Several hundred anti-apartheid protectors were arrested and charged in August and the first week of September. The arrests reflect the increased level of open political activity involved in the mass defiance campaign. More people are reported to have been arrested for attending illegal gatherings during this period than for the whole of 1988 when, according to the Minister of Law and Order, 197 were arrested.
The protests were met with a range of laws. Protestors in Pretoria who tried to board a 'whites-only' bus were charged with conspiracy to commit a crime and contravention of the Separate Amenities Act. Two men appeared in a Cape Town court in connection with 'swimming illegally at a whites-only beach' and at least one man who participated in the campaign for de-segregated hospitals was charged with trespass.
Most people, however, faced charges relating to illegal gatherings brought under a number of laws. Anti-election protests in Cape Town resulted in charges against at least 57 people. They included seven members of the Muslim Students Association and Muslim Youth Movement. After a march in the centre of Cape Town protesting against death sentences and the detention of children, 170 women were charged under the Gatherings and Demonstrations Act (prohibiting open-air gatherings and demonstrations near parliament). A picket for the 'right to protest' led to 97 academics being charged with holding an illegal gathering.
In Durban, 288 people were reported to have been charged with attending illegal gatherings, including 10 members of the End Conscription Campaign (ECC) who were arrested during a protest marking the declaration by the ECC that it was 'unbanned'.
In the East Rand 460 commuters were arrested between June and August, 27 of whom appeared in the Kempton Park Magistrates' Court in August charged under the Transport Services Act with disturbing the peace. The charges arose out of the use made of commuter trains since 1985 in response to restrictions on gatherings under the emergency — trains have been used as forums for mobilisation, with political debates, protest songs and dances.
Defiance of restriction orders led to the arrest of up to 50 people by the end of August, several of whom were charged. At least one person has been convicted of breaking a restriction order. Moleko KOBUSHI was convicted in the Pietersburg Regional Court in June and given a one-year suspended sentence.
A case against the former Western Cape vice-chair of COSATU, Noel WILLIAMS, has been referred to the Supreme Court. Williams, who is also active in the Atlantis Residents Association, was charged with breaking his order in September 1988. In the magistrates' court, his lawyer argued that the restriction order issued on his release from detention in 1987 expired with the State of Emergency in June 1988. No date for the hearing had been set by the end of August.
Three men from Mlungisi township, Queenstown, convicted of the murder of a policeman, were sentenced in the Grahamstown Supreme Court in May. Viwe MTSHISELWA (24) was jailed for 15 years, Monde BEDE (26) for 10 years and Honey ROJI (25) received an eight-year sentence. The incident took place in August 1985 during the virtual occupation of the township by police and troops.
Two trials involving charges of public violence which were reported in the last issue of Focus have ended. In June Casel MATHALE was acquitted in the Ritavi Magistrates' Court. However, John DE VOS (20), convicted on two counts of public violence, was sentenced to five years in prison by the Cape Town Regional Court. He was found to have set fire to a van and taken part in an attack on a policeman's house.
Sean Johan DAMES, a policeman who assisted in the escape of two detainees held under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act, was sentenced to two years in prison in the Wynberg Regional Court in June. The names of the detainees he helped were not reported.
Daisy MATLOU of the Northern Transvaal Students Congress was convicted in March in the Pietersburg Magistrates' Court of possessing banned literature and received a suspended sentence. In August, the Rand Supreme Court set aside an 18-month sentence imposed in April on Joe NKUNA, an executive member of the South African Youth Congress, for illegal possession of ANC documents. The sentence was reduced to six months imprisonment, suspended for three years. Nkuna had also been given six months in jail or a R1,000 fine for failing to declare money to customs: this sentence was not amended.
In April, Quinton SIMONS, Kim BLAKELY, Russell FILIES and Nasiem FISHER were convicted in the Athlone Magistrates' Court of contravening emergency regulations. The four students were found to have protested against the October 1988 municipal elections and were sentenced to eight months and four cuts. They have appealed.
The struggle by postal workers to organise in the bantustans has been highlighted by two trials, one in the Transkei and the other in Lebowa. The nature of the charges brought in response to industrial action reflects the strategic nature of communications.
Charges of sabotage under the Internal Security Act against three officials of the Post and Telecommunications Workers Association (POTWA) were dropped in the Pietersburg Regional Court on 12 May. Peter MOKOENA, Zet MAPHANGA and Frank PHALANE were arrested in 1987 after a strike by postal workers in the Lebowa bantustan.
Over 200 members of the Transkei Post Office Workers Association (TRAPOWA), an affiliate of POTWA, appeared in courts charged under the bantustan's emergency regulations and legislation relating to 'threats to public security' after industrial action in June. At least 180 were refused bail. Postal services were brought to a halt by the dispute over harassment of union officials.
