Volume TWO Chapter THREE The state inside South Africa between 1960 and 1990 I INTRODUCTION 1 The security forces used both overt and clandestine methods to suppress resistance and counter armed actions by opponents of apartheid. Overt methods included bannings and banishment, detention without trial, judicial executions and public order policing. More clandestine and covert forms of control included torture, extra-judicial killings and support for surrogate forces. I BANNINGS AND BANISHMENT 2 Between 1950 and 1990, the former state restricted the lives and activities of political activists and other individuals it considered a threat through the use of orders of listing, banning and banishment. Although listing was an intrusion on civil liberties, the Commission does not regard it as a gross violation of human rights. A listed person could not be quoted, could not hold parliamentary office and could not practise law. 3 The laws which provided for such restrictions included the Riotous Assemblies Act (1930), the Suppression of Communism Act (1950), the Public Safety Act (1953), the General Laws Amendment Act (1962), the Suppression of Communism Amendment Act (1967, amended 1972), the Terrorism Act (1976), and the Internal Security Acts (1976 & 1982). Banishment 4 The 1927 Native Administration Act empowered the Minister of Bantu Administration and Development (acting through the Governor General) to order “any tribe or native” to proceed forthwith to any designated place and not to leave it again VOLUME 2 CHAPTER 3 The State inside South Africa between 1960 and 1990 PAGE 165 without permission “whenever [the Minister deemed] it expedient in the general public interest”. No specific reason for the banishment was needed; the ‘removal’ of the individual was in the interest of “maintaining peace and good order in the tribe”. Banished people were not charged in a court of law and had no opportunity to defend themselves. 5 By 1960, up to ninety-seven people had been banished, most of them chiefs and headmen who had opposed the Bantu Authorities system and other aspects of government policy. In 1986, over forty persons were still banished. Eleven had died in banishment. 6 Banished people were sent to isolated farms on Native Trust land, where they were usually given work as labourers. Some went alone; others were sent to camps built for groups of six or more. Both they and those who visited them speak of their extreme poverty and near-starvation. Those who were not given work were entitled to an allowance of about R4 per month, though not all received this. A banishment order was indefinite and remained in force until the government gave permission for the banished person to return home. 7 Mr Ben Baartman [CT00822/BRE], an active African National Congress (ANC) member in Worcester, was forced to move to the Ngwavuma area in Zululand in 1959. In 1961, he fled to Swaziland. 8 In 1960, the South African Police (SAP) burnt down the houses of Mr Zetule Siqa [EC1770/97ETK] and his father in Bizana, Transkei, under the orders of the local chief Makhosonko Marhelane Sigcawu. Both Siqa and his father were involved in iKongo (ANC) activities. They were then banished to Tabankulu for a period of nine months. 9 In June 1969, Mr Rangoezi G Tshikilange [JB01421/02NPVEN] was deposed as chief of Tshififi in the northern Transvaal, and banished to the farm ‘Ardath’ in the Kuruman district. His wife died in childbirth and their baby died soon after- wards due to lack of medical attention. In February 1974, his banishment order was lifted and replaced with a house arrest order. He lost another child when he was unable to take the child to hospital. 10 Ms Nozithandiso Olga Siliza told the Commission that her husband, Mr Mzwandile Siliza [EC1287/96NWC], was tortured and that she and her family were severely ill treated in Cradock and Queenstown from 1963 to 1987. Her husband, the VOLUME 2 CHAPTER 3 The State inside South Africa between 1960 and 1990 PAGE 166 secretary of the Cradock ANC branch, was arrested and imprisoned on Robben Island from 1963 to 1966. He was assaulted by prison warders and his teeth were broken. After his release, the family were banished from Cradock to Queenstown. As a result of the conditions under which they had to live, Ms Siliza’s baby died after three months. They had no money for a coffin, so it was buried in a card- board box. 11 Mr Cijimpi Mnyandu [KZN/NN/233/DN] from Umbumbulu on the Natal South Coast was banished to the Sibasa area of Shayandima (later known as Venda). He died of pneumonia at the Tshelethsini hospital in 1964. 12 Mr Jobo Titus was banished to the Transkei after serving six years on Robben Island. After ten years of banishment, on 8 December 1982, Titus fled to Lesotho. The next day he was killed in the South African Defence Force (SADF) cross-border raid in Maseru. Banning 13 Banning of persons took place between 1951 and 1990. Its purpose was similar to that of ‘preventive’ detention – to ensure withdrawal from the political arena. The duration of banning orders ranged from one to five years, but an order could be successively applied. The longest period of banning on record is that of Mr Rowley Arenstein, who was banned for twenty-six years from 1960 to 1986. 14 A banned person was restricted to a specific magisterial area. When this area was not the banned person’s home area, the banning order effectively became a banishment order as well. This is what happened, for example, when Ms Winnie Mandela was banished to Brandfort in the Orange Free State in 1977. Similarly, many prisoners leaving Robben Island after serving their sentences were served with orders banning them to remote areas. 15 Banning orders often restricted people’s involvement in organisations, as well as their ability to publish. Banned persons were not permitted to communicate with each other and many orders restricted them from attending social gatherings of more than one person. 16 Banning orders were imposed on social and political activists from all spheres of civil society. In many cases, the Security Branch provided the Ministry of Justice with flimsy and inadequate reasons for bannings. During 1986, a number of VOLUME 2 CHAPTER 3 The State inside South Africa between 1960 and 1990 PAGE 167 successful court challenges were brought against banning orders, on the grounds that the reasons the Minister was required to give under section 25 of the Internal Security Act were invalid. From then on, no banning orders were issued under the Internal Security Act. Instead, use was made of wider powers under state of emergency regulations. Many of those released from state of emergency detention during the 1988–89 period were served with restriction orders. 17 The terms of restriction orders made people vulnerable to attack. In April 1989, United Democratic Front (UDF) activist Chris Ntuli was stabbed to death in KwaMashu, Durban, shortly after reporting to the police station in terms of the restriction order placed on him after his release from emergency detention. All state of emergency restriction orders were withdrawn on 2 February 1990. 18 The Commission heard that Mr Zolile ‘Zollie’ Malindi [CT00510/FLA] received a two-year banning order in 1961, a further five-year order in 1963 and a third order in 1968. The order cost him his job in the Cape Town magisterial district. When he finally found a job, he lived in fear of losing it as police frequently disturbed him at work. 19 Ms Nobuhle Mohapi [EC9997/96PLZ], whose husband Mr Mapetla Mohapi died in detention in 1976, was banned after spending six months in solitary confine- ment. She told the Commission about the disruption to her family and work: Then I was released. I took my children from my in-laws. Just a week after I took them, the police came and they arrested me. I had to take my children to my in-laws again and [in] another week I was released again. Thereafter my in-laws preferred that I should leave the children so that they cannot be affected by these removals … The children were attending school at the time but, because I was under a banning order, I was unable to visit them. I … could not escort my little one to school like any other parent … I was unable to get jobs and was labelled as a terrorist … In 1979 I got a job in a furniture shop. I was employed for five days and the police came again at Ellerines where I was working and they took me again. I was paid for the five days that I worked and was told that the job was finished. 20 Submissions describing periods spent under banning orders were also received from Mr George Gangen Poonen [KZN/SELF/098/DN], Ms Mary Turok [CT02912/ GAU], Mr Ben Turok [CT00474/GAU], Mr Christmas Fihla Tinto [CT004771/HEL] and Mr Baderoon Ismail Bakardien [CT01112/SOU]. VOLUME 2 CHAPTER 3 The State inside South Africa between 1960 and 1990 PAGE 168 IN ITS DELIBERATIONS OVER WHAT CONSTITUTED SEVERE ILL TREATMENT, THE COMMISSION HAS INCLUDED BANNING AND BANISHMENT ORDERS. IT IS THUS THE FINDING OF THE COMMISSION THAT ALL THOSE UPON WHOM SUCH ORDERS WERE IMPOSED SUFFERED A GROSS VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, FOR WHICH THE FORMER GOVERNMENT AND IN PARTICULAR THE MINISTERS OF JUSTICE AND LAW AND ORDER ARE HELD ACCOUNTABLE. I JUDICIAL EXECUTIONS 21 The former state was reputed to have one of the highest rates of judicial execution in the world. In the period covered by the Commission’s mandate, over 2 500 people were hanged, 1 154 between 1976 and 1985.