This issue of 'Focus' documents the forced removals of black South Africans from designated 'black spots' and rural communities, including KwaNgema and Huhudi, during 1984-1985. It details government policies, legal challenges, and community resistance to removals to bantustans such as KaNgwane, KwaZulu, and Bophuthatswana. The publication also provides statistics from the Surplus People Project and references to media coverage. It outlines the objectives and international affiliations of IDAF, and includes a catalogue of IDAF publications.

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 43 provides in-depth coverage of labour repression in South Africa, including mass strikes, police violence, dockworker and miner disputes, and the suppression of the General Workers Union. It documents political trials of ANC members, including those of Barbara Hogan, Alan Fine, and others, with graphic accounts of torture. The issue includes updates on detentions and preventive detention under the new Internal Security Act, the massacre at Oshikuku (Namibia), SWAPO activities, and constitutional reforms aimed at entrenching apartheid. A full list of political detainees and those who died in custody since 1963 is also included.

This issue highlights escalating political repression, including deaths in detention (notably Joseph Mdluli), torture under the Terrorism Act, and mass arrests in South Africa, Namibia, and Rhodesia. It covers the Namibian SWAPO trial, state violence against Black Consciousness members, demolitions in Windhoek, and rural forced removals in South Africa (Majeng case). Also includes updates on political trials and mass arrests in Zimbabwe.

This issue reports the mass banning of Black Consciousness organisations and individuals on 19 October 1977, including the SASO, BPC, and Soweto Students’ Representative Council. It details arrests, detentions, and police violence during student uprisings and protests, particularly in Soweto, Eastern Cape, and universities. Coverage includes Steve Biko’s death in detention, memorial actions, and international solidarity. Rhodesian repression, Namibian occupation, and emergency powers in Bophuthatswana and Ciskei are also covered. Political trials, such as the Pretoria Twelve and Springs Six, and inquests into deaths in detention are documented.