SOUTH AFRICA: TRIAL BY TORTURE - The Case of The 22. Published by: The International Defence and Aid Fund, 2, Amen Court, London, E.C.U. - 2 - TRIAL BT TORTURE The Case of The 22 CONTENTS Page Foreword 3 I. The Accused and the Charges 6 II. The Arrests 10 III. The TTial 12 IV. The Torture Ordeal 21 V. Fiendish Torture 30 VI. The Court Refuses 37 VII. The Two Who Would Not Testify Ho VIII. The Question of Justice h1 FOREWORD The South African Government spends an enormous amount of money on propaganda. Hostile world reactions to the Sharpeville shootings of i960 and still more the consequent flight of capital, affected even the isolationist Afrikaners very deeply and over the last ten years universal efforts have been made to present South Africa favourably to the outside world. This effort and the vast sums of money expended upon it, have met with consider­ able success. Large numbers of people, particularly British business men, politicians, journalists and others have been invited to South Africa, taken on guided tours, fed with various kinds of "information" and have returned to tell travellers' tales of the success of apartheid, of the happiness of the coloured people, of the stability and tranquillity of this smiling and beautiful land where white people certainly enjoy the highest standard of living in the world. The International Defence and Aid Fund is not in the above sense a propagandist organisation. It does not have vast sums of money to spend, and even if it did it could make better use of it. But in the course of its work it does acquire a great deal of information about life in South Africa, particularly as it affects the non-European majority of the population. This information is always scrupulously checked and counter-checked. Then, if it seems appropriate, it is made public; we believe in letting the facts about South Africa and its practice of Apartheid speak for themselves. If South Africa is so stable and peaceful it seems curious that so many (nearly all black or Coloured) people are imprisoned, banned, detained incommunicado in solitary confinement for months on end, harassed, spied upon, informed upon and, when all else fails, submitted to savage physical and mental torture. For a long time now we have been receiving increasingly horrifying stories of the activities of the police in political - k - trials. The latest is the trial of the 22 which involves among others Mrs. Winnie Mandela, wife of the African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, now serving a life sentence on Robben Island. A certain amount of information about this trial has already appeared in the British press, but it has seemed to us important to try to collect together as much factual information as possible and to present a readable as well as a documented and consistent account of this appalling case. In my opinion, this is precisely what this pamphlet does. And I believe it is of paramount importance that the world, and the whites in South Africa, should know clearly and in detail what methods are being used to impose the dogma of Apartheid upon some 15 million allegedly grateful non-Europeans. At the present time, in Great Britain, there is widespread controversy surrounding the proposed visit of the white South African cricket team. This has produced, as a kind of side issue, discussion about the nature and practice of Apartheid. To read the correspondence columns of British newspapers, to study the utterances and writings of some public figures in Britain, is to be made aware once again of the success of South African propaganda machine and of widespread ignorance about the true nature of the present policies of the white South African Government. This Government in fact maintains a police state of a peculiarly corrupt and vicious nature; the evidence is in this pamphlet. But people have a remarkable capacity for not believing what they do not want to believe, and not seeing or hearing what they do not want to see or hear. This capacity is very evident among white South Africans, and also unfortunately among the British people whose interest it is to do business with South Africa, to play games with white South Africa and to visit South Africa for holidays in the sun. "Bridges" such as these have existed for more than $0 years and "whites only" have been happily and blindly going backwards and forwards across them. Meanwhile, the imposition of Apartheid has become progressively more inhuman, more vicious, more cruel, more intransigent, and literally more murderous. Surely the time has now been reached when the "bridge builders" realise that this activity is valueless and serves only to endorse the policies of Apartheid, White South Africans cannot claim, as the Germans under Hitler, that they do not know what is being done in their name. They know, and the overwhelming majority do not heed. And they will continue to close their eyes and to stop their ears so long as the rest of the world accepts them comfortably, so long as it trades with them, plays with them, holidays with them, so long as it too closes its eyes and stops its ears. It is against some such background as this that I hope this pamphlet will be read. Everything here is authenticated, and the accounts of torture are taken from sworn legal affidavits. For those who are Christians, I would add one further plea: the present white South African Government proclaims itself as the upholder and defender of Christian values and the Christian way of life in Africa; it invokes a religious sanction for the infamous practices that are here described. Blasphemy such as this must be continually and relentlessly exposed. L. JOHN COLLINS * * * * * - 6 - TRIAL BY TORTURE I. THE ACCUSED AND THE CHARGES Seventeen men and five women were arraigned before the South African Supreme Court in Pretoria on December 1, 1969 on 21 charges under the Suppression of Communism Act. The scene of the trial was the Old Synagogue, which had been used in the 1956-60 Treason Trial and other political trials of large groups. The atmosphere at the opening of the proceedings was familar to South African political trials: armed police guarded the court buildings. They stood at all entrances with sub-machine guns; they were seen to frisk civilians entering the courtyard; women spectators were not permitted to take their handbags into the courtroom and were ordered to leave the bags outside on a cement path; journalists were made to produce their Press identification cards. Inside the courtroom, constables armed with automatic pistols sat behind and at the ends of the rows of accused. The 22 who were charged were:- Mr. Samson Ratshivande Ndou Mr. David Motau Mrs. Nonzoma Winnie Mandela Mr. Hiengani Jackson Mahlaule Mr. Elliot Goldberg Tshabangu Miss Joyce Nomala Sikakane Mr. Nanko Paulus Matshaba Mr. Lawrence Ndzanga Mrs. Rita Anita Ndzanga Mr. Joseph Sikalala Mr. David Dalton Tsotetsi Mr. Victor Emmanuel Mazitulela j-v Mr. George Mokwebo Mr. Joseph Chamberlain Nobanda Mr. Simon Mosikare Mr. Douglas Mtshetshe Mvembe Miss Venus Thokozile Mngoma - 7 - Miss Martha Dhlamini Mr. Owen Msimilele Vanqa Mr. Livingstone Mancoko Mr. Peter Zexforth Magubane Mr. Samuel Solomon Pholotho There were 21 charges, relating mainly to activities concerned with the African National Congress (ANC) which after campaigning for political rights for Africans for 50 years, was declared an unlawful organisation in I960. It was alleged that the accused hadj- • Established groups and committees within the African National Congress; • Administered and/or took the oath of the ANC; • Recruited members or encouraged one another to recruit members for the ANC; • Arranged, attended or addressed meetings of the ANC; • Inspected trains and railway installations at Braamfontein, Croesus, Booysens and Crown and searched for the Langeberg Co-operative with the object of finding suitable targets and methods for committing acts of sabotage; • Devised means for obtaining explosives; • Discussed, distributed or possessed publications issued by the overseas branches of the ANC, the South African Communist Party and the South African Indian Congress and conducted correspondence with the overseas branches of the ANC and/or with the co-conspirators; • Prepared, discussed, distributed, possessed or concealed literature and/or correspondence of the ANC and the correspondence in the previous charge; • Propagated the communist doctrine by means of discussions, speeches and lectures; - 8 - • Discussed matters affecting the ANC with Philip Ralph Golding and gave instructions to him regarding his visit to the overseas branch of the ANC; • Discussed with Philip Ralph Golding and/or Lucas Johann Opperman steps to raise finances for the ANCj • Visited or arranged visits to members of the ANC in prisons at Nylstroom and Robben Island, their dependents and ex­ prisoners with the object of obtaining information and/or instructions for the organisation; • Discussed the establishment of contact with guerilla fighters in the event of their arrival within the Republic; • Arranged a funeral under the auspices of the ANC for Meremetsi Lekoto, the attendance of members and the delivery of speeches in furtherance of the aims of the organisation; • Arranged a funeral for Lameck Loabile, the attendance of members and the delivery of speeches in furtherance of the aims of the organisation; • Secured and made use of post-boxes and cover addresses for the delivery of mail addressed to the organisation and its members; • Encouraged members to listen to radio broadcasts by the ANC in Tanzania; • Encouraged feelings of hostility between the white and non-white races of the Republic; • Discussed the feasibility of sending certain members out of the Republic and/or encouraged certain members to leave the Republic in the interests of the organisation; • Had informal discussions and issued instructions in regard to the conducting of the affairs of the organisation; - 9 - * They were alternatively charged with wrongfully and unlawfully performing acts which were calculated to further the achievement of an object of communism.