Issue 53 details unequal prison conditions between male and female political prisoners, focusing on the treatment of Barbara Hogan and Dorothy Nyembe. It reports detentions, including youth activists, trade unionists, and ANC affiliates; describes major political trials involving ANC members and community leaders; and explores repression in Transkei, Venda, and the Ciskei. Also covered are education protests, the election boycott campaign, censorship battles over the Freedom Charter, and the release of Namibian political prisoners from Robben Island. The issue also includes coverage of SWAPO harassment, student resistance, and university unrest.

Issue 54 details condemnations of Namibian security legislation, torture and overcrowding in prisons, living conditions for Black Namibians, mass arrests of SWAPO leaders, ongoing township protests in South Africa, youth and student trials, and political detentions under apartheid. It features extensive evidence from the Namibian Bar Council challenging the legitimacy and brutality of the state's policing and detention laws, while also documenting high-profile trials and growing resistance movements.

This issue of the News Bulletin focuses on political repression in Southern Africa, with a particular emphasis on Namibia and South Africa during mid-1986. It covers the Ai-Gams Declaration and the mobilization for Namibian independence, education struggles and student protests, SWAPO's military offensive against South African occupation forces, and the clampdown on information by South African authorities. The bulletin includes detailed reports of military actions, political trials, detentions, new laws under the state of emergency, and the repression of labour movements.