In spite of claims by President De Klerk that 'individuals and political parties' can 'organise as they wish' and can 'participate in peaceful demonstrations', freedom of assembly remains severely restricted. In March the ban under the Internal Security Act on all outdoor meetings was extended for a further year.
According to the Minister of Law and Order, seven times as many people were arrested in 1989 for allegedly attending gatherings banned under the Internal Security Act as were arrested following meetings banned under emergency regulations. The partial lifting of the State of Emergency may therefore mean no reduction in the numbers in court for such actions.
Further legislation affecting the holding of gatherings has also been enacted and more is contemplated. The police have also used ostensibly non-political charges such as loitering, trespassing and obstructing traffic to disrupt political gatherings and arrest activists.
In spite of the restrictions, people continued to meet and demonstrate to protest over such issues as separate amenities and poor housing.
In May the residents of Ashton in the Western Cape began protests against separate amenities and township conditions. At least 165 people were arrested including six members of the Ashton Interim Committee who were charged with loitering. In June, 91 people, most of them women, were arrested and 30 injured by birdshot, as they tried to march to the police station to call for a commission of inquiry into police action during previous peaceful protests. Forty-six of those arrested spent over six hours in one police van with no food or water and at one point teargas was fired into it. At the beginning of July the Ashton council announced that they would not wait for the repeal of the Separate Amentities Act to take effect in October, but would open all facilities immediately. However, demonstrations in the town continued in protest against police action.
In June eight officials of the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) were arrested for allegedly trespassing on civic property. Their arrests followed a Supreme Court order prohibiting striking Cape Town municipal workers from holding meetings or entering the civic centre. The two-week strike, in support of a wage increase and better working conditions, resulted in the arrest of at least another 110 strikers. Fifty were arrested outside the Cape Town Supreme Court where SAMWU was asking for the lifting of the court order, and a further 60 were arrested on the same day as they gathered on the pavement outside a church.
A nationwide strike by 7,000 workers in 131 branches of the OK Bazaars retail chain resulted in the arrest of at least 214 strikers by the end of June. The strike, by members of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union, was in support of a wage claim and a demand that 21 March (Sharpeville Day) be made a paid holiday. The bitter seven-week strike ended in July. The arrested strikers faced a variety of charges including loitering, taking part in illegal gatherings and pickets, intimidation and contravention of the Gatherings and Demonstrations Act.
Others arrested after taking part in gatherings included 20 people in Trompsburg in the Orange Free State in March. They suffered dizziness after police teargassed a meeting and charges of drunkenness and disorderly conduct were brought against them. In May, 128 people on the East Rand who were taking part in marches during a COSATU 'day of action' against the Labour Relations Amendment Act were arrested for obstructing traffic. A doctor from Port Elizabeth who was among a group of 500 health workers also demonstrating against the Labour Relations Amendment Act, appeared in the Port Elizabeth Magistrates Court in June on charges of public violence after police dispersed the crowd with teargas. In June, 15 members of the South African Youth Congress (SAYCO) were charged with disrupting traffic in Stutterheim and 16 other members were arrested for loitering in King Williams Town on the same day following protests against right-wing violence.
Arthur Ndoda BANDLA (21) was given an effective eight-year sentence on 12 June after he was convicted of the murder of a suspected police informer in Mlungisi in October 1985. The area was at that time affected by a partial State of Emergency resulting in a heavy police and army presence in the townships. His four co-accused were acquitted. When sentencing him, the judge said he had taken into account that Bandla was under 18 at the time of the killing, in which he had not played a leading role, and that he had already spent three years in prison awaiting trial. Leave to appeal was denied.
During the trial it emerged that a state witness had committed perjury. When she was recalled she admitted having lied to the Port Alfred Supreme Court in February 1989 and said that she had been given copies of court proceedings to read while she was waiting to testify. She claimed that she had been induced to commit perjury by the prosecution as well as by the police who threatened to incarcerate and assault her.
The trial of five members of the Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers Union which was reported in Focus 89 ended in February with sentences for all the accused, who were convicted of murder and intimidation. Bongani MAZIBUKO (34) received an 11-year jail term, Michael MACHEPA (25) was sentenced to nine years and Elias PHASA (40) to seven and a half years, whilst Jerry RANTEKO and David MOLEBALA (24) received sentences of five and four years respectively. A sixth man, Syndey DLAMINI, who was to be tried at a separate hearing, was acquitted.
In June the parents of four juveniles in two trials were denied access to their children and expressed fears for their safety. Kenneth MAILA (12) was arrested with eight others after a rally on 16 June in Jabulani, Soweto. They were alleged to have burnt a train and they later appeared in the Protea Magistrates Court charged with public violence. Luvuyo SISWANA (16), Daniel RADEBE and Bonakele NTOBA (16), all members of the Congress of South African Students, were arrested on 6 June on suspicion of possessing explosives and appeared in court within 48 hours. Although entitled to legal representation and visits from their families the youths were denied both.
