Community resistance trials * In a trial in the Grahamstown Supreme Court in March, Gerald Kholisile MDE (18) was sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of murder. The state alleged that a man suspected of murder was killed after a meeting at which Mde and 10 others sentenced him to death. Mde was 15 years old at the time of the alleged offence in February 1986. His co-accused were acquitted because of lack of evidence.
- In March the Appeal Court in Bloemfontein dismissed the appeal of Simon SUNDUZA against his conviction for the attempted murder of three policemen. Sunduza was convicted by a Wynberg magistrate in January 1986 and sentenced to seven years in jail. The incident took place in Guguletu on 6 December 1985, five weeks after the State of Emergency was extended to the Western Cape.
- Viwe MTSHISELWA (24), Monde BEDE (26) and Honey ROJI (25) of Mlungisi township, Queenstown, were convicted of murder in the East London Supreme Court in March. The three men were found to have killed a policeman in August 1985. The township had been affected by a partial State of Emergency imposed the month before and residents were participating in a consumer boycott, whose aims included the withdrawal of troops and police from the townships. Sentence was due to be passed on 2 May. Eight others were acquitted because of lack of evidence. In January 1986 Mtshiselwa, then 19 years old and said to be a prominent local figure, appeared in court charged with the murder of a policeman in November 1985. No details of the rest of the trial are known.
- In another trial arising out of an incident in the Eastern Cape in the same period, two men and a youth were convicted of arson in the East London Regional Court in February and were jailed for 18 months. P MADOLLO (30), P PLAATJIE (20) and Z CEKISO (18) were found to have set alight a Molteno township administration building in September 1985. During the trial Madollo said he had been assaulted by the police and forced to make a statement.
- Four members of the Cradock Residents' Association (CRADORA) were acquitted in March of the murder of an alleged police informer in the Port Elizabeth Supreme Court. Nzimeni KOHLAKALA (33), Leonard Vala NOKONYA (20), Byright DASTILE (33) and Leweni ZOTHANI (18) had been accused of the killing of a woman, Thobeka Yokwe, in November 1986. The judge said that the state had not proved that the body was that of Yokwe, nor had it proved that the accused were responsible for the killing. Three of the accused had spent lengthy periods in custody: Kohlakala from December 1986 and Nokonya and Dastile from January 1987.
Ex-detainees on censorship charges Five people recently released from emergency detention found themselves charged with possession of banned publications shortly after their release.
Joseph NKUNA (24), an executive member of the restricted South African Youth Congress, was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment in April by a Nelspruit regional magistrate for possessing two ANC documents. He was also sentenced to a further six months or R1,000 for failing to declare money to customs officials on his return from abroad in August 1988. Nkuna was held in detention from 1 September 1988 to 15 February and was on hunger strike for the last 16 days of his detention.
Mike SEBATI and Daisy MATLOU, both of the Northern Transvaal Students' Congress, were charged in March with possession of banned literature. Matlou give birth in August 1988 whilst in detention.
Neville VAN DER RHEEDE (34), an executive member of the UDF who was acquitted of 'terrorism' charges in August 1987, appeared in the Wynberg Regional Court in March in connection with possession of a prohibited video. Van der Rheede, who is also restricted under emergency regulations, was detained in September 1988 and released and charged in February.
