Issue 55 chronicles the intensified resistance to apartheid in South Africa, focusing on rent boycotts, township uprisings, school and university protests, mass detentions, and political trials. It documents electoral boycotts of the segregated parliament, bans on political gatherings, deaths in detention, and brutal state repression. Coverage includes SWAPO's military and political strength in Namibia, press censorship, and war zone atrocities in the Kavango region. Also featured are trials of student activists, trade unionists, and members of banned organisations such as the ANC and AZAPO.
Namibia
79 Archival description results for Namibia
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.
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.
This issue reports on the release of SWAPO leader Herman Toivo ja Toivo, his public reaffirmation of SWAPO's mission, and the continued detention of Kassinga survivors. It features court actions to free detainees, detailed lists of those imprisoned, and affidavits documenting torture and unlawful detention under Proclamation AG9. It covers new detentions, student protests, pass law convictions, school boycotts, the Alexandra bus boycott, forced removals, and increasing repression in Namibia and Venda. Major sections report on death in detention, political trials, abuses by security forces, and a growing list of detainees. The newsletter also documents the high-profile trial of journalist Gwen Lister and the deportation of British researcher Alun Roberts.
This issue details South Africa’s continued occupation and military offensive in southern Angola (Operation Askari), systematic torture of detainees in Namibia, SWAPO trials, and the expansion of South Africa’s armed forces. Key topics include Ida Jimmy’s reduced sentence, Kavango detainees' torture affidavits, political trials involving ANC and PAC members, censorship enforcement, and high-profile detentions. It also highlights poverty in Namibia, with case studies revealing the state’s discriminatory benefit policies and extreme deprivation. Notable incidents include the Robben Island protest for elderly detainee release, the ‘roasting’ torture case in Kavango, and multiple political trials including that of Sister Mary Bernard Ncube.
Issue 50 covers the widespread rejection of South Africa’s new constitution by black communities, intensified state repression through arrests, treason trials, and censorship. It documents the brutal crackdown on the United Democratic Front (UDF), mass arrests in Namibia’s Kavango region, detentions of students and clergy, torture, trials under the Internal Security Act, and township resistance. The issue also includes coverage of Inkatha violence, the banning of political meetings, police shootings, and hanging secrecy policies. An obituary for Alex Hepple is included.
This issue details escalating political repression across Southern Africa. It includes the Soweto uprising, Rhodesia’s curfews, civilian deaths, forced removals, summary justice via emergency courts, ANC surveillance, and SWAPO trials and executions. Also covers censorship, political detentions, and the enforcement of the Afrikaans language in schools. Notable legal developments and testimonies about torture and irregular trials are presented.
Issue 49 focuses on violent repression of SWAPO activism in Namibia during the UN Secretary-General’s visit, the ongoing arrests and torture of activists, and bans on key political figures. It includes detailed lists of restricted and detained persons, coverage of constitutional resistance through the UDF’s launch, and increasing detentions of students and trade unionists in South Africa. It also highlights the torture of detainees, psychiatric abuse, and the use of treason trials to suppress dissent. The issue documents major political trials, mass protests, state censorship, and population clearances in the Kavango region of Namibia.
This issue highlights post-execution protests, a new death sentence, eleven treason charges in the Eastern Cape, renewed banning orders, and worsening prison conditions for political detainees. It covers township protests in Soweto and East London, police repression of rent and transport protests, numerous detentions including youth activists and clergy, and the extensive use of Section 50 of the Internal Security Act. Reports include detailed updates on treason trials, executions, state witness manipulations, prison deaths, media censorship in Namibia, the banning of Archbishop Denis Hurley's statements, and mass grave discoveries. Notably, the issue records a police massacre during a transport boycott in Mdantsane.
This issue documents the worsening prison conditions for Nelson Mandela and fellow political prisoners at Pollsmoor Prison, state-sanctioned forced removals and the killing of community leader Saul Mkhize, child malnutrition and mortality in resettlement camps, mass detentions and psychiatric abuse of detainees, repression in the Ciskei bantustan, and the execution of ANC guerrillas. It provides updates on extensive political trials including Oscar Mpetha, Cedric Mayson, Siphiwe Makhathini, and Angula Mwaala (SWAPO). The issue contains a special review of state witnesses, torture allegations, and continuing evidence of apartheid legal manipulation and brutality.