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[&r> •*w*te '• Li e- IN THIS ISSUE «SSG IT M White Election Duduza's iE3liS^r Civil War 5- *S *5 , *4 iJ Maternity Benefits " *<*V* J for Metal Workers *v3 L^rts PAC Trial South Africa is a complex society, difficult to analyse, sometimes impossible to understand. Take, for example, the general election planned for 6 Hay. It appears to be an event no progressive-minded person or opposition organisation Mould have anything to do with. It is racially exclusive, held under state of emergency regulations which favour the ruling National Party, and has the purpose of voting in candidates for one chamber of the discredited tricameral parliament. In addition, the outcome of voting seems both irrelevant and a foregone conclusion. But closer scrutiny of the election suggests that its outcome may decide the sort of white power bloc the African National Congress and its allies will ultimately sit down with to discuss the dismantling of apartheid and a transfer of power. The issue of Bantu Education bears similar scrutiny. Since the early 1980s, the sort of education imposed by this system has been analysed as not only inferior to white education, but actually distorting of African students1 development. Some have even argued that Bantu Education conceptually deforms its subjects, and that much has to be unlearnt before a Bantu Education product can start afresh. In this context support for the massive school boycotts of the past few years seemed not only logical, but politically wise. The slogan 'liberation now, education later1 accurately reflected this attitude. But now clearly progressive forces - the NECC, civic and community leaders, and even parents and students themselves - have pushed for a return to school in that cradle of resistance, the Eastern Cape. A respected leader in the region has argued that 'pupils can only claim their right to speak as students as long as they remain within the walls of the classrooms1. And, in urging pupils to go back to school he said that 'the commnity was forced to decide whether it was better to be educated, even if by the hated Bantu Education systems, than to be uneducated1. If opposition political tactics and strategies are always in a state of flux, precisely because the society they seek to alter is also changing, then there is little room for dogma and inflexibility. The development of new ways of seeing old problems is the mark of a developing and maturing political culture which should be welcomed.

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Controversy has followed the recent debate in these columns concerning the relationship between COSATU, Inkatha and UWUSA. In particular, the editors have been criticised for both the manner in which they published the response by 'COSATU official1, and the subsequent attack launched on this official by another contributor. Having accepted an anonymous contribution from 'COSATU official1, the editors were at fault in publishing the subsequent attack on his/her anonymity. The editors apologise for this, and are currently setting up guidelines to ensure that similar incidents do not occur in the future. In addition, the editors have been asked to point out that the article on this debate in WIP 46, 'COSATU Strategy in Natal', was written by Geoff Schreiner. Only the brief introductory comment on the anonymity of 'COSATU official1 was by Hike Morris. Finally, the editors did not intended to present any of the articles in this debate as official COSATU policy. It is regretted if any headline gave this impression. All articles reflected the opinions of individual authors. WORK IN PROGRESS 47 - APRIL 1987 Cover drawing by Jonathan Shapiro 2 New National Youth Congress Launched Emergency Forces New Forms of Organisation The state of emergency severely hampered progressive organisation. But it also challenged activists to find new ways of operating. DAVID NIDDRIE of Agenda Press argues that the recently-launched South African Youth Congress (SAYCO) has adopted a new response to emergency conditions- underground organisation of a mass-based youth movement. The formation of any political legally. But the state has forced us to organisation claiming slgned-up organise underground', said Rapu membership of between 600 000 and Molekane. 700 000, and a support base of two The 250 delegates and observers to million, la significant. the founding congress were well on their But the 28 March launch of the South way home before the first murmurs of the African Youth Congress la unusually launch reached even sympathetic Important. For SAYCO Is the first journalists. national youth grouping set up since the In the paat six months, ten regional banning of COSAS. And, given the youth congresses have met and been circumstances under which SAYCO launched In conditions of equal secrecy. organises, it Is surprising that the Most of these congresses exist in areas launch took place at all. where security is far tighter than it is SAYCO has done little to avoid in the Western Cape. immediate and harsh state reaction. The Regional congresses exist in the symbols chosen as its public face Southern, Northern and Eastern include the slogan 'Freedom or death - Transvaal, the Southern, Western and victory is certain'; organisational Northern Cape, Border, the Eastern colours of black, green, gold and red; Cape, Natal and the Orange Free State. and a fiat holding a red flag as its When the Southern Transvaal (STYCO) logo. and Northern Transvaal (NTYCO) In addition, SAYCO's launching congresses were set up, it took two congress elected the much-detained ex- weeks before their existence waa known Robben Island prisoner, Peter Makoba, as by anyone other than those involved in president. Other members of the national the launches. executive arei Vice President Mzlmasl But the leadership speaks with Hangcotywa; General Secretary Rapu confidence of a signed-up membership of Molekane: Publicity Secretary Simon more than half a million, and believes Ntombela; Education Officer Ephraim this will continue to grow. And they Nkoe; and Treasurer Fawcet Kathebe. believe that through the numeroua youth To some extent, SAYCO recognises the congresses active in the last year, they Inevitability that It will become a command the support of about two million target of government action. By young South Africans. following in COSAS's footsteps as the cutting edge of popular resistance, It can hardly avoid the wrath of the state. LESSONS FROM THE EMERGENCY

LAUNCHING SAYCO UNDERGROUND Equally important is the fact that leadership is able to speak at all after nine months under a state of emergency. The decision to step forward as a 'We learnt some hard lessons in the national organisation Is baaed largely first emergency', said General Secretary on SAYCO's confidence that It can Rapu Molekane some weeks before the survive virtually anything the state can national launch. 'Many of us were hit in throw at It. the first wave of detentions. But by the The youth congress was born in time 12 June (the second emergency) complete secrecy in Cape Town on came, we had adjusted'• 28 March after three rapid, last-minute, The major thrust of local youth changes of venue. This followed an congress activity switched from high- apparently carefully-planned profile, mass recruitment rallies to a disinformation campaign which identified system comparable to street committees. Durban as the site of the launch. Living permanently underground, SAYCO leaders believe the organisation organisers established communication represents a new form of opposition channels sufficiently strong, despite politics In South Africa, combining mass the emergency crackdown, to hold membership with an underground form of regional structures together. organisation* The Northern Transvaal Youth Congress 'We are a legal organisation operating launch in December linked up 150 local WIP congresses - 40 la Sekhukhuneland alone the basis of the anger and frustration - over an area stretching from just remained Bantu Education, and the north of Pretoria to the far northern perceived restrictions it imposed on Transvaal* entry Into the economy. SAYCO's militancy cannot be dismissed The black youth of 1976 had only as passing youthful enthusiasm. Almost experienced 'gutter education'. But they 11 years have gone by since the 1976 were better educated than any previous student revolt. The youth of 1976 has generation, and expected far greater spent much of its time since then In the access to benefits the economy had to streets. And experience and economic offer. crisis have The economic combined to : : &t£>#0!%$ recession which give township : 'M continued through the youth a far 1970s, crushed those clearer idea expectations. The than before of the burning rage of 1976 was then directed, not limitations of surprisingly, at the existing education system which political and had promised so much economic and delivered so institutions little. In meeting A decade later, the their needs. education system Since 1976, remains a major bone many have of contention - and persisted in for many young black seeing South Africans is students and youth as part still one of the major of the same reasons for their social disadvantage. But organised category. As a student groupings have result, the more general increasingly handed demands made over political by youth have Initiative to been under- organisations emphasised in operating outside the favour of school yards and off students' the campuses. educational The National struggles. But First SAYCO President Education Crisis there has, in Peter Kakoba Committee Initiatives those 11 years, been an Increasing of 1985 and 1986 divergence of interests and demands showed the beginning of this trend. between youth and students. Black students are not about to quit the political area - either as part of a student-youth overlap, or in their own right. But the shortcomings of a schoolyard-based, but nationally- STUDENTS LEAD RESISTANCE targetted, political 'struggle' demanded resolution. The need to resolve this tension in The student movement of late 1976 and national resistance politics meant that 1977 made general political demands. the organised student movement had to Students recognised that an end to Bantu hand over leadership of popular Education required an end to the present struggle. And paralleling this came a South African social system. literal revolution in the conditions An entire generation threw off the dictating the forms of popular struggle. legacy of its parents' subservience. But The question of which social groups WIP should lead la the struggle was raised organisations until late last year. in this context*

YOUTH ORGANISATIONS DEVELOP

The ongoing recession, which influenced the development of a progressive trade union movement and the 1976 generation's militancy, imposed massive economic pressure on students and youth. A political reaction was almost inevitable, and the upheavals of 1985 were not unexpected. Heightened political consciousness both nurtured and was developed by the political groupings which combined into the United Democratic Front in 1983. They were born and grew to adulthood at breathtaking speed. But the cutting edge of the UDF remained the youth movements. Organised mainly through COSAS, the youth represented almost half the UDF'a affiliated membership at the time of its national launCh. Years before the difference between the •youth' and 'students' was publicly acknowledged, the organised youth themselves recognised and began SAYCO replaces COSAS as UDF"0 addressing the issue. largest affiliate The economy shrank in real terms, depriving first thousands, and then AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN WORKERS AND YOUTH millions, of the chance to work. Huge sections of the 1976 generation moved into lumpen-proletarian Umbo between This growing group was increasingly the schools and the formal economy. Even suspended between an education system in Soweto, not an area of high which could offer no solutions, and an unemployment, the jobless rate for economic system which did not even offer youths under 21 was way above fifty the chance of being exploited. percent. The 'comrades', as these youths became The ongoing schools crisis and the known, began casting about for options boycott-closure-boycott cycle pushed and alternatives which could do more thousands more into this limbo. Denied than change them from a voteless to an the chance of moving into the factories, enfranchised lumpen proletariat. They these highly politicised veterans of were beginning to challenge the basis of 1976 remained in the townships, grouped their marginalisation from society and loosely around COSAS. the economy. As the major student-youth interface, It was thus no accident that the COSAS initiated the establishment of keynote address at the SAYCO launch was youth congresses within months of its given by an official of the Congress of formation. South African Trade Unions. Neither was By the time COSAS was banned in 1986, It coincidence that COSATU's statements the youth congresses had taken on an on an alliance between organised workers independent life of their own, with and the youth took on an increasing their members hardened from the warmth as the launch approached. experiences of 1976 and 1985. But they In its wide-ranging executive message remained largely locally based to members In February, COSATU

6 leadership referred to the youth as the struggle', and will 'actively encourage 'strongest, best and most reliable Its young worker membership to join allies of the working class... The youth COSATU-affiliated trade unions'. exploit no-one. They have nothing to The mutual warmth between SAYCO and lose and everything to gain by marching COSATU does not, however, imply any together with us to a workers' future*• tension between the UDF and SAYCO. Most A possible alliance with COSATU is a of the local youth congresses came into central part of SAYCO's focus. The alms the national body as affiliates of the and objectives adopted at the SAYCO UDF, and SAYCO itself has affiliated. launch reflect a growing identifatlon Youth congresses will continue to supply with the organised working class. The the backbone of UDF membership. In congress resolved to: addition, youth congress involvement in * 'channel the militancy and the development of street committees has resourcefulness of the youth to the been largely undertaken on behalf of the benefit of the whole national and class UDF. struggle; Some months before the national * 'promote and deepen amongst the youth launch, SAYCO executive member Ephraim the outlook of the most progressive Nkoe stated that 'we look to the UDF for class, the working class; national leadership'. There is no * 'encourage the working youth to join question of SAYCO challenging the UDF's progressive trade unions which form part multi-class united front policies. and parcel for total political and But the debate within the UDF on the economic liberation'. form of a post-apartheid economy is In a message to COSATU, SAYCO made likely to increase substantially. The special mention of the federeat:ton's formation of SAYCO means that half a •living wage' and 'jobs for all' million members whose conditions of campaigns 'with a view to playing a very existence demand an explicit addressing Important role in them'. SAYCO hopes to of economic problems have become the 'see the working relationship between most powerful single affiliate in the it and COSATU deepen in the course of front.

7 WtP White Election The forthcoming parliamentary election la an all-white affair. But those without the vote have deeply influenced the issues and course of white politics. And the racial exclusivity of the election does not iiean its outcome is Irrelevant. INGRID OBERY and PHILLIP VAN NIEKERK explore the complexities of those party to the election.

The central issue of the 6 May white which is preparing to meet the threat election is black politics, ironically with guns. The AWB sees itself and the involving those who cannot vote. African National Congress as the two Not that white politicians are deeply ultimate contenders for power. And concerned about those without the despite their failure to form an franchise. But, however unwillingly, election pact, both the Herstigte nearly all recognise that they have to Naslonale Party (HNP) and the contend with black claims - both moral Conservative Party (CP), in seeking a and physical - for political power. return to old-style apartheid, fall into The election is about how to deal with this caap. this challenge. The far right is willing On the other side the Progressive to shoot it out; the right - the Federal Party, and to some extent the National Party - has no ideas; and the independents, accept that a black- moderates want to negotiate before it is dominated government is a logical too late. inevitability. To retain some control over how this comes about, and thus pre-empt a social revolution, the moderates propose negotiations with recognised black leaders as soon as A QUESTION OP POWER rf . W. I possible. The real Rubicon in white politics is thus acceptance of talks with the gagged Confrontation with the prospect of black African National Congress. rule is represented in the militancy of The National Party also claims to be the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) seeking accomodation of black political 8 ——————-^— WIP aspirations. Government says the motion which were Incompatible with its election la to obtain a mandate from the real agenda. This was particularly white electorate to negotiate with black evident In events around the Eminent leaders. Persons Group Mission to South Africa. The NP uses the rhetoric of reform. This venture was made on the basis of But In refusing to surrender power, It Botha's 30 September 1985 speech to the cannot deal with the central question of National Party Cape Congress where he black political rights. stated: 'My party and I are committed to the principle of an undivided South Africa with one citizenship and universal franchise, but RESTRUCTURING APARTHEID within structures chosen by South Africans'. The EPG members tried to facilitate a process of negotiation Government Is committed to a programme among all South Africans, and appeared which It terms reform. Others call to be making some headway. It neo-apartheid, In which apartheid But on 19 May, the government launched Is restructured, but not dismantled. The military raids against alleged ANC bases building blocks of NP policy are black and civilian activists In Lusaka and local authorities and the bantuatans. Harare, deliberately sabotaging the EPG Both are politically discredited, and initiative. Shortly afterwards on 12 grassroots and international rejection June it declared the second state of have exposed the bankruptcy of neo- emergency. This time it was nation wide apartheid. and gave police and army much wider These Nationalist-created structures powers. are part of white rule's crisis of Popular pressure from below has legitimacy. Yet the state wants to use created a new dichotomy In white these rejected structures to overcome politics. Because the National Party is the crisis. Talks with the ANC, and any unable to provide direction or vision real power for blacks at local or for dealing with this pressure, it is national level, la not on the NP agenda. losing support to right and left. The question of reform is a confused While the AWB's concept of 'fighting one. While the government uses terms it out' hardly constitutes a vision, it like 'reform', 'real change' and 'de­ does have a coherence which attracts segregation' , it is unable to give these right-wing whites alive to the dangers terms the positive meaning which is of their position. generally accepted. Government has The PFP and its allies offer a Introduced substantial and significant concrete political alternative of changes. But altering an unacceptable negotiated majority rule and a system, rather than dismantling it, la capitalist economy to those whites not necessarily change for the better. actively seeking reform. 'Reform' in NP terms ultimately involves a pragmatic programme to restructure apartheid machinery into a more rational and outwardly acceptable BOTHA'S GAMBLE form, but without changing the fundamental principle of divided race groups and white domination. Botha needed to hold an election to While government's 'reform' programme counter the taunts of the right that his never intended to abolish minority white mandate ran out In 1986 (five years power, It did create the space for after the last election), and growing popular forces to win some real gains. dissatisfaction among the National Local officials, carried along In the Party'a left. stream of 'reform talk', became more The election could have been called open to negotiations with popular local last November. In August Botha hinted black leaders. While PW Botha spurned broadly at an imminent election. He talks with the ANC, some local delayed, probably expecting the economy authorities were striking deals with to improve - a factor which usually wins organisations which flew the ANC flag at the government in office some votes. funerals and political rallies. Botha's strategy echoes that of then- The state faced a contradiction. Its Prime Minister BJ Vorster in the 1977 reform talk set various changes in election. Vorster called the election WtP shortly after the crackdown on the volunteer organisers remains chronic. 1976-77 school and township upheavals, Botha's authoritarian style of the banning of black political government, and In particular his organisations, the closing of a popular decision to take away from the party black newspaper, and the death In congresses even nominal power to detention of black consciousness leader determine 'policy' as opposed to Steve Biko. 'principle', has all but eliminated the Vorster successfully whipped up white once-eager NP activists. But one should opinion with an anti-United States never underestimate the power of the harangue after American Vice President National Party machinery, and its Walter Mondale had called for one-nan- ongoing access to and control over SABC one-vote and President Jimmy Carter media. supported mandatory sanctions on The election announcement did limit to military sales to South Africa. one the number of MPs leaving the party. Botha appears to hope for a similar NP But a powerful Independent movement got landslide by mobilising anti-US feeling, under way, including many influential particularly around the sanctions non-parliamentarians, much to the threat, and anti-ANC rhetoric* surprise of a government gearing up to A strong 'law and order' ticket is concentrate its guns on the far right. also part of the NP's campaign. One of the most unanimous sentiments among the white electorate * both far right and moderate - centres on security and the THE FAR-RIGHT CHALLENGE need for tough measures. Last year polls showed the state of emergency was very popular among whites. By capitalising on By 1982 the far right had become a this, the Nationalists hope to outflank threat to the National Party in its the far right's 'law and order' calls traditional strongholds of the Transvaal and consolidate the white electorate and Orange Free State. behind the NP. The HNP obtained one-third of votes Botha gambled in calling the election cast in the Transvaal platteland in for May. He hoped the economy would 1981, 25% in the Free State, 18% in improve and allow government to dole out Pretoria and 14% in the country as a benefits to white farmers and civil whole. And after the 1982 NP split, when servants. Party strategists believed 17 MPs broke away to form the CP, by- that a long run-up to the election would election results consistently showed a benefit the NP with Its vast massive swing to the far right. organisation and power to manipulate The HNP lost the CarletonvlUe seat to wavering supporters dependent on state the NP in May 1981 by 1 379 votes. In a licences, permits or tenders for by-election two years later, the CP and government contracts. Finally, Botha HNP together polled 500 votes more than calculated that an election would keep the NP. in the Germlston District those Nats considering a break to left provincial by-election, where the HNP or right within the party. had not even stood before, the HNP and The gamble failed on a number of CP together polled more votes than the counts. The economy did not pick up NP candidate. significantly. The long drought did not Andrles Treuraicht took Waterberg for break in Important agricultural areas. the CP 1983, Tom Langley won the Civil service payouts had to be delayed Soutpansberg parliamentary seat in 1984 until after the election because of lack while the Potgietersrus provincial seat of funds. Instead, government announced was captured by the CP in the same year. a free long weekend on 1 May, The most marked swing was in the blue- immediately before the election. collar areas. In 1985 the HNP won its The long run-up has probably helped first-ever seat (Sasolburg) when the CP the Nats organise, but strong backed its candidate. In the same series dissatisfactions within the party had of by-elections the CP won 4 539 votes time to reach to the surface, giving in Springs, coming within 749 of disgruntled Nats like Dennis Worrell and defeating the Nationalist candidate in a Wynand Malan the opportunity to prepare seat which had not been contested by the for jumping ship. far right before. Other blue-collar National Party support includes a vast seats where the CP performed well apathetic majority, and the shortage of included Primrose and Rosettenville. 10 Wl p there will still be a substantial political grouping to the right of the National Party.

SUPPORT FOR THE FAR RIGHT |

In class terms, the far-right represents farmers, blue collar workers and lower to middle order civil servants. And judging by the number of Mercedes Benz's at far-right meetings, it Is not just small farmers who feel economically aggrieved and hostile to the NP. The drought has still not broken in many areas. Together with the debt crisis - made worse by heavy investment in mechanisation - this has created an economic crisis for many farmers in the northern areas. Government handouts at this stage are too small to alleviate this crisis and unlikely to buy farmer support for the NP. The Botha government's close relationship with big business has alienated the remnants of white working- class support which was once a pillar of the National Party. White workers have The AWB'a Terre'blanche: Militant felt challenged by black workers who populism of the far right have increasingly acquired skills and If the far right simply maintains the whose rapidly-growing trade unions have swings already recorded, some 40 seats been legitimised by the system. in the Transvaal and Free State will be The Mineworkers Union, led until within Its grasp. Fifty-two percent of recently by the 'knight for the white', registered voters are located in the Arrie Paulus, represents a significant Transvaal, the testing ground for gains and militantly organised sector of the in far-right support. But poll support white working class which has shifted will probably be less than expected. The its support to the far right. Paulus CP - HNP election pact dispute prevented himself is standing for election as both parties from active electioneering Conservative Party candidate in for three crucial months, while National Carletonville. And the black National Party machinery has been operating at Union of Mineworkers, which has emerged full steam. as a huge factor in the lives of white miners, challenging their traditional In opposing an election pact with the rights and privilege, did not exist HNP, the CP has gambled on posing itself during the last white election. as the only party of the far right, and reducing the HNP to little more than an Not since the 1930s have whites been irritation factor. It based this on as impoverished by economic depression. polls which showed the HNP had less than White unemployment is a growing social 3% and the CP more than 15% support problem with, for example, 20 000 white countrywide. But this may mean one out workers laid off in the metal industry. of six far-right voters have been Sheltered employment in parastatals neutralised - they may not have a like the railways has decreased as SA candidate to support. This is a crucial Transport Services, responsive to factor given that most of the seats private sector criticism, streamlines which the right wing hopes to win are itself in a bid to become profitable. marginal. White bureaucrats - probably the Even if the far right is unable to greatest beneficiaries of white make a good showing because of its privelege - stand to lose under any leaders' suicidal electoral tactics, conditions of deracialisation and the II w p principles of privatisation- They fear loss of promotion and job opportunities and their income has already declined substantially against the cost of living since 1981. Support for the far right is concentrated in the north of the country, the economic heartland of the Transvaal, and in regions most prone to drought in the past five years. Afrikaner Nationalism in the north has a militant populist tradition which has been taken over from the National Party by Eugene Terre 'blanche and the AWB. Botha is a Cape Nat, and while he has a reputation as a party organiser, his autocratic style of government has alienated the grassroots of the party. The previously existing unity of Afrikanerdom based on loyalty to the Volk is now split. When the CP departed from the NP in 1982, it divided virtually every single Afrikaner nationalist organisation - from the Broederbond to the Voortrekkers. These organisations were the political glue which held Afrikaner nationalism together. The HNP's failure to compete for these organisations when it split in The PFP leader Eglin: advocating 1969 doomed it to the fringes of far- unbanning of the ANC right politics. intended their actions to force the Nats Despite the state's strongarned into adopting real reforms. But the crushing of township revolt, many consequences point rather to a new right-wingers believe repression should alignment of whites with a model of have been even harsher. The CP's law and reform opposed to government's order platform is reinforced by restructuring of apartheid. candidates like General Hendrik van den The independents are prepared to talk Bergh, who built Vorster'a brutal to the ANC, and open channels for a security empire; and Brigadier 'Rooi negotiated settlement. But they still Rus* Swanepoel, the security police have much in common with the government, chief interrogator in the 1960s and believing strong law and order is early 1970s, often called 'the beast' necessary to ensure stability while for his harsh methods used in quelling power sharing is worked out. the Soweto and Alexandra protests of 1976. Despite the strength of apartheid ideology, the Progressive Federal Party has developed the most comprehensive vision of all opposition groupings in white parliamentary politics. It has THE MODERATE ALLIANCE dropped support for a qualified franchise, and accepted the inevitability of majority rule. It There has been almost as much pre­ advocates the release of ANC leader election activity to the left of the Nelson Mandela, and unbanning of the National Party as to the right. The ANC. Worrall/Nalan/Stellenbosch defections The Natal/Kwazulu Indaba, the first represent a significant crumbling of the real alternative model proposed by white National Party establishment, although parliamentary opposition, represents a the impact of this should not be over­ PFP vision for a future South Africa. emphasised. This involves a multi-party democracy - More than anything, it reflects the in which a black majority is inevitable National Party's lack of vision for the - based on free enterprise and a future. The independents may have capitalist economy. 12 WIP support, and lost crucial newspaper support in the Transvaal when the Rand Daily Mail closed. The party may even lose seats in that region on 6 May. The PFP has recognised that it Is acceptable to a limited and largely English-speaking section of the electorate. Party leadership hopes that the independents can be the catalyst for the large-scale movement of reform- minded middle-class Afrikaners into a new centrist coalition. Left-wing groups, which are exclusively extra-parliamentary, have not been vocal around the election. Conflicting messages from different UDF representatives on whether to vote has reduced potential impact of the white left as a voting bloc. But the election has been a catalyst in forming a potentially significant white grouping, the Johannesburg-based alliance calling itself the Five Freedoms Forum.

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RAIiWG THE PARTY FAITHFUL Independent Worrall: nearer to the Nats than the PFP The instruments of power may shield the Natal, home of the Indaba, Is a National Party from Its own crisis. And crucial area If the PFP Is to increase while the party establishment and to its number of seats. Natal represents a some extent the caucus crumbles to left large section of the floating and right, whfte support may still rally conservative English vote which behind it. supported the PFP in 1981 but backed the This has a lot to do with the National Party in the 1983 referendum. totalitarian nature of South African The performance of the PPP/NRP alliance politics: historically, white South in the election will be a key indication Africans have tended passively to accept of whites' readiness to accept the sort power structures. This tendency is of moderate change suggested by the coupled with state control over the most Natal Indaba. important instruments of information, There are some indications of growing particularly the SABC. PFP strength. While the Anglo-American The majority of whites rely entirely connection has always given the PFP the on television for their political image as the party of English-speaking knowledge. And state of emergency capital, it has never been a very restrictions on the media have ensured wealthy party. Now, for the first time, that many will be voting without any the PFP is financially strong enough to real knowledge of events in the country. fight an effective national campaign. Not perceiving the depth of crisis, the The majority of big business remains white electorate may fail to appreciate apathetic, or supports the National the need for alternative solutions - to Party. But some elements which supported the left or the right of NP policy. the NP in the 1983 referendum have Government still has substantial switched support to the PFP or the support from sectors of white capital, independents. South Africa's economic while the popular personality of Pik and diplomatic decline has alienated Botha, who has the standing of a matinee much of the business support which Botha idol, will gain the NP some extra votes. wooed at the 1979 Carlton conference. In addition, the formidable National But despite these shifts, the PFP can Party election machine has been working only win a very limited number of seats. since the end of last year - a factor It is already close to its ceiling of particularly damaging to the far right 13 WIP which baa loat valuable organising time government will be even more vulnerable squabbling over election pacta. If it cannot contain the next township The government'a achlllea heel should rebellion. have been the economy's disasteroua All opposition groups are looking performance since 1981. In that towards the scheduled 1989 election - election, the state of the economy was the flrat concurrent white, coloured and an issue for the first time. Inflation Indian elections under the trlcameral stood at 16%, eroding the savings and constitution. If this takes place the standard of living of middle-class white Nationalists will face a better- suburbia. organised response from the far rights * A most damaging Nationalist blunder In new centrist group claiming to be the 1981 was Health Minister Lapa Hunnlk'a real reformers; and widespread proteat statement that pensioners could survive In coloured and Indian communities. on R20 a month. The party might be weakened by the This year the economy la In very much succession struggle which promises to worse shape. But Finance Minister Barend throw it further Into crisis. Chris du Pleaala has appealed to votara not to Heunis' chances of taking over from PW blame the government, and opposition Botha could be severely dented If his parties have not yet succeeded In opponent, new independent Dennis turning economic policy Into a main Worrall, fares well in Relderberg. This election issue. would make FW de Klerk, NP leader In the In western countries poor economic Transvaal, the moat likely successor. performance and growing poverty usually But his base will be undermined if the result In votes against the government far right makes any gains in the of the day. But In South Africa this Transvaal. process la somewhat distorted because Plk Botha has also been named aa a thoae who suffer the economic crisis possible successor to PW Botha. A bitter most are without votes. succession struggle could see him leading a group of dissidents out of the party if he is unsuccessful in the AFTER TBS ELECTION leadership struggle. This becomes even more likely if a new moderate political group - PFP/lndependenta - la If the far-right had established party consolidating to the left of the unity at the same time aa the moderates Nationalists. aade their moves, the 1987 election Assuming a 1989 election goes ahead, could have been a disaster for the the Nationalists could emerge without an National Party. A combined right could overall majority in the white have won 35 to 40 seats, and the parliament. Future scenarios in event of moderates the sane number. This would this include have brought white parliamentary * a moderate coalition to the left of opposition close to the magic figure of the party agreeing to negotiations with 84 required to prevent an overall credibile black leadership, including Nationalist majority. the ANC; But far-right disorganisation la no * a coalition of the far right heralding cause for the Nationalists to breathe an even tougher period of repression; easier. * a military coup to supplant the shaky After the election, the NP will facade of civilian politics aa black continue to be a party without a vision. rebellion intensifies the crisis, It will still lack any plan beyond the bringing South Africa to a full-scale hidden agenda of rule through Joint civil war. Management Committees. And township whatever the future holda for white upgrading and resurrected black local parliamentary politics, one thing la authorities will remain the only already clear: although the NP la sure concessions to black political to win a majority in the May election, aspirations. the face of white politics la changing Aa long as the central question of in a way never seen before. If only for political rights la avoided, government this reason, the white election la not strategies will collapse. These repeated Irrelevant. For its outcome may decide failures will underline the lack of the nature of thoae groups which vision and lead to further defections to eventually negotiate the dismantling of left and right. When this happens apartheid and the transfer of power. 14 WIP The Pan Africanist Congress Alleged Guerillas and Activists in Court

PAC Chairman Johnson Malambo

The long-dormant Pan Africanist Congress secretary for foreign affairs, Gora (PAC) has attempted to infiltrate Ebrahim, and officials of the British guerillas into South Africa. foreign office. If state allegations are to be Despite years of disorganisation, believed, the PAC military wing the there is still some support for PAC Azanian Peoples Liberation Army positions within South Africa. This (AZAPLA), has gained some recruits from ranges from the exclusivist nationalism supporters of the Western Cape's radical adopted by the right wing of black Islamic tradition. consciousness to the religious In a recent terrorism trial, evidence fundamentalism and ultra-leftism of some was led about support for the PAC within groups associated with the National AZANYU, the National Forum-affiliated Forum. Azanian National Youth Unity. But few of those organisations broadly AZANYU recently joined AZAPO in supportive of a PAC position can claim welcoming the meeting between the PAC's an organised mass base, and it is 15 _WIP doubtful whether the crisis-ridden PAC president- He was replaced by a leadership in exile can provide the triumvirate of David Sibeko, Vusumuzi dynamism or direction to challenge the Make and Ellas Ntloedibe. veil-entrenched African National Only a month later Sibeko, who had Congress and its allies. been closely associated with Leballo1s actions In detaining dissidents in Swaziland and Botswana, was assassinated by a squad from the PAC's military wing. THE PAC IN CRISIS The early 1980s saw a greater stability in the PAC, with the low-key and modest John Pokela assuming Recent reports suggest that there has leadership after a long prison sentence been yet another leadership crisis on Robber. Island. Pokela was able to within the PAC's central conmlttee. bring Ntantla and the military break­ For years, PAC history has been dotted away back into the PAC fold. with leadership splits and rank-and-file But with Pokela's unexpected death in rebellions. Credible leaders like Robert June 1985, tensions broke out again, and Sobukwe and Zephania Mothopeng - the seemingly could not be contained under first and second presidents of the PAC the direction of new chairman Johnson respectively, were unable to intervene Malambo. in these exile manoeuvrings. Sobukwe Recent reports suggest a new upheaval remained in South Africa until his death within the PAC's central committee. The in 1978, while Mothopeng involved PAC admits that the secretaries for himself in a plan to revive the PAC education and manpower, Ike Mafole and internally, for which he was sentenced Mike Muendane, have been fired from the to 15 years imprisonment in 1979. central committee and suspended from all

Robert Sobukwe. AP Hda and Potlako Leballo

It was left to people of lesser PAC activities for a year. Whether talents to lead the PAC internationally- secretary for defence, Victor Phama, and After Sobukwe18 death, PAC chairman publicity secretary Edwin Makoti have Potlako Leballo persuaded Swazi and resigned, been fired, or remain in their Botswana authorities to detain those posts is unclear. But the PAC's London critical of his leadership. In securing representative, Vus Nomodolo, has his position, Leballo provoked military resigned from the central committee leader Templeton Ntantla to leave the while retaining membership of the PAC. PAC and set up the Azanian People's Equally, whether these disputes are Revolutionary Party together with PAC over power, ideological and programmatic stalwarts like Joe Mkwanazi. differences, or car theft and mandrax Pressue mounted against Leballo, and smuggling (as alleged in at least one in May 1979 he was forced to resign as Sunday newspaper) is not obvious to 16 WIP outside observers. groups. Within hours both parties had But whatever the basis of dispute, been arrested, one at Johannesburg there is yet another struggle within the station and the other near Haflkeng. PAC's external leadership. Only this One of the accused had a revolver and time It also involves Internal PAC 40 rounds of ammunition In his activists, who have declared loyalty to possession when arrested. Another waa Vusumuzl Hake's leadership. carrying a forged Botswanan passport. Late last year a group claiming to be They were jailed for between four and the internal wing of the PAC sent a seven years. strongly-worded memorandum to exiled PAC Early this year a young Guguletu man leaders. In this communication, the was convicted of terrorism and group expressed strong support for Make, furthering the alma of the PAC. Andile who had just lost his seat on the Guana joined AZANYU shortly after its central committee. The memorandum also formation in 1983. When AZANYU and UDF apparently called on the government's of members clashed In Hbekwenl, near Paarl, Zimbabwe and Tanzania to guarantee the he Joined in the fighting. Aa a result, safety of Hake and his supporters in any his life waa threatened on a number of factional violence. occasions by UDF supporters. Gusha decided to leave South Africa for his own safety, and approached Stanford Haliwa, a PAC member, for TENTATIVE MILITARY STEPS assistance. Mallwa told him of PAC training camps In Lesotho. Subsequently, according to the During the mid-1970s, Zeph Mothopeng and accused, Mallwa waa burned to death in a 16 others were convicted under the clash with UDF supporters. Gusha TerrorIan Act. According to the travelled to the Transkei for the old prosecution, they had been Involved In a PAC member'a funeral, and there he waa large conspiracy to revive the PAC. To told that the PAC had sufficient this end, they recruited members, soldiers. He was arrested on his return arranged for recruits to undergo to Cape Town. military training, and organised some acts of unrest in the Krugersdorp area PAC representatives recently suggested during 1976. One of those accused in that their forces have been militarily this trial had undergone rudimentary engaged inside" the country. Johnson solitary training in Libya. Malambo claimed that PAC guerillas assassinated Brigadier Andrew Molope, There were a few indications of PAC senior Bophuthatswanan police officer activity after this. David Tharasimbi responsible for the Wlnterveld massacre. was found guilty of transporting PAC And publicity aecretary Gora Ebrahim military recruits to Swaziland during hinted that PAC members were responsible 1978, and sentenced to 12 years for the 'scorpion gang' attacks on imprisonment. Isaac Mhlekwa was security force members in Soweto and convicted for his role in training PAC Alexandra. But many have dismissed these recruits in the Ingwavuaa area. And during 1979 three young men who claims as improbable. underwent military training In China were sentenced to five years each for their PAC activities. THE QXBLA CONNECTION For the rest, there was little Indication of any obvious PAC presence - In April laat year State President PW military or otherwise - within South Botha claimed that 12 Libyan-trained PAC Africa. And what little activity there guerillas had been arrested at Athens was paled into insignificance as the airport. Subsequently Adrlaan Vlok, number of ANC guerilla attacks escalated minister of law and order, announced dramatically from 1978 onwards. that five of this group had been Then, in early 1985 six young PAC arrested by South African police. soldiers, trained in Tanzania, China, According to Vlok, the arrested group Yugoslavia and Guinea, were apprehended had been carrying Scorpion machine by the police. pistols, AK47 rifles, TNT explosives, They net in Zimbabwe, and travelled on detonators and ammunition. to Botswana, from where they crossed Vlok further claimed that some of the into South Africa and split Into two group were members of a Cape Town 17 WIP Islamic organisation, Qlbla, 'which The accused are alleged to have operates under the banner of the PAC'. possessed three AKM semi-automatic Seven alleged members of the PAC rlfls, three AK47s, one Star 9 mm appeared In court in early December, pistol, ammunition, and 38 M69 and M/0 charged with 24 counts of terrorism, hand grenades. membership of a banned organisation, The state claims that when Zulu, furthering the alms of the PAC, Gcanga and Mathunjwa were arrested in attempted murder, and possession of arms Bophuthatswana on 10 April last year, and ammunition. The accused are: Zulu grabbed a hand grenade and tried to Mabata Enoch Zulu (52) detonate it. But the grenade did not Slyabulela Ndoda Gcanga (26) explode. Vincent Alaoa Mathunjwa (29) Some of the accused are charged with Sestiba Paul Mohlolo (29) contacting Qlbla to discuss the supply Daniel Saul Nkopodl (27) of weapons to Its members. In early Achmad Casslem and 1986, Zulu and Gcanga travelled to Yusuf Patel. Durban and Cape Town, where they spoke The state has alleged that some of the to a number of people about reviving the accused joined the PAC as early aa 1960. PAC internally. They met Casslem and Zulu, Gcanga, Mathunjwa and Mohlolo are Patel, both members of Qlbla, and charged with undergoing military discussed possible llnka between the two training in several countries, including organinations. Egypt. Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe and Subsequently, Caaslem and Patel met Tanzania. other PAC members In Zimbabwe and During 1975, Zulu Infiltrated South Botswana. Qlbla agreed that It would Africa and gave military training to assist the PAC within South Africa, local Kwazulu inhabitants of the while the PAC in turn agreed to train Ingwavuma area. selected Qlbla recruits militarily. Together with three of his co-accused, In addition, claims the state, Qlbla he again entered South Africa during issued a number of pamphlets on behalf September 1985 and April 1986, carrying on the PAC. weapons and hand grenades. Evidence emerging in triala of alleged Nkopodl, a Bophuthatswanan-based PAC activists Is too slim to suggest priest, is charged with acting aa a that the organisation la reviving. But courier for the PAC, smuggling cash, despite yet another leadership crisis, lettera, arms and ammunition from the PAC tradition seems to have survived Botswana into South Africa. thusfar.

18 WIP Gains for Women Metal Workers Win National Maternity Benefits

Trade unions In too metal industry have von a major victory for woman worker* - a maternity agreement allowing for six months paid absence from work, and guaranteed re-employment after confinement. ADftlENNE BIRD, Tranavaal education secretary of the Metal and Allied Woricere Union, looks at the first nation-wide aaternity agreement between unions and employers.

Woaen workers are severely discriminated Although female workers are a minority against In industry. But trade unions in the metal Industry, Improved have won some major victories In maternity benefits were part of Metal advancing their Intereats. and Allied Workers Union demands In its At its national launch, COSATU 1986 National Living Wage Campaign. committed Itself to a vigorous campaign The industry employs 332 000 workers, against sexual inequality at the most of whoa are male. It is largely workplace, In society, and In the controlled by South African-based federation Itself. In line with this, corporations like Anglo American, Barlow COSATU has put forward maternity Rand and the Dorbyl/Metkor group. benefits as a national demand In the However, sectors like electronics and Living Wage Campaign. telecommunications are dominated by The Interests of woaen workers foreign-based multinationals such as recently received a boost when workers ASEA, Siemens and Philips. This sector In the metal industry won sir months is the largest employer of female paid maternity absence fro* work. This workers In the aetal Industry. is South Africa's first national About 2 000 of the 10 000 workera industry-wide maternity agreement. employed In this sector are female. They The agreeaent is between SEIPSA, the work mainly as machine operators doing aetal industry employer association, and assembly work with their traditionally unions party to the National Industrial •nimble fingers'. Council for the Iron, Steel, Engineering Woaen workers ere also found, In a and Metallurgical Industry. These unions smaller proportion, in the light include the Metal and Allied Workers engineering sector. Union; the Boilermakers Society; the During the recent negotiations on Engineering Industrial Workers Union; maternity benefits, employers tried to and the Electrical and Allied Workers exclude employers with fewer than ten Union. women workers from the agreeaent. But The agreement guarantees pregnant all the unions Involved rejected this, women both pay and job security for six and employers were finally forced to months when they leave work to have children. In 1982, amid great controversy, MAVU joined the industrial council for the metal Industry. This was part of the union's strategy to win both national WOMEN XN THE METAL INDUSTRY and plant-level bargaining. Today MAWU is the largest union in the council, with 62 000 members. The unions and SEIPSA have egreed to For a number of years, demands from send the maternity agreement to the women workers had been growing stronger. Minister of Manpower for publication In In 1986, as a result of this pressure the Government Gazette. Once this has froa female members, MAWU Included the happened, the agreeaent will be extended demand for six months paid maternity to all employers and workers in the leave for all women in the metal aetal industry. Industry. This was part of the list of WIP national demands made to SEIPSA at the Wages excluding Maternity pay annual wage negotiations. overtime per week Other netal unions, particularly members of the South African Co-ordinating Council of the Over R287 R144 International Metalworkers Federation, Over R262-R287 R131 strongly supported MAWU's demand. Over R208-R262 R104 During negotiations the parties agreed Over R182-R208 R 91 to deal with the Issues of maternity pay Over RX53-R182 R 77 and leave separately. Over R133-R153 R 67 Over R114-R133 R 57 R113 and under R 50

PAT DURING PREGNANCY So every women in the metal industry who qualifies gets a minimum of R50 every Thirty years ago, in 1955, the week for 26 weeks from the Sick Pay industrial council had established a Fund. And this does not prevent claims Sick Pay Fund for white, coloured and for Unemployment Insurance Fund Indian workers. Employers and workers maternity pay as well. paid weekly amounts into the fund, which Most women stop work one month before helped only sick employees. It did not the birth, and so only qualify for three cover pregnant workers. The fund is months UIP pay - one month before and controlled by a board of management with two months after birth. If the DIF equal trade union and employer benefit la added to the new industry­ representation. wide maternity pay, a woman can, for In 1978, following the national surge three months at least, get close to her in worker militancy and organisation, full wages. It is up to plant-level the Sick Pay Fund was extended to cover negotiations to make up the difference African workers. so that women get full normal pay while Three months maternity pay was added on maternity. as a benefit of the fund In March 1984. Metal unions plan to Improve payments But many African workers did not even and reduce qualifying clauses in future know they could claim for maternity. negotiations with employers. At the 1986 wage negotiations, MAWU demanded that women should get pay for six months while on confinement. All the metal unions supported this demand and LEAVE AND JOB SECURITY eventually SEIFSA, representing employers, agreed to this. The principle of Job security for pregnant women was established early in the negotiations. But employers Insisted QUALIFYING FOR MATERNITY BENEFITS that women stopping work to have •m- children should resign and then be re­ employed, rather than be on leave. A female worker has to fulfil a number Employers finally agreed -that the of conditions to qualify for maternity period off work would be six months. The pay. She must: unions fought hard for this to be leave * be employed in a SEIFSA company; rather than resignation, but in the end * have contributed to the Sick Pay Fund were forced to accept the Idea of for two years; resignation with guaranteed 're­ * not have claimed for more than one employment1. This was only agreed to pregnancy in the past (le there Is a with important protections: maximum of two claims per woman). * a woman who has been on maternity Women workers plan to oppose the last absence will qualify for leave and leave condition. They say It Is forced *birth bonus payments as If she had unbroken control' to allow only two maternity service; claims. * she will be re-employed in the same or Those who qualify will receive a similar job; * payment every week for 26 weeks; * she will not only get the same pay * an amount calculated as follows; when she returns, but will also 20 WIP automatically qualify for any Increases An employer must give the woman all that have been awarded nationally and relevant claim forms and help her make will 'not suffer any decrease in the claim. relative status to other employees as a To qualify for this re-employment result of the period of absence'; guarantee a woman must have worked for a * she will not suffer any prejudice in company in the metal industry for two promotion and merit increases because of years. Someone who has worked for a her absence from work, shorter time will only be given * at the time of leaving a company she 'preference' at the time of re-applying must be given a written guarantee of re­ for her job. employment, which will: At first SE1PSA suggested that to give the date on which she agrees to qualify for this maternity benefit, a return; women had to work for the same boss for clearly state the benefits the worker five years and that she had to return to qualifies for under the Sick Pay Fund; work after three months. The unions and state the details of the worker's pushed this to six months after a job and rate of pay at the time she minimum of two years service with the left. same employer.

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cf 1 MAWU women have won I •WIP Women workers have commented that avoid the hardships of joblessness. these time-limits are a way of forcing Union members have told of workers who family plamming on workers, and Bust be bound their stomachs to hide pregnancies scrapped In the future. and then took only a few days 'sick- Under the agreement employers can leave' to give birth. Others have employ substitute temporary workers for raaorted to back-street abortions. Many the period that a permanent worker is women die from these operations, but off on maternity absence. MAW la even more become sterile for life. encouraging Its members to negotiate at One hundred and forty out of every plant level for women to be able to find 1 000 black babies born In South Africa their own replacements, or for workers die within in year. This la six times previously retrenched from the company higher than the death rate for white to be given this temporary work. children. Most of these babies die of The unions were forced to accept that gastro-enterltis, which can be avoided a worker on maternity can be retrenched. by breast-feeding for six months. But This can only occur If she would have women workers cannot afford to stay at qualified for retrenchment had she been home so long. The sooner they re-apply at work. But SEIFSA agreed that in any for their jobs, the greater the chance retrenchment programme, temporary of being re-employed. workers would go before any permanent worker.

UNIONS CHALLENGE DISCRIMINATION

DISCRIMINATION IN THE FACTORY The progressive trade union movement baa started to challenge these Since the 1960s, when large numbers of discriminatory practices. In 1984, OR black women first became involved In workers, under the Commercial, Catering factory work, they have suffered severe and Allied Workers Union of SA, made the discrimination: poorer job opportunities first big breakthrough. They won the than men; unequal pay for similar work; right to 12 months unpaid maternity segregation into poorly-paid 'women's leave. In 1985 CCAWUSA won another jobs' like cleaning and catering; and important victory, this time with Metro widespread sexual harassment at work - Cash and Carry. This gave women 12 the hated 'jobs for sex' practice. months maternity leave with seven of the Discrimination includes the myth that months paid at 33%, and time off to women are not 'real workers', that they facilitate breast-feeding and to attend only work for pocket money and to buy ante- and post-natal clinics. It also 'fancy dresses'. Included important health and safety clauses. But a study of women in the commercial and catering industry exposed this lie. In 1985 and 1986, other progressive Thirty percent of women In the sample unions won maternity agreements from were the only breadwinners in their individual employers. During 1986 in the households. The remainder said they Transvaal alone, the Chemical Workers worked because one (male) wage was not Industrial Union won 20 maternity enough to support the family. The same agreements, the best of which was with study showed 90S of women workers had Rolfes: six-and-a-half months leave at children to support. full pay. The moat visible form of The National Automobile and Allied discrimination against women is the Workera Union signed an agreement with practice of dismissing workers when they Toyota which Included the principle of become pregnant. Moat employers will re­ paid leave. Paacelent and the Paper, employ women dismissed when pregnant, Wood and Allied Workers Union reached but often at beginner wage rates, and agreement for 25% of normal wages over only when there Is a suitable vacancy. four months maternity leave. And the And when a woman In this position Is Sweet, Food and Allied Workers Union re-employed aa a new employee, she is (now Food and Allied Workers Union) won vulnerable to retrenchment procedures three months leave on full pay at Slaba which usually work on a last-in-first- Chips. out baaia. These victories were all important Many women take desperate steps to precedents. But winning them company by 22 coapany has been slow and difficult. So Unions have pointed out that the the recent victory by natal workers at a state—run Unemployment Insurance Fund la national industry-wide level la clearly inadequate for pregnant workers. It pays an Important step forward* only 45% of normal wages for four months before and two months after birth. Even the Wlehahn Commission recognised this Inadequacy and recommended payments STATE KESPONSIBILITT FOR MATERNITY PAY of 60X for a aiz month period* Government turned down this proposal, saying that it had never received Many Individual employers refuse paid reports of undue hardship resulting from leave on the grounds that in other the present system. But aa one metal countries maternity 'pay' la granted by worker said: 'UIF is atupid - we need the government. Employers aay this Is money afterwards, not four months before fairer, aa It spreads the costs evenly the child is born'. acroas industries. Those employing a Since there is no good national large number of female workers have benefit scheme, workers have uaed their argued they cannot afford to pay women factory organisation to force while.on maternity leave* concessions from employers. Their Some unions have argued that since successes have been concentrated In employers contribute to workers* old age multi-national corporations, presently through pension schemes, they should highly sensitive to adverse publicity also contribute to their early and international pressure * development. Employers responded by But the question of state pointing out that pension schemes are responsibility for maternity pay nationally administered and this should remains. • also apply to maternity benefit schemes.

23 WIP Windhoek Terrorism Trial Police Admit Torture

Counter-inaurgency la again under the spotlight In Namibia, with members of the police admitting that detainee a are tortured. JEAN SUTHBtTANT) reports on the remarkable candour of witneeaea in a Windhoek trial, who openly testified that torture of SHaPO auapecta la common.

Security force members in Namibia have, lengthy bout of questioning, which for the first tine, publicly admitted included being whipped with a piece, of that they torture detainees. hosepipe; Interrogation of detained prisoners * a security police captain deliberately was recently examined in a major hid the flogging of a prisoner from his Windhoek security trial where police commanding officer 'because I feared he candidly spoke of assaulting auapecta. would have stopped it*. The trial revealed that interrogation The men defended their actions by officers dealing with SWAPO suspects saying they had been 'necessary' to believe that *anything goes'. uncover explosives caches. These often startling admissions This evidence emerged during a * trial- emerged in the trial of eight young wit hin-a-trial' In which counsel for the Namlblans facing a string of charges for defence disputed the admissibility of alleged participation in 'terroristic1 alleged "confessions' made by some of acta. Two of the men are allegedly SWAPO the prisoners. insurgents, the others civilians accused Defence lawyers claimed that the of assisting them. accuaed had been exposed to questioning, For years, human rights groups have assault, and physical and mental insisted that torture la a common part Intimidation by security force of interrogation techniques in Namibia. members from the army, the police The difference this time round was that special counter insurgency unit, admissions of abuse came from within formerly known as 'Koevoet*, and the security force ranks. security police. Previous allegations of torture or 'irregular pressure' have been officially dismissed as part of 'a concerted effort' to disrupt security 'BEATEN TO A POLP' force activities and 'to make them ineffective in the revolutionary struggle'. But strict Instructions were Some observers are baffled over why given to all members of the security police offlcera so openly admitted police that no assaults 'whatsoever' beating and mishandling prisoners. could be carried out on detainees. The policemen'a seemingly unahakeable Yet four police officers cooly belief In the righteousness of their admitted in the Windhoek Supreme Court 'cause' appears to be the main reason that: for these admissions. * assaults were justifiable as long as All four officers seemed to have no they did not result In deaths; qualms in testifying that although they * prisoners are deprived of basic human knew the assaults were illegal, they rights; felt they had been justified. * normal rules do not apply when dealing Some insight Into their views was with suspects regarded as 'trained offered in a report in the weekly soldiers'; Windhoek Observer, which described the * one of the accused had an intravenous trial aa a 'profound embaraasment' to drip pulled out of his arm before a 'these seasoned investigators*. 24 Wl p According to this report, the police 'THRASH A PRISONER UNTIL HE CRACKS officers were 'taken aback*, even hurt, that they had been portrayed in the press as 'inhuman, Indifferent to Further insight into the minds of the fate of prisoners and, even worse, security police emerged in the evidence indifferent to the corporal punishment of a security officer who had been with inflicted'. the force for 13 years. As far as they were concerned, 'they Warrant Officer Nikodemus Nampala .had no other choice' but 'to commit an blandly described the attitude of his excess' which could have been condemned security branch as: 'You thrash a under 'normal circumstances'* (prisoner) until he cracks - points out Another possible reason for their what has to be pointed out'. candour is that one of the accused, Nampala'a evidence was extraordinary Andreas Helta, was so badly scarred by in that it created the impression of a his beatings that it was impossible to straightforward man who had merely cover up the assaults. followed normal procedures; so normal.

Andreas Helta's scars: the result of police torture

Presiding judge Harold Levy asked or so it seemed, that he never thought Helta to strip a number of times In of questioning fellow police officers' court, each time displaying injuries on actions. his chest and across his back. Wound When asked if there was no way he marks on his head and ear were also could have protested the beatings of pointed out. Extensive scarring caused detainees - earlier he had testified he by the beatings Includes one patch of had seen a Koevoet officer 'lay into1 abnormal and discoloured skin growth Andreas Helta with a hosepipe - Nampala measuring 17 centimeters from top to conceded It had never occurred to him. bottom and 13 centimeters across at the Questioned if there was no place in broadest part. police ranks where a case like this Police officers admitted the injuries could be taken up in order to protect a were inflicted in detention. prisoner, he replied: 'For what purpose, Levy asked one police officer whether your honour?'. he could see that the accused had been This policeman said he had never, in 'beaten to a pulp' (papgeslaan) in the his security police experience, vicious assault* encountered an incident where a junior 25. WIP officer had reported a senior officer and alleged torture, assault, murder for assaulting 'an ordinary criminal or and rape. so'. During court hearings it emerged that: The court heard that the corrugated * Koevoet members are trained as iron cells in which the army kept 'extermination machines' and taught to prisoners were described as 'hokke'. show no mercy to SWAPO members; When it was pointed out that this was a * people rounded up are often taken to term used to describe animal cages, Koevoet bases where 'specialised Nampala agreed and said it was commonly interrogation squads' question them; used in the army. * members were paid 'kopgeld' bounty money for each guerilla killed. Credited with over eighty percent of violent deaths In Namibia's operational A CHRISTIAN DUTY area, the special police unit la considered by some to be the most fearsome and successful counter Another security warrant officer, Insurgency unit In Southern Africa's Hermanus van der Hoven, testified that recent history of guerilla wars. although he disapproved of the thrashing 'Koevoet Is a cold, calculating, of prisoners, it was his christian duty efficient and totally ruthless unit as to explain to one of the accused the far as the enemy is concerned', an connection between punishment and assistant police commissioner told a repentance. group of journalists and This emerged when the officer said he parliamentarians after a public had not kept records of conversations relations tour of Koevoet bases. with the prisoner as these had been of a The name of the notorious unit has more 'personal* nature. become so embedded in the Namiblan 'I tried to explain to him why It was psyche that any incident of violence, necessary to use violence (at a abuse or terror is almost automatically particular) stage', he said. 'We then attributed to the unit, whether in had a discussion about how a person as a Northern Namibia where It is based, or christian repents and how they are in Windhoek, Namibia's capital city. sometimes subject to punishment, like a While some in authority believe the child would had he done wrong'. counter insurgency unit is winning the Asked who had given him the right to war in Namibia, it does not seem to be 'try and influence' the accused as far succeeding In the South West African as his religion was concerned, the Territory Force's stated aim of 'winning policeman replied: 'My christian duty'. the hearts and minds of the local He denied trying to convince the man population'• not to divulge assaults, and said he Some officers deny that the unit'a only wanted to convey that as a attitude is 'if you get them by the christian the thrashing had been balls, their hearts and minds will difficult for him - 'but the violence follow', a maxim commonly associated had to be applied to discover the with Koevoet/Coint explosives*•

THE WAR IN THE NORTH KOEVOET - A POLICE CROWBAR = Security forces claim that there has Trial proceedings lifted the lid a little been a drop in intensity of the bush further on the once top secret special war. But guerilla action continues, and police counter insurgency unit, still In mid-March security forces reported known among ordinary people as that SWAPO's special unit, Typhoon, had 'Koevoet*• returned to the Northern Namiblan Chilling details about this unit, now operational area after a two-year officially called 'Coin', first emerged absence. In 1983. According to security force Subsequently It has featured, along statistics, 351 SWAPO guerillas have with the security police, in a number of been shot dead this year, and 26 members civilian court actions Involving proven of the army and police killed in action. 26 Last year 645 guerillas were reported Ballack described Helta's beating as killed, with 599 guerilla casualties In 'a good hiding', but denied that it had 1985. been 'barbarous'. The reason It had been But as In most wars, truth la the necessary, he told the court, was first casualty* The South African-led because 'he (Helta) told lies...but security forces continually claim they after being assaulted he was completely are winning the war* But It appears to willing to tell the truth'. be far from over. And while the amy The police officer obviously felt he claims It Is getting Increased co­ had not exceeded the limits. In fact, he operation from civilians, there are said, the reason he alone had carried mounting allegations of abuse and out most of the assaults waa to prevent brutality against civilians. matters from 'going over the top'. As for records, he admitted that as far has he was concerned, none had been kept by the special counter insurgency THE HEITA TRIAL unit. He denied however, that this was to 'cover up tracks'. But Ballack could offer no other reason for the lack of The trial which has revealed so much records. about counter insurgency operations He added that he was entitled to Involves eight accused, who face almost question any of his prisoners at any 200 counts of contravening the Terrorism time, but denied he had electrically Act between 1982 and 1985. Charges also shocked prisoners, kicked them, and in include sabotage, Illegal possession of one incident strung a detainee from a explosives, and attempted murder* tree, opened his pants and shocked him In evidence, police officers admitted on the genitals and anus. that although the special counter Ballack also refuted claims that he insurgency unit's name had been changed, had threatened a prisoner In another 'Koevoet' had become so synonymous with case that he would be taken to a Its actions that It remained the name butchery and chopped into little pieces. used among the people. In a touch ot irony, Ballack's cross- The 'trial-within-a-trial* concerned examination was concluded after he admissibility of confessions made under confirmed, under questioning by the Interrogation. It ground to a sudden judge, that a policeman's duty was to halt after cross-examination of a uphold the law and 'be a good example to central figure throughout the the community'. proceedings, an officer of the feared The 'Koevoet' captain agreed that if unit, Captain Prantc Ballack. he had seen 'a man in the street* Ballack described the aim of the assault someone as he himself had done special 'task force* as being to 'hunt to Helta, he would have arrested him. down and eliminate SUAPO guerillas'• Both defence and state cases were Implicated by his colleagues, the concluded after the state withdrew the 'Koevoet' man confirmed he had seriously disputed confessions made under beaten one of the accused, Andreas interrogation. Defence counsel has Helta, assaulted at least two of the called for the total acquittal of three other prisoners, and not kept nedical or of the accused, and Judgement is other records of his 'Interrogation'. expected on 21 Hay. WIP Activists on Trial Duduza's Civil War

When a number of young East Rand activists were maimed In a aeries of hand grenade explosions, police detained the survivors. A year later they were charged with terrorism. Their trial, and those of other Duduza residents, focused on a civil war which erupted on the far East Rand. GLENN MOSS reports.

Exactly thirty years after the Congress of the People adopted the Freedom Charter at Kliptown, fifteen young Duduza activists were mutilated or killed in hand grenade blasts. A new generation of black activists - most not born when the Congress Alliance accepted the Charter as policy - were leading In the townships. COSAS - the Congress of South African Students - had also adopted the Charter when it was formed In 1979. By 1985 COSAS branches had sprung up in dozens of black townships as student resistance to Bantu Education hardened into total struggle against apartheid. Duduza, a small East Rand township near Nigel, bad not escaped the rising tide of black anger at poor services, inadequate housing and exclusion from the institutions of power and government.

By 1985 the township boasted a rangef of UDF-afflliated organisations - a COSAS branch, the Duduza Civic Association, a youth organisation and students-parents committee. But there was another presence in Duduza and the neighbouring townships of Tsakane and RwaThema: police and community councillors, conservative black businessmen and, almost inevitably, right-wing vigilantes acting against members of opposition organisations.

STRIKING BACK AT VIGILANTES f

The Ingredients were present for a political clash of tragic proportions. And tragedy struck in the early morning of 26 June 1985 as a group of young 1985: Youths bury a comrade in Duduza 28 WIP activists set out to attack suspected not ordinary RGD 5 hand grenadea. vigilantes, police and other symbols of Someone had removed the time delay apartheid. Their guiding charter - the devices •* Freedom Charter - was just thirty years As members of the 'hit squads' pulled old. the grenade safety pins, the devices Booby-trapped hand grenades exploded exploded in their hands. At least sight as they pulled the safety pins. Within were Instantly killed. Others lost hands minutes, eight were dead and seven or fingers mutilated by schrapnel. others badly mutilated. Doctors on the far East Rand amputated a number of hands and fingers later that day. By late June 1985 Duduza township was BLAST VICTIMS III COURT characterised by burnings, torture and killings. Right-wing vigilantes, suspected of police, community council Exactly nine months later, seven of the and business links, were rampant. Police survivors appeared In court, charged and angry crowds confronted each other, with terrorism, attempted murder and especially after funerals, when police possession of grenadea. Since the Ill- opened fire and threw teargas. The fated blasts, they had been detained by houses and property of local policemen, security police under section 29 of the past community council members and local Internal Security Act. Held businessmen were attacked and destroyed. Incommunicado, denied access to lawyers, Beneath these tensions lay a community family and friends, they had suffered bitterly angry about lack of services amputation of limbs and permanent sod facilities, and denied access to the mutilation. Some had been referred for power to change Its squalid psychiatric counselling. circumstances. Hosea Langosane, 20 years old at the time of the explosions, still has shrapnel embedded in his brain. He wears a hearing aid and speaks in a low AGENTS FROM THE AXCf murmur. According to evidence in his trial, he has serious brain damage, suffered epileptic seizures while in A number of young activists had been jail, and will -be on medication for the approached by two men on 24 June. They rest of his life. claimed to be from the ANC's military Joseph Titus Mazlbuko (18), John wing, Umkhonto we Slzwe. The alleged Hlangeni (21), Samuel Lekatsa (19), Umkhonto agents were disguised, wearing Humphrey Tshabalala (19), Veil Hazibuko balaclavas and glasses. But It seems (18), Cedrlc Dladla (19) and Lengossne they were believed, because that evening faced two counts of terrorism, unlawful they took a group of activists, mainly possession of 17 hand grenades, and five COSAS members, to an old mine shaft near counts of attempted murder. When they Tsakane, and demonstrated the art of appeared In court, the attorney-general throwing hand grenades. issued a certificate preventing the granting of bail, and the accused After this two-hour 'crash course', the group selected a number of targets remained In custody for the duration of for attack the next night. The 'Umkhonto their 11-month trial. men' agreed to supply the necessary explosive devices. As aidnight approached, the 'crash course' participants split Into groups. A MODEL TOWNSHIP? Their Instructors had provided grenades, and the targets were decided on: the houses of local businessmen Steven and As with all tragedies, there was a David Namane, as well aa various black context to these events. Perhaps it policemen suspected of complicity in began In 1963, when Charterston vigilante action; the Duduza residents were moved to the new township administration board offices; and the of Duduza. They were promised a 'model main electricity sub-station in Kwa township', but more than twenty years Theme. later, township residents were still The grenades were prepared. Detonators waiting for a water-borne sewerage were gently screwed In. But these were system and tarred roads. Pew could 29 WIP afford electricity. All these services policemen were attacked and burned. were extended to Charterston, now a The next day, 18 February, students coloured township, within two years of stayed away from school. When police the removal to Duduza. opened fire, a 13-year old youth was More recently, government*s ill- shot dead. More police houses were burnt conceived plan for black local authority down in retaliation. structures provoked Intense resistance As township residents prepared for the in many African townships, including funeral of the shooting victim, police Duduza. In the trial of the seven who acted again. An unknown number of Duduza survived the booby-trapped grenade residents were arrested, and 35 charged explosions, the state claimed the with public violence. At a meeting accused acted with a number of aims: called by a committee of parents, * abolition of the third tier government residents resolved to stay away from system of black local authorities; work on the day of the funeral. * expulsion of community councillors and Two days before the planned stay away, police from Duduza and nearby townships; police detained seven prominent * intimidation of township residents who residents under the Internal Security furthered the aims of the National Party Act: they included Alex Montoedi of the governmnent; Duduza Youth Congress; John Mlangeni and * a complete change in the system of Veil Mazlbuko from COSAS; and the black education; chairman of the parents committee, * departure from the present Joseph Thobela, whose COSAS-linked constitutional dispensation, including daughter Sonto was also detained. the dismantling of apartheid, universal Of those then detained, Sonto Thobela suffrage, abolition of bantuatans, and a la dead, murdered by right-wing free system of democracy. vigilantes; John Mlangeni and Veil The triggering factor in the massive Mazlbuko were seriously Injured in the national resistance associated with grenade explosions of 26 June, and are these demands was government's 1983 serving prison sentences for their Implementation of its constitutional Involvement in those attacks; and John proposals, including the tri-cameral Thobela and Alex Montoedi face charges parliament and black local authorities. of terrorism, murder and subversion In another trial of Duduza residents. The funeral went ahead as planned, despite the detention of the seven THE 'BUCKET PROTEST prominent residents. Mourners returning from the graveyard were teargassed as they passed police in hippos at the The death and destruction of young lives township entrance. on 26 June can be traced back to the Matters moved from bad to worse. 'bucket protest' of February 1985. After Activists were warned that their houses a Duduza Civic Association meeting on would be burnt if meetings of hostel 17 February, angry township residents residents were disrupted. This followed marched to the local administration a civic association query as to why some board offices. They intended protesting hostel dwellers had been granted against the continued absence of water- permission to use the community hall, borne sewage. while permission to hold Duduza Civic The demonstration took a novel form Association meetings was withheld. when residents presented administration board officials with the sewerage buckets which stood outside each house at night, awaiting collection. Officials PETROL BOMB ATTACKS BEGIN were asked to 'feel the smell'. Police reacted to the protest, and a youth was shot in the leg. For some A week later the first petrol bomb residents, this was the final straw* A attack took place. The house of parents legitimate demand for the state to committee member Barnabas Chetty was provide a proper sewage system more attacked, and his daughter injured. than twenty years after Duduza was Two weeks later, the Thobela house was established had been met with police petrol bombed. Sonto Thobela, the COSAS bullets. The spiral of retaliation branch secretary, died in the blase. Her began, and houses of some local sister Zanela, also a COSAS branch 30 W "*•

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•sr*ft» / Pictures of the unrest two years ago are now being replayed In courtroom dramas member, subsequently died as a result of allegedly dug trenches across roads to burns received in the attack. prevent the movement of police vehicles. Sonto Thobela was buried on 18 May. One group attacked passing vehicles. After police teargassed the funeral Seven houses occupied by black police procession of over 6 000, angry crowds were attacked, and combined damage of attacked 14 houses occupied by police R30 000 caused. As anger intensified, and community councillors. Civil war had police and private vehicles and broken out in Duduza. municipal buses were stoned, and In some cases drivers attacked. In one of these incidents a white nurse, Gertina de Lange was assaulted, and subsequently CIVIL WAR IN DUDUZA'S STREETS died as a result of injuries sustained. On 20 May, almost the whole of Duduza stayed away from work. According to the prosecution in a The state claims that as a result of current terrorism trial, a residents1 these events, all public services in the meeting on 17 Hay resolved to force township collapsed, and those linked to police from the township by killing, the community council had to flee in injuring or intimidating them, and fear of their lives. attacking their houses. In addition, it Is alleged that the meeting decided to intimidate those with links to community councils, and attack whites from RIGHT-WING VIGILANTES ATTACK neighbouring Nigel. o As a result, claims the prosecution, Duduza residents began patrolling Some township residents believed the township streets at night. They growing right-wing vigilante attacks 31 were being planned by a group including the Namane houses, aa well as David's ex-community councillor a, conservative bottle store, were attacked by an angry businessmen and some local policemen. A crowd of mournera* white iconbi similar to vehicles driven by local police waa seen leaving the scene of a number of attacks. The driver wore a leather coat sinilar to one owned A 'TRIAL WITHIN A TRIAL' by a prominent local policeman. And in investigations Into at least three of these attacks, local East Rand police were formal suspects* The trial of those injured in the grenade blasts opened in Pretoria In Attorneys acting for Anglican Bishop August 1986. Evidence Indicated that Simeon Nkoane contacted senior police within hours of serious operations, officials and the attorney-general about including full amputation of the right alleged police involvement In vigilante hand, police Interrogated some of the activity. In April 1986. a certain accused. And a magistrate attempted to Patrick Mahlangu gave Nkoane'a lawyers a take statements from them while they statement indicating that a Sergeant were still under the influence of drugs, Slthole from Kwa Thema police station and In post-traumatic and post-operative had been involved In fire bomb attacks shock. on a number of houses. According to lawyers. Mahlangu subsequently fled Kwa At least one medical witness said that Thema when told that Slthole had hired a If given a choice, he would not have squad of men to kill him. allowed police to interrogate Humphrey Tshabalala 17 hours after his fingers The attacks Increased. On 11 June, had been amputated. Four of the accused Duduza Youth Congress leader Alex had made statements to a magistrate Pailane waa kidnapped by a vigilante within 18 hours of being operated on, group. He was taken to a nearby mine while still in their hospital beds. dump where he was tortured. Badly beaten After a lengthy trlal-withln-a-trial, and unconscious, Pailane was dumped presiding judge Stafford ruled that the outside his parents' home later that statements made by only three of the day. Six days later he died aa a result accused were admissible as evidence. In of the torture* ruling the others inadmissible, Justice The night of 21 June was particularly Stafford found that three state dangerous for anti-apartheid activists witnesses, including magistrate Pieter in the area. At least seven houses, Marx and police warrant officer van Wyk, including that of Bishop Nkoane, were had lied to the court in evidence. petrol bombed. In the statements, some of the accused If Investigating police were finding described how they had been approached it hard to track down suspects Involved by two men wearing balaclavas and in right-wing vigilante attacks, local glasses, who suggested that they attack COSAS members were having more success. the houses of people like David and According to court records, a Duduza Steven Namane. They were taken to a local, Billy Dhlaminl, admitted to COSAS piece of open ground and shown how to leaders that he had been employed by throw grenades. But on the night of the businessman David Kamane, his brother attacks 'the hand grenades went off in and ex-community council member Steven our hands*• Nsmane, and a Tsakane businessman, Twebe Maholo. During the trial defence counsel alleged that a Springs security Under Interrogation by his captors, policeman, Peter Mphahlele, was seen Dhlaminl confessed that he and two making petrol bombs In another employees of David Namane had abducted policeman's garage shortly before three and tortured Alex Pailane, and had been houses were petrol-bombed by men wearing given a list of prominent township balaclavas. While Mphahlele denied this, activists to eliminate. he did admit that police had taken three The Namane'a and Maholo denied that statements from him relating to attacks Dhlaminl*s confession was true. But on the houses of Bishop Simeon Nkoane, someone must have believed It, because Deborah Khabela and Daphne Msllnga on on 16 June the houses of both Namane the same night as the booby-trapped brothers were razed to the ground. This grenade explosions. waa not the first attack on the As the state's case drew to a close, brothers. After Sonto Thobele's funeral the prosecution called a secret witness, WIP allegedly an accomplice of the accused. youths on the street and sjambokked 'Mr X' told the court that four of the them. Newspaper reporters witnessed accused had been part of a 'hit squad' police beating people with sjamboks. sat up In Duduza. A fev days after the According to the one reporter, 'I saw a houae of a Duduza civic leader had been policeman pointing his firearm at a fire bombed, the 'hit squad' attacked youth outside a house. Seconds later a another house in retaliation. shot rang out and the youth According to .the witness, two men who collapsed... I drove to the northern identified themselves as members of the part of Duduza where I met armed ANC's military wing trained the 'hit policemen near a school using quirts to squad' to use hand grenades. drive a group of youths down a street' Initially the witness told the court (Star, 06.07.85). that the two Instructors could have been policemen or people procured by the Days later, Anglican Bishops Desmond police. But he later withdrew this Tutu and Simeon Nkoane had to intervene allegation. Subsequently the witness at the funeral of four of the grenade admitted that he had committed perjury attack victims when a crowd attempted to in previous court proceedings, and was burn a man accused of being a 'sell­ prepared to lie under oath 'to save his out'. skin'. When Nkoane's house was petrol bombed for a second time, the Archbishop of Shortly after thia admission, the Canterbury warned the South African state dropped all charges of terrorism ambassador in London that he expected against the accused, and accepted a plea Pretoria to safeguard Nkoane's life. of guilty to possessing hand grenades, And on the same day that PW Botha attempted murder and malicious damage to declared a state of emergency, property. television viewers saw the killing and In sentencing the accused to 16 burning of Naki Skosana at a funeral of months imprisonment, Justice Stafford unrest victims. Some mourners believed suspended the Imprisonment of Hosea she was a police informer, some that she Lengosane, accepting that sending him to was the girl-friend of a local policeman jail would serve no purpose. involved in vigilante violence. Others The judge made no finding on whether claim she was an innocent victim of police or ANC members had provided the Duduza's civil war. accused with the grenades, or whether police had been involved in township That night, 21 July 1985, State vigilante attacks. Lack of evidence on President PW Botha imposed a state of these 'serious allegations', and the emergency on parts of South Africa. sudden end to the trial left these Duduza and its neighbouring East Rand questions unanswered, said the judge. townships were included. Information on what was happening In townships became harder and harder to come by. And after the temporary respite in which emergency regulations were lifted, harsher and TOWNSHIP WAR CONTINUES harsher restrictions have been imposed with the nation-wide emergency proclaimed in June 1986. The death or arrest of those involved in the grenade attacks did not end the There was civil war in Duduza. It may civil war in Duduza. Nor did it stop still be continuing in this small East vigilante attacks. In the month that Rand township. Or Duduza may be calmer. followed, there were boycotts and work Government-imposed curbs on reporting stay aways, mass funerals and mass unrest and security force activity arrests. By July, at least 36 police prevent discussion of this. houses had been burnt out. But those conflict-ridden days of Police set up a makeshift camp at the blood and fire are being replayed in Duduza town hall, holding the victims of South African courtroom dramas, as the mass arrests prisoner there. Angry state moves against those who dared to residents claimed that police rounded up challenge its authority.

33 WIP PET and Communities Negotiate Back to School in the Eastern Cape

Students have returned to schools In the Eastern Capo. Thoy still strongly oppose the system of education. Bat according to KBULKLO LINDA, students, parents and rn—inlty leaders agree basic education la necessary while organisation continues.

A sigh of relief has gone up In the was at the helm. But when the boycott Eastern Cape, heartland of nllltant ended last month, parenta held the resistance to National Party education reigns. policy, because students have gone back At the start of the boycotts, one of to school the burning issues raised by the The return to class, long anticipated rebellious students was parental apathy. by anxious parents, clergy, civic bodies Host student leaders who raised this and, at the end, student organisations, problem are not around today. Some have has taken two-and-a-half bloody, chaotic died in action against the security years to effect. Some put the number of forces, others fled the country and many pupils who died in the revolt as high aa are in state of emergency detention. But 150. their demand for parents to become The issue peaked in mid-December last involved has been achieved. year when the Department of Education and Training (DET) presented the townships with an ultimatum: either black parents would send their children NEGOTIATING WITH THE DET back to school, or 40 schools In the Port Ellsabeth/Ultenhage area would be permanently closed. During December, meetings were held In After such debate students decided Eastern Cape townships to discuss the to return. The DET can once again DET ultimatum. Students met with legitimately claim to be running National Education Crisis Committee an education system. representatives, and discussed the Issue In 1987 children returned to the hated with parents and community leaders. Bantu Education system they had fought Township residents decided that the at enormous cost since 1976. But It Interdenominational Ministers would be a serious mistake for the Association of South Africa (IDAMASA) authorities to believe the Issue la now should negotiate with the DET on their settled. There is still strong behalf. resistance to state-administered The DET agreed to negotiate the return education, and while community militancy to school. And It soon became obvious may have lessened it has not that IDAMASA was merely acting aa disappeared. brokers for the parents. The return has signalled a dramatic shift In the politics of different generations. No longer are students the most militant members of the community. 'FLAWED EDUCATION BITTER THAN N0THBW Parents have, through the fight over education and schools, become more politicised and increasingly involved. Many In the community believe It was the When the education protests against go-ahead from parents which finally lent educational facilities and standards substance to negotiations between local began in June 1984, it was the Congress DET officials and church leaders. But of South African Students (COSAS) which the parents• push for a return to school 34 w p also reflected the students* decision. we feared most was an indefinite boycott The Eastern Cape African community was which would ultimately spawn a 'forced to decide whether It was better generation of uneducated youths. This to be educated, even If by the much would be a disaster for the future discredited, much hated Bantu Education society envisaged for the new South system, than to be uneducated', said Africa'. IDAMASA president, Reverend Soga. He said the students had not given this matter much thought. But the OBSTACLES AT THE LAST MINUTE boycott had deprived pupils of the basic knowlege 'found In any kind of education Students registered for school on system without which no person was able 12 January and eventually returned to to exercise their mental faculties'. classes a week later. Among the 58 Students had also become so schools they flocked to were the four disorganised by 'social factors' that frontline anti-Bantu Education • i i

Students have returned to school but the DET has not repaired the classrooms the student leadership was uncertain of strongholds: Kwazakele, Newell, Cowan Its following, said Soga. and Masibambane High Schools. Parents believed, and eventually Students at these schools were at the students agreed, that the return to forefront of the 1976 June uprising. And school was Important. It would place they were out on boycott again In 1980, pupils in a better position to organise 1981, 1984, 1985 and 1986. and consider new ways of fighting for It was a clearly delighted Department a democratic and non-racial education of Education and Training liaison system. And students would at least officer, Peter Mundell, who described receive basic education. the return as a 'reasonable* and Reflecting a new, more assertive praiseworthy development. attitude among parents, Soga argued that Earlier he laid down the rules for pupils 'can only claim their right to continued black education in all Eastern speak as students as long as they remain Cape townships. It was to be a process within the walls of the classrooms. What of stage-by-stage negotiation. No school 35 WIP was to be opened until the parents of designate 'may act in loco parentis in the children at that school had formed a the event of any Injury or accident in parent-school body, had met with the DEI which their child/ward may be involved*; circuit Inspectors and hammered out some * agree that 'in the event of their kind of arrangement for future child being conveyed in a government co-operation. vehicle, they indemnify the state and Strangely, it was parents - and not state employees against any claims for the students - who at one point baulked compensation as a result of loss of life at a crucial stage in the delicate or personal injury to the child or any negotiation process. loss of life or damage to his or her The objection arose just as post­ property. primary and high schools - containing As one parent put it: 'This is too the rebellious student core - were much to bear. So much blood has flowed opening their doors. And the source of over this issue. I cannot believe the contention was the DET's registration pettiness of these bureaucrats'. 'The forms which had already been handed out principal never told me a thing about to school principals. these conditions', said a mother of It was 19 January - the deadline three school-going children. agreed upon for going back to school. All students returning had to complete and sign the form. It had seven clauses worded in typical DET language. Glauses TOWNSHIP LEADERS INTERVENE effectively demanded that parents: * allow the authorities to take disciplinary action against their The anger and confusion which greeted children; the stipulations was so deep and * pay all costs of damages and losses widespread that township leaders had to on school property; intervene. * pay all amounts owed promptly and They argued that even though the regularly; conditions for return were unreasonable, * see that their children attend school students had been away from school for regularly and immediately notify the so long at this point that the education principal in writing of any absence from and knowlege to be gained from the school; system had to take precedence over the * agree that the principal or his unjust conditions laid down in the form. Township leaders suggested that the short-term effect of the boycott had been overtaken by the long-term lowering of education standards among children* Reluctant parents were asked to swallow hard, ignore the jibe, and continue negotiations which would allow their children to return to school. The last two schools still shut In East London re-opened In early March aa local negotiations drew to a close. IDAMASA and the DET ended negotiations at the beginning of March. Nothing has been done as yet about restoring schools damaged during the boycott, although the DET has promised to rebuild schools. There have been alarming reports about conditions: children being taught in burnt-out ruins, victimisation of old enemies and selective hiring and firing of teachers, particularly in Port - Elizabeth. It remains to be seen if the Eastern Cape region, which saw 66 schools destroyed by the end of 1985, will be able to maintain this tenuous Back at school after negotiations accord with the DET during 1987. between parents and DET 36 Strikes and Disputes: Transvaal

COMPAHY AND AREA UNION IwOflKERS DATE | EVENTS AM) OUTGONE

AECI SACWU 5 500 16.02- On 16 Fabruary 500 workers want on strike protastlng management's rafusal to dismiss a supervisor accaiad of using sbusive lsngtege. AECI said the charge could not ba proved. On 18 fabruary 5 200 Hodderfontelfl 06.03. workers stagad a sympathy strike. The Rand Supreme Court grented AECI a temporary interdict preventing tha Jllegel atrika. On 5 March a joint management-anion committee vas sat up to investigate tha •attar.

FAWU daclarad a national disputa over wage negotiations. Workers denuded I5/hour miniaxjm and African Products FAWU 400 17-03- Beliville, H«yflrtoft, management offered *2,75. The Hayarton plant vent on strike on 1? March followed by the otter plants. Empangoni Workers slept in at ell three factories. Management said 200 workers had staged an Illegal strike, bet that talks ware continuing.

•eragvsneth Hespltol 6AWU 1000 26.02- Auxiliary workers went on strike demanding the reinstatement of two security guards fired on Soveto 13 februery. They wera fired after refusing transfer to another department. Workers cisim they ware forced to sign an agreement empowering hospital authorities to transfer workers at will. An sabulence driver has bean saspended following hie refeaal to be transferred. Workers' demands include the scrapping of the agreement forts; a minimum wage of R*50 a month; recognition of GAVU and the termination of the services of a private security conpsny.

Bophuthatsvane TAVU j 500 16.02* Maintenance steff stayed away from work on 16 February, and drivers on 17 and 18 February. They were 1 Transport Holdings 18.03 protesting UN's refusal to recognise IAWU. Management sold (AW vas a 'foreign trade union. Iheso (BIK) unions were not allowed in lophuthatsvana and so it coald not recognise TAWU. Six worker loaders were detained. FAVU claiea management tried to divide workers while management alleges the union intimidated workers. *y 25 February, 80 drivers had been dismissed. Jl 8TI employee, Licas Ketone, detained during the strike, vas released from detention In mid Kerch and three days later fired from •>. BIN also announced a fare increase on 18 Kerch. i n Coca Cola 2 500 25.05- Workers went on a go-slow at five plants In Pretoria and the Reef, Grievances included: withdrawal of the Coca-Cola Export Corp from SA; the future of workers in the new compeny, Amalgamated Severege Industries; the six-week bonus given only to some workers during the compeny centenery celebration.

Fedmis CW» 700 11-12.02 Workers voted in favour of a legal strike in protest at racial discrimination. Tha uni*n says block vorkers fill positions until whites have been trained to toko them over. Whites were else paid more for the same jobs*

Henred Fruehanf KAWU 1 000 10-19.02 Workers downed tools in protest against manageuent refuse] to re-instate a fired worker. MAWU said management had ignored disciplinary procedures. Kenagexent agreed to an Inquiry over tha dismissal.

Kohlar Corragfted PVAWU 250 25-02- Workers et the Brakpen plant vent on strike demanding an across-the-boord R25/veek increase. lohler •rekpan offered >v\ Worker* were evicted from the plant. Kohler sold union Meters et other plents had COHPANY AND AREA UNION WORKERS DATE EVENTS AND OUTCOME

occepted the PI? offer, negotiations continued end on 24 March the union rejected a aanegeaeflt offar of a R15 a week incraasa with a W transport allowance beckdated to January.

Maponya Bazaar CCA WIS* 05-23.03 CCAWUSA daclarad a dispute with Hiponye Bazaar following a wage deadlock, workers deaended a 1120 Sova to increese. Nanegeaent offered R45- Ihe present n*ni»un wage is *235. Sevan workers were fired on the eve of aedlatlon talks. At the talks Mosgeaent offered an across-the-board incraasa of 070 for unskilled workers and ft80 for supervisory The anion lowered Its deaend to ftH0. Folowing the failure of the talks the union has applied for a conciliation board.

Hathey lefineries CUIU 12.02- Workers voted to strike if MRS continued with plans to uove Its refinery to Bophethatswana and queried lustenburg whether aanageaent would pay the save wages there as in Wadeville. Workers said nanageaent refused to answer this Question during negotiations. MM then declared a dispute with workers and threatened to lock workers out If conciliation fails. When UK perent coejpany UK Johnson Mathey disaentled and shipped the plant to South Africa, hundreds of British workers lost their jobs.

Httel Box MWlt 2 000 02.02 Workers downed tools after a security guard was disnissed. White workers who stayed at work during the strike were physically reaoved by 60 block workers, four whites received ainor injuries. They returned to work after treatment. MAW* entered negotiations with lanegeaent to investigate 'possible reasons for the strike1.

Workers wont on strike when asnegeaent refused to Beet pay deaands. A conciliation board deadlocked. Mining Industrial Rubber Cirtu 700 1J.02 11.03 Workers deaended higher wages, equal pay for wonen, aaternlty leave, Nay Day end 16 June as paid holidays, paid leave and better bonuses. Workers returned to work after awjdletlon. They gained between 51* and 5W wage increases and recognition of May Day and 16 June as paid holidays.

Nafldl loird Hill) PWWU ? 000 02-10.02 Workers went on strike dennding an increase of 70c/hour, 25c aore than the S5c offered by •anegaajent. U«g.ni, Springs, 23.02 Agreeewjnt was finally reached* 55c/hour liniaua increase and 70 cents for highest grade worker. Plat Bititl, Falidon, Workers said they would start work when the increase was backdated to January. Workers returned to Ifllvlll* work on 10 February. On 2} February workers stopped work at the Bellville plant to protest a breakdown in wage negotietions.

01 Bizaars CMWUS* 10 000 18.12* On 25 februery, after a ten week strike In 120 outlets nationwide, U workers agreed to return to work 02.05 on Monday 2 March. CCAWUSA and OK reached a settleaent: Of 551 workers dismissed, 3M were reinsteted unconditionelly; R10O ecress-the*bosrd increases {&50 in April and R50 in hoveaber); a ainlaua wage of JlOO/ftontfc; increased staff discounts fro* 10* to 121; laproved aaternlty benefits Including payaent of negotiated Increases on return to work; privileged leave forfeited because of the strike to be reinstated; loans to assist staff with debts Incerrod during the strike; detelnees ensured of job security; arbitrators to handle dlsalssel and disciplinary cases froa the strike; goods confiscated by 01 because of arrears in HP payments to be returned; no vlctlalsetion of strikers. On 2 March 72 detained Alrode OK workers were released froie Nodderbee Prison efter en application was lodged with the Supreae Court. But by 11 March 21 01 workers froa Port Shepstone who were arrested j COMPANY AND AREA UNION WORKERsI DATE j EVENTS AMD OUTCOME

on 2Z January had still not been released- An application for tbeir release Was lodged with the Durban Supreme Court and the workers were released on 1} Kirch.

Pick '• Pay CCAWSA 17 000 05.03 CCAWUSA signed a fi 100 across-tfce-board wago increase agreement. It applies countrywide to Pick 'A Pay workers lining ft?50 or less, Miftagoneat recognised 1 Nay and 16 June as commemorative paid holidays.

Ike union end management reached agreement that workers on e project to create 300 temporary jots will PIM»JT EJWTI 300 Fab bo peid et the saw rate as permanent employees. They will else get fill mndieal and pension benefits, end will be considered first for pertinent jobs. Tke union will appoint M iccountant to monitor financial aspects of tke project.

land Hittr loard OVGWI 1 *. A union shop steward dismissed from a MB fsr* west of Johannesburg wis served with two eviction papers. It wis alleged the ton assaulted i fellow employee, but ke was not cbarged in court. OVGVU seid it hid esked for other workirs retrenched on 15 Jinuiry to be reinstated without loss of ply.

MIS SM4W0 6 000 12.02- Vorkirs boycotted food provided and protested against appalling living conditions at the JCaserne compound. They also insisted nensgonont should repay money dadacted for meals during the boycott. Vorkers recently burned down the kitchen. Workers In the Delnore compound neer Germiston raised • stmilor grievances. SATS mm gene nt said conditions in the kitchens ware receiving attention, and more telephones and an eitre IV set would bo Instilled - this ma*« two IV sets for 2 000 workers. In a second strikn at SATS in as nany tooths, 500 City Daip container depot workirs went on strike on 12 March after i drlvir vis disnissed dm to cash irrogularitiis - hi fillid to hind In cash on a Friday but did so on tka Monday. The driver appealed end wis reinstated. Hi wis fined 160. Vorkera wore not satisfied with this outcone. 0**r 5 000 ffisirne workers downed tools In synpithy and sold they would not return to work unliss the (80 fine was llftid, end they were paid for tht days spent on strike. Workers also donandid that disciplinary neisurea igalnst workers be opened for assessment by workers, that nanagonint consult with thin in decisions about workers' futures, and thet reclst practices be ebolishod. On 18 March, the Supreme Court issued City flip workers with in order prohibiting obstruction of the premises or those wanting to return to work. Hinegenent said It bald talks with worker representatives and reached an agreement. But SAfiftfVU slid the natter wis not risolved. The union with which SATS negotiated the issue was the SAIS-recognised Black Trade anion. SAIWU said BLAH was 'aggravating' the situation. SATS spokesnan said It did not recognise SAItfvU and would only talk to ILATU SAIS appointed an arbitrator to consider the ess* but SAIwVU objected as be was a SATS employee fro* another aroa. On 24 March train narshalls it Brianfontein %^4 langlaagte stations downed tools in synpithy with striking workers. By the end of March tho strike ked spread nationally and involved 1* 000 workers. The SAIS general nanagor wis given tho right to sunnarily dismiss workers.

laablaa Town Coucll SAWAWU 11.02 Council workers and municipal police nsolvad to tell township administrator Solomon Morn that he vis COMPANY AND AREA UNION WORKERS DATE EVENTS AMD OUTCOME

no longer needed. Workers surrounded the council offices Co prevent More getting to bis office. SABMAWV sild members vtrt dissatisfied with the way be handled wage demands. Workers also slid council PRO a Lawrence Pofcela should resign. Lost year, fembisa council employees wtnt on strike for three months for higher wages and union recognition. All were reinstated and the union recognised.

trinton Industrie* 10 12-03 Five women were dismissed with a promise they would be recalled 41 production Increased*. Retrenched coloured workers were hired that sue day. He next day five more women workers were fired, a week after industrial coeflcil officials visited the company to investigate complaints about low wages. Management denied hiring coloured workers. Strikes and Disputes: Natal Season Sweets fAWU 2 500 16.02- Workers went on strike following the dismissal of two stiop stewards. The union demanded the Moteni reinstatement of the shop stewards while allegations of misconduct were investigated. One shop steward was reinstated but suspended pending the investigation. The other was dismissed. The union claimed the dismissal was unfair. Management claimed that the action against the shop stewards was taken after an inquiry, loth the union and management agreed to arbitration on the matter. Ihe union demanded that the dismissed shop steward should be paid while arbitration was In progress. Management refused this demand. Workers returned to work. Management confirmed its decision to dismiss one shop steward and served a final warning on the other shop steward. On 13 February workers at the Port Cliiebeth depot staged a sit down strike in solidarity. Workers claimed they were locked oat on Monday 16 february. Ihe next day they were ellowed in bet were handed slips demanding their resignation which workers refused to sign. Workers at the C»pe Town depot soon took solidarity strihe action.

Clover Oairies TAW 168 The bitter dispute between FAWU and Clever continues. In June last year 168 workers were dismissed. Piotermerltiburg 966 Following lengthy negotiations management offered only selective reinstatement. After further negotiation management offered five workers with over 20 years service reinstatement and U workers with 10 years service employment In flerben. The remaining workers were offered three months pay. Ihe anion rejected the offer and demanded that all workers with over 17 years service be reinstated in Maritzburg, and workers with five years experience be enployed in Durban. The remainder should be paid eight months wages and given the option to fill vacancies that arose. Workers have embarked on a caa?aign for community and worker support and are performing a play to popelerise their plight.

Coates Brothers CWItf 1 2W 2J-J1.01 Workers went on strike over wage demands at two factories. Workers demanded an Increase of R32 a week. Islplngo Management offered R26. After negotiations workers accepted an offer of 129-20 and a reduced working week from 45 to 44 hours.

Nllm CVIO 1 2*0 29.01 Workers went on strike after rejecting nanageaent's offer of a 10* Increase. The dispute was settled after negotiations. Workers in the lowest grades got increases of op to 21,6*. Other gains were made: May Day and 16 Jane as paid holidays, improvements in overtime and shift allowances and the scrapping of a merit pay system in some grades. , I COMPANY AM) AREA UNION [WORKERS DATE EVENTS AND OUTCOME

fatal Dlt Castings WW 113 05.03 the Natal Supreao Court uphold an Industrial Coart ordtr to relastete 113 workers dlsalssed froa Betel Dia Castings following a striko. The coart also aainteined that the company's failure to negotiate la good faith constitated an unfair labour practlct. Strikes and Disputes: Cape Iruply PWWU 505 09.20.0; workers at the two Hondi owned, eruply sawmills went on strike following aanageaent's changing deainds In respect of vagt negotiations, PWAVU negotiated a wage agraeaent with tba coapany in 1986 bat had BO recognition agraeaent. As annual wage negotiations were due to start aanageaent refused to aegotiete wages unless a recognition agraeaent was signed first. Kanageaent thee changed its position and demanded that a dispute procedure be negotiated before wage negotiations. Fallowing negotiations the union won recognition and wage talks continued. The workers continued their strike denending an increase of 62 cents en hoar, backdating of increases and 1 Hay as a paid holiday. On 20 February aaaageaent aide a final offer of W cents an hoar. Vorkors accepted the offer and returned to work.

Raapak nun 100 27.11 Onion dissatisfaction over annual wage talks led to a nuaber of strikes at the plant. Following the lallfUIa 23.02 27 Hoveaber strike, aanageaent agreed to the appointment of a conciliation board. However the union 05-O9.0: denanded further negotiations outside the auspices of the beard. Manageaent refused and workers went on strike on 2} Fetoruery. Vorkors returned to work the following day. The concilietlon board failed to resolve the dispute but workers agreed to a aanageaent offer of 55c/hour for the lowest paid grades. Vorkors went on strike egain on > March in protest over the lapleaentetion date of the wage increases. Management said the Increase would be iapleaeited as froa the date of agraeaent, the workers deaanded that It be backdated to 1 Jenuary. Police were celled la on 6 March and aore than SO workers were arrested. Workers returned to work on 9 March following agraeaent with aanageaent over backdating of wage increases.

General Motors HUW 27.03 Hanageaent applied to the Industrial Court for an order declaring that demands for severance pay and Port Elizabeth the payout of contributions to the group Ufa and pension scheaes aide by NAAVU daring the strike last ttoveaber unfair labour prectices. Alternatively GM (now Delta Motor Corp) asked for a declaration that the coapany has no obligation to aeke such payaents to workers who reaained in its enploy, and no obligation to bargain on severance payaents. Strikes and Disputes: Mines 1 Chaafcer of Mines MMI The Charter is taking the white Minevorkers Union to the Industrial Court following union aeabers refusal to train coloured winding-engine drivers. 15 1 • HUN 1 000 16.03 Miners went en strike after Transkei authorities allegedly refused to allow workers to attend a funeral in the territory. They deaanded aanageaent take e stand on the decision. Miners returned efter

• • J telks between the union end aaaegeaeat. CONPANT AND AREA UNION WORKERS DATE EVENTS AND OUTCOME

Johannesburg HUN 4 OOO March following a XI decision to mechanise its Western Areas end *andfofiUIr Estates nines, 4 000 miners Consolidated Investnents fact retrenchment. NUN has entered Into negotiations over possible alternatives but no solution lias been found.

COSATU LIVING WAGE CJWAI6I Unions representing the largely white, stilled HEALTH AM SAFETY The COSATil living wage campaign is tore than en workers presented deaends focused on wages and The Construction snd Allied Workers Union economic struggle. 'It ia e struggle against working conditions, MAWJ subaitted a number of (CAW), launched in Februery, will make health apartheid-capitalism which is built on eltrd- demands for 1967 to the Industrial Council for and safety its most important campaign this cheap, ultra-controllable and super-exploitable the Metal Industry. Those are part of its living year. This follows an accident at a Phelaborwe 1 labour . The campaign Includes demands for: wage campaign. The unions under the INT largely mine where eight workers were Injured - three of >4,50 minlmmm wage in the Mtal Industry; en supported these demands which Include: minimum them were blinded. CAWU said the employor - across-the-board 581 increase ia the mini eg M/mmur; » guaranteed minimum increase of Clifford Karris - felled to co-operate in the industry; snorter working tours; the demand for ftl/hour across-the-board; no PATE to be deducted Investigation, did not say whether workers were Hay jay,it June and Sharpevllle Bay to be from wages - HAW argues thet workers should not covered by the Workmen's Compensation Act, and observed as paid holidays; scrapping the Migrant have to pay tares which go to military spending; would not divulge names of the injured and where labour system; scrapping of Income to*. C05AT8 no jobs should bo lost as a result of sanctions they were being treated. sees Me living wage demand as a shert-ter* * Mf necessary, the effects should be absorbed solution * as long as bosses are allowed to pet by profits1; a 40-hoor working week; that their Interests first, there will not be i workers should not bo dismissed for 1966 STMIE TIEMS lasting solution to workers' problems. participating in industrial action after Last year: 323 858 workers were Involved In The aass rally planned to laench the csapalgn deadlock has been reeched and strike ballots strikes; 100 53? were involved in stoppages; In Sowoto was banned and an application to the conducted; Improved meternity benefits; sad paid there were 643 strikes and 150 stoppsges; , Suprasa Court to have this overturned failed. leave on 1 Nay and 16 June. 1 306 956 working hours - 750 WO »manday$ - COSAIU has also boon refused permission to hold were lost through strikes and stoppages; more launching rallies la a amber of other areas. than 2 000 cases were referred to the industrial Um AIOTAL COhGUSS THE MAY OAT CAMPAIGN coert; 174 recognition agreements, and 1 090 The major resolutions passed at the fifth NDH The doaand for 1 Nay and 16 Juno as paid other agreements were signed; there were 1 294 congress included; * a tfeaand for a 55* across holidays has boon Included in most union wage applications for concillotloa boards - 506 were the board increase la the 196? wage and condition negotiations during the past year. approved; 36,9f of disputes before conciliation negotiations; * support for sanctions end And many employers have conceded the demand. On boards were settled; 46 registered trade unions dlsiavestaont; * crltlciea of the migrant labour 21 Hare* 1967, State President Botha, pushed still confined membership to whites, 1? to system and ethnically divided hostels and a into taking some action, announced that the colourads and 23 to blacks only; there were 109 challenge to mine-owners to sake a statement of first Friday la Nay would be a holiday called racially miiad registered unions and 5? 706 Intent to abolish thea; * support for 1 Nay and 'Workers Day1. He thus ettemptod to side-step union members not classified according to 16 June es public holidays; * an inquiry intP recognising Hay Day, but conceded a holiday on population group; the overage Increase in block health and safety on the mines; * adoption of his terms, workers nationally have rejected wages for 1985 and 1986 was 11,5*; 3* 216 the Freedom Charter; * calling for an end to tfi* 'Workers fray' aad Intend to coatinae the push illegal workers were sent from SA to state of emergency. for Hay day. CUSA said it would also push for 21 neighbouring stetes; of these 5 000 were NCTU WAGE TALIS Harch (Sharpoville day) and 19 October (when deported to Mozambique in Hovamber and December; These talks effect more thea 3W 000 workers, black consciousness organisations were banned in 300 illegels e month cross from Rmnblquo to the largest number of employees In one industry. 1977) to be declared paid public holidays. South Africa. WIP TOMORROW BEGINS AI WITS TODAY LOOKING FOR A JOB IN PRIMARY HEALTHCARE? The Hearth Services Development Unit has two vacant doctor potts. W* nwd dOOlVSto Mp us Mm Primary HeaRh Cara Nurses {PHCNs). We on a yaar-long course ai Tintswalo Hospital (near Acomhoek and (he Kruoar WIP National Park), training PHCNs kom bSe north-eastern Transvaal region. The eouse aims to produce caring PHCNs who can ctegnose and (real ccmmon conditions, manage cfrnics. and who understand the social aspects c* health and disease. Other work can include clinical sessions in the hospital, research and conWx*ng lo our other protects: a women's village devetopmeni programme, a continuingteaming programm e lor PHCNs; prepanng teaming materials lor PHCNs. training teachers o* PHCNs, a proposed v*age hearth worker training is looking for; programme; co-on*nat»ngfinal yea r medical students on their ruraf Wock- The successful appfceant must be prepared to v*xk at Tintswato Hospital The sianing time tor tne job is negotiable, but we would like the apptaant to beg*i worvassooni • distributors What skills do you require? The Wiowing skills are desirable, but most ol the skills can also beteamed o n the job: Adult educated. Primary health care: Onical care Applicants should * sellers be preparedto work as part erf a team of health vokers, Conditions of employment Housing is provided at a nominal rent and salaries are negottabie according to experience and ouafcficatons Opportunities also existtor ow n professional seW- Phone: devetopmfn* andI for lor visfrnvisin go othed r programmes, conferences, seminars, etc Whotisthe Hearth Services Development Unit? (011)403-1586 We are pert ol lha Departnent of Corrmurity Health al the University ol the Witwaiersrand Mec*cal School with a mandate to initiate innovative and experimental primary health care protects. (011)403-1912 For further information, contact Cedricde Beer al (011)647^2269 of 647-2051. CWrtWkim vttoe and the 21«. Or write to: UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSR AND SARS, Wits 2050 It is the policy ol the University not to discriminate on grounds of P.O. Box 32716, sex, race, colour or national origin. Braamfontein, 2017

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Page National Youth Congress Launched Page 8: White Election EMERGENCY FORCES NEW FORMS OF ORGANISATION 3

White Election THE CRUCIAL ISSUE IS BLACK POLITICS 8

The Pan Afrlcanist Congress ALLEGED GUERILLAS AND ACTIVISTS IN COURT 15

Gains for Women METAL WORKERS WIN NATIONAL MATERNITY BENEFITS 19

Page 24: Namibian Trial Windhoek Terrorism Trial POLICE ADMIT TORTURE 24

Activists on Trial DUDUZA'S CIVIL WAR 28

DET and Communities Negotiate BACK TO SCHOOL IN THE EASTERN CAPE 34

STRIKES AND DISPUTES 37

Page 28: Duduza's Civil War

The nature of Work In Progress, which is to stimulate debate and present views on a wide range of issues, ensures that the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial collective.

Work h Progress, a publication of theSouthern African Research Service, is published by an editorial collective, 37 Jorrisen Street, Braamfontein. PO Box 32716, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017.