In a trial in the Transkei bantustan Supreme Court in May two alleged ANC combatants, Ndibulele NDZAMELA (24) and Pumzile MAYAPI (32), were sentenced to death by Justice Mitchell. They had been convicted on two counts of murder following an explosion at the Wild Coast Casino in Mzamba in April 1986 which killed two people.
The two were among a group of twenty people charged in 1987 whose case was thrown out by a regional magistrate because of delays by the state in formulating charges. Some of the accused escaped from custody at that time but Mayapi and Ndzamela were immediately redetained. A co-accused, Leonard MDINGI, charged with harbouring them, later had charges against him withdrawn.
Mayapi's brother Zonwabele was one of three people shot dead by bantustan police in February 1988. He was in a car, having attended the trial in the morning when it was stopped and its occupants attacked. An inquest into the killings opened in March 1989.
The bulk of the evidence in the trial, which lasted a year, concerned the admissibility of the defendants' own statements. The two were detained in December 1986. Ndzamela told of being assaulted, forced to eat a live cockroach, threatened with a pistol to his head and kept standing or squatting for lengthy periods. He was interrogated by bantustan police and members of the South African Police from Port Shepstone. One of the latter admitted that Ndzamela was kept standing and deprived of food for seven hours.
The defence called a former prisoner who described how Ndzamela was dumped late at night, groaning and screaming, near the entrance to a communal cell. In the morning he helped to spoon-feed Ndzamela who was lying on his side, handcuffed and with his feet tied.
Press reports did not mention any evidence linking the men to the explosion except their own statements. However, two unidentified state witnesses, known as Miss X and Miss Y, claimed to have met the two men at ANC camps in Angola.
A security policeman based at Pietersburg alleged that he interviewed Mayapi in June 1987 as part of a programme by the South African Police to recruit members of banned organisations who were in custody. Mayapi rejected his approaches.
After conviction, evidence in mitigation was given about legitimate grievances of the local community, in general against the migrant labour system and bantustan underdevelopment and in particular against the opulence of the casino in their midst. The defence argued that the state had not proved intent to kill but only to cause damage.
On 12 May the two men were sentenced to death. They have a right of appeal.
As FOCUS was going to press news came of the death sentences passed on fourteen Upington residents. This will be covered in the next issue. In addition the following prisoners have had their sentences commuted: Tjeluvuyo MGEDEZI (20 years); William NTOMBELA (25 years); Stanford NGUBO, Johannes BUTHELEZI, Bethwell SABELO and Vusumuzi KHUZWAYO (sentences unknown); Paul SETLABA (20 years). The following have been acquitted on appeal and released: Mxolisi MALGAS, Michael MAMBUKWE and Lulamile MANELI. Joseph CHIDI has been granted a retrial.
