With the ANC and the government engaged in discussions about the definition of a political offence, there had been speculation that political trials would be halted. In fact, political trials continued although in many cases charges were withdrawn and some sentences suspended, the latter being a trend discernible in advance of President De Klerk's February pronouncements. The continuing trials included charges under security legislation as well as the common law but all were related to alleged involvement in armed struggle.
Three alleged ANC members from the northern Transvaal were sentenced by the Middelburg Regional Court in late February. Hendrik MOLOMA, Frans MADIBA and Jerome MAAKE were charged with terrorism and unlawful possession of weaponry. They allegedly underwent military training in Angola and returned to train recruits and establish ANC cells in a number of villages. Moloma and Madiba were convicted on the minor charge of possession of arms and ammunition, receiving sentences of one year and two years, six months, respectively. Maake was sentenced to six years for terrorism and possession of a hand grenade.
Two other cases ended in March: Charles KHUMALO was sentenced to two and a half years for terrorism by the Johannesburg Regional Court, as was Phehello S LESEME for sabotage by a magistrate in Welkom.
A number of prisoners who participated in a hunger strike in February in support of political status have since been sentenced in Johannesburg. Andrew MATHABATHE, George S. MOGAPI and Ronnie NDLOVU were originally charged with terrorism but in March all three received sentences of 12 years for armed robbery. In April Simon MODISE was acquitted of terrorism but sentenced to one year for possession of arms.
On 17 April two schoolteachers from Vosloorus were convicted on 70 charges, including three of murder, by the Supreme Court sitting in Middelburg. The trial was a sequel to a car bomb explosion outside police headquarters in Witbank in October 1988 just before the segregated local elections were held.
Joseph VILAKAZI and Ramoepi Stephen MABOA, both 26, denied the charges. A statement by Vilakazi was withdrawn by the state after evidence that it was obtained under duress following torture. Vilakazi was detained on 14 November 1988 and deprived of food and water for three days while he was assaulted and tortured.
The state failed to prove the men were directly involved in the explosion, but the court found that they transported explosives which they knew would be used for such a purpose. In November 1988 police in Vosloorus shot dead an alleged combatant who they claimed was involved in the Witbank explosion.
Two alleged accomplices, Anna MHLANGU and Thabi NGALA, gave evidence for the state and were indemnified from prosecution. The case was adjourned to 23 July for evidence in mitigation. On 19 July teachers and students seeking to present a petition to Vosloorus police station calling for the men's release were dispersed by teargas.
Samuel Tumi PADI (20) and Bhekani Wycliff MYEZA (24) appeared in the Johannesburg Regional Court in June. They faced charges of terrorism, attempted murder and illegal possession of explosives, firearms and ammunition, following armed attacks on councillors' homes in Soweto between December 1986 and February 1987. Padi, who was detained in August 1989, told the court of being tortured in police stations at Komatipoort, close to the Mozambique border, and in Protea, Soweto.
Seven students from Duduza were due to appear in the Pretoria Regional Court on 21 May after pleading not guilty to charges of terrorism. Five of the accused Vusi POOLO, Julius DUBAZANE, Ephraim Molefe MKHWANAZI, Tebogo Ben TLATSI and an unnamed 16-year-old youth were granted bail on 20 February on condition they did not attend political meetings but Johannes Veli MAZIBUKO (21) and Hosea LENGOSANE (23) were remanded in custody. The two were previously imprisoned in 1987 in a trial which followed the explosion of booby-trapped hand grenades.
The current charges cover the period November 1988 to July 1989 and relate to armed attacks in Brakpan and Nigel, many of them against police targets.
Madoda Keith DAKI (31), a former emergency detainee who was refused bail after being charged with terrorism was due to appear again in the Cape Town Regional Court on 2 August. He and Robert Mncedisi TWALO (33), who was bailed, were accused of planting a limpet mine at the entrance to Cape Town's Supreme Court. They were arrested on 20 February 1989.
Lawyers representing seven alleged members of the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania (BCMA) and the Azanian National Liberation Army (AZANLA) tried to have their case postponed indefinitely in April, pending the release of political prisoners. However, the request to the Attorney-General was rejected. The accused are charged with undergoing military training in Botswana and Libya, between 1986-8, and setting up a cell at Tsheseng in the Qwaqwa bantustan. The accused are Mziwamado- da Lawrence KONDILE (22), Mtikala MASHIQAWA (28) and Nelson JOYI (28) from Port Elizabeth, Patrick Motsamai NTHAKO (25) and Saxon MOKONENYANE (21) from Thabong, Welkom, and Simon NDLOVU (20) and Doris Kuki THLAKO (18) from Soweto.
Evidence of torture by Bophuthatswana bantustan police and regular police emerged when the defence challenged the admissibility of statements by the accused. Other evidence concerned the role of a police informer, Miriam Modiegi MPHONO, detained with Thlako. Alleged accomplices of the group later testified in camera.
Raphael MARTIN (23), a student at the University of the Western Cape who was detained in April, appeared in the Wynberg Regional Court in early June on a charge of terrorism. Police alleged he was involved in four limpet mine explosions in Mitchells Plain and was detained in possession of grenades and explosives.
A political prisoner released from Death Row in May was assassinated less than a month later, a victim of violence in Natal province. Nkosinathi ZUMA was convicted in April 1989 for his alleged participation in the killing of a student during a boycott. After being acquitted by the appeal court on 16 May, he returned to Mpholweni where he was active in the youth organisation. On 2 June he was killed by a group of eight men who stabbed and shot him.
Thozamile Mooi from Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape had his murder conviction overturned by the Appeal Court at the end of May and replaced by a one-year sentence for public violence which was suspended for five years. He had spent 26 months on Death Row. One accused, Mthetheleli LUCAS, had his appeal turned down and remains on Death Row along with two others, Gilindoda GXEKWA and Vuyani JACOBS, neither of whom have had appeals. Mooi urged support for the campaign to abolish capital punishment and expressed concern for his comrades still enduring the 'mental torture' of Death Row.
Nana Robert MALITI: It was wrongly reported in Focus 87 that Maliti's sentence had been suspended. On appeal the five-year sentence was reduced to two years but Maliti remains in jail.
Nine defendants in a trial of 12 alleged ANC members escaped from Modderbee Prison on 18 February, thus avoiding a court appearance in Delmas the following day. In March the state applied for the case to continue in the presence of just three accused. Although press reports differed it seems the three are Godfrey MOKUBE, Peter MALULEKA and Phuti Bernard MAKGONYANA.
