The campaign against the apartheid regime's use of the death penalty was stepped up in June after 14 people were sentenced to death in the northern Cape town of Upington and 12 more in the Ciskei bantustan. Elsewhere a Natal youth leader was condemned for his alleged part in killing a police informer.
The death sentences in Upington were passed on 26 May after Justice JJ Basson had convicted the fourteen of murder without extenuating circumstances for the killing of a municipal policeman in Paballelo, Upington in November 1985.
Those convicted included a married couple, Evelina DE BRUIN and Gideon MADLONGOLWANE, both in their 60s and with ten children, the youngest of whom is only 12 years old. Condemned with them were a school student David LEKHANYANE (24) and his elder brother Andrew (28); workers Eric Tros GUBULA (30), Zuko XABENDLINI (32), Zonga MOKGATLE (31), Wellington MASIZA (27) and Boy JAPHTA (24); a student-teacher Myner Gudlani BOVU (29) and a nurse Justice BEKEBEKE (27); Kenneth KHUMALO (33), a former mayor of Pabellelo and the town council's treasurer at the time of his arrest; Albert TYWILI (27), a former policeman and Xolile YONA (24), a professional boxer. Yona was in a disturbed mental state for much of the later stages of the trial and was twice referred for medical observation.
For the other eleven defendants the judge found mitigation based on their youth or low educational level: Elisha MATSHOBA (23), a school student, was sentenced to eight years.
The trial began in 1986 but only received media attention in April 1988 when the twenty five were convicted of murder. Most of the proceedings were held in camera due to the youth of some of the defendants.
Abel KUTU (27), Sarel JACOBS (22), Ronnie MASIZA (Wellington's 23-year-old brother) and Jeffrey SEKIYA (24) were each sentenced to six years. The following received six-year suspended sentences on condition they performed 1,200 hours worth of community service: Barry BEKEBEKE (23) Justice's younger brother, Xoliswa DUBE (23), the mother of a young child, Elizabeth BOSTANDER (22), a school student, Roy SWARTBOOI (22), Ivan KAZI (21) and Neville WITBOOI (20). The twenty-sixth defendant, Enoch NOMPONDWANA (33), was convicted of attempted murder and imprisoned for eight years.
The background to the policeman's death featured many of the grievances which have led to mass resistance throughout South Africa. During 1985 protest focussed on education, with a school boycott at Paballelo Secondary School, the brutal behaviour of municipal policemen who had been drafted into the township, and rent increases for what were overcrowded and poor living conditions.
Lucas 'Jetta' Sethwala was killed on 13 November after police used teargas to disperse a mass meeting at which three thousand people discussed a proposed rent increase. A crowd of some three hundred stoned Sethwala's house. He opened fire on the crowd, wounding a child, and later, when most of the crowd had gone, ran out of his house hoping to flee Paballelo. A much smaller group chased him, disarming him and killing him with a blow to the head from his rifle butt. His body was then stoned and set alight.
Controversy over the court's verdict centred on the fact that most of the defendants were found only to have been involved in the initial attack on Sethwala's home, not in his actual killing. According to the court's interpretation of 'common purpose' it was decided that those who had participated in stoning the policeman's house had shared the intention of driving him out and killing him.
The defence denied that there was any such plan, saying that the killing resulted from the pandemonium as people tried to escape the teargas. Many present believed the police had convened the meeting. Public feeling was high as just two days previously a pregnant woman had been killed by four policemen, including Sethwala.
Justice Basson rejected the defence's evidence in mitigation, which argued that members of the crowd had lost their sense of individual responsibility following the teargas attack, saying that proof of this required the testimony of the accused themselves rather than the evidence of experts on their behalf.
On 27 June all the accused were refused leave to appeal against sentence and conviction by Justice Basson. Lawyers will now petition the Chief Justice to reverse this decision.
On 6 June the Bisho Supreme Court of the Ciskei bantustan sentenced 12 men to death for their alleged participation in the killing of five men who were abducted and burnt to death in Mdantsane on 1 February, 1987. Four others who were under 18 at the time of the incident were imprisoned for an effective 20 years.
The accused denied the charges and provided alibis. Although Justice J W Heath found nothing 'inherently improbable' in this evidence he preferred the testimony on behalf of the state. The main state witness, who was also abducted but survived the assault, contradicted himself. Evidence of identification by relatives of the other dead men was also doubtful. The sister of one of the accused stated she had been forced by the police to tell lies on oath.
Even on the state's evidence the majority of the twelve were found not to have been directly involved but to have associated themselves with the abductions and killings: they were convicted on the basis of common purpose. The dead men were members of a gang who the previous night had killed a brother of four of the accused. Evidence in mitigation indicated that Mdantsane residents had no confidence in the effectiveness of the bantustan police to deal with such cases. The police's role in the event following the first killing was not explained satisfactorily at the trial. Certain evidence suggested they had authorised civilians to apprehend suspects. A key police witness contradicted himself on a number of occasions.
The youngest man condemned is Bangikhaya PETROS (20), who had his eighteenth birthday just a week before the alleged offence. Sentenced with him were Bonakele JWAMBI, (41), Mabongo JAMELA (26), Luyanda KANA (27), Mseki MBUSI (27), Xolile NKUKWANA (23), Soyiso ZUZANI (22), Mbuyiselo KLAAS (22), Mandlenkosi JAKAVU (25), Mzwabantu KATSIKATSI (24), Monwabisi Raymond KANA (32) and Thando KANA (23). The following received 20-year prison terms: Wonke FAKU (19), Albert RETSHA (20) and two youths under 18 years, too young to be named.
Nkosinathi ZUMA (25), a youth leader from Natal, was sentenced to death by the Pietermaritzburg Supreme Court on 5 April for his alleged part in killing a suspected informer who refused to join a school boycott at Imolweni Secondary School near New Hanover in October 1987. Vukani NGCOBO (20) and Solomon LUTHULI (21) were each sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment while an unnamed 17 year-old youth received six years. Xolani SIKHOSANA (19) was acquitted.
