital were arrested and charged with subversion in terms of the Internal Security Act. It was alleged they had disrupted central medical health services.
Three officials of the Post and Telecommunications Workers' Association (POTWA) were due to appear in the Pietersburg Regional Court in May almost two years after an industrial dispute at the Chuniespoort Post Office in the Lebowa bantustan in July 1987.
Peter MOKOENA (32), chair of the National Regional Committee of POTWA, Zet MAPHANGA (30), secretary of the Pietersburg branch of the union, and Frank PHALANE (29), vice-chair of the same branch, were charged with sabotage under the Internal Security Act in that they took part in an illegal strike calculated to interrupt or impede the postal and telecommunications service.
The dispute arose from a conflict between telephonists working at Chuniespoort Post Office and the Post Master. The Post Office serves the main offices of the Lebowa bantustan administration.
After making representations to management on several occasions, telephonists decided to stop work on 24 July 1987 — for a week all local telephone services were interrupted. Thereafter, a number of the strikers were detained or arrested. Phalane and Maphanga were detained on 10 August and Mokoena on 8 September. All three were held in detention until their first court appearance on 23 November 1987.
