Alexander and ten others, who face the ‘death penalty for alleged violation of South Africa's fascist-like “anti-Communist™ laws, abruptly postponed at the end of December, was scheduled to resume February 6 in Cape Town, The defendants, who have been held since last July, include seven men and four women,
“During the suspension of the trial, the men were taken to the prison at Robben Island,
The case ‘has been given sensational treatment in the South - African press, but has met with a conspiracy of silence throughout. the rest of the world except in Germany where Dr, Alexander, a brilliant. scholar, -is well known, | Se
Strangest of all has been the silence in the press in the United States, especially the Negro press where one would imagine that a’ figtire’ as prominent as Dr, Alexander would at least be introduced to the civil-rights fighters in. the U.S. whose struggle has much in common with the one in South Africa represented by a nonwhite leader like Dr. Alexander,
The defendants are accused of the political crime of opposing the policy of apartheid, The specific charge is "sabotage," although no act is alleged beyond the distribution of pamphlets. An "alternative" charge is "furthering the aims of Communism,”
In the effort to convict them, the prosecution has relied mostly on standard books and pamphlets by such authors as Lenin and Marx found in Dr, Alexander's voluminous private library. These have been read into the record by the prosecution, —— Lo Atmosphere of Terror
Witnesses forced into court by the prosecution have served to demonstrate what an atmosphere of terror reigns in South Africa. A stool pigeon, stumbling over discrepancies, confessed in court that his evidence was offered under instruction from the police,
The prosecution witness Cecil Dempster -denied having been in Cape ‘Town in August. Under cross-examination he broke down, and, in a _
m1 4e
"muffled voice," admitted: "Your Honour, the police said it was a secret. « «
Other witnesses refused to testify. Three Negroes who declined to take the oath, Cyril Wallace Jacobs, Daniel Zwavel and Jusef Lucas were punished by’ being placed under charges of “sabotage,” Had they given evidence "to the satisfaction of the court" they would have been indemified."
The January issue of the South African magadne Drum carries a round~up with pictures of the defendants in the various sabotage trials now going on in the country. As one of many instances of the use of torture by the police it cites the following concerning one of the defendants.in the Alexander case:
Marcus Solomons, 23-year-old primary school teacher, told’ the - Cape Supreme Court on "December LO that he had been hit in’ the face five times, kneed in the stomach about seven times and then painfully sat on by bet. Sergeant van Wyk of the Cape Security Police.
"Solomons said the torture started after he had refused to tell Van Wyk where a photostat machine was hidden, ‘Eventually I told him that Lionel Davis, another accused, had the machine they were Tooking fore
‘"tWhen he came in I told Lionel the police were hitting me and said he had better tell them where the machine was,!
"Solomons said that, before the torture started, Detective Ser~ geant Oliver had told him 'all that you read in the newspapers about torture is true and we will use it on you,'!" Record of Torture
A publication called Liberation, alleged to have been edited by Dr, Alexander, was introduced by the state as evidence. One of the articles concerned the use of torture by South Africa's police. An extract, read into the court record, was reported by the Cape Town Post as follows:
"The document reads: ‘When does a State resort to torture to obtain information about the subversive activities of the oppressed? . Answer =-~ very simple. When it has its back to the wall, when it is struggling for its very existence, This is the situation in White~ controlled South Africa today, When the General Law Amendment Bill became law, torture in South Africa was legalised, .
"tthis, of course, comes as a surprise, Torture has long been known to have been used on prisoners =-- both criminal and political «= to get information, This, however, had to be done in such a manner that the law court and the public did not come to hear of it, Today the situation has changed,
"ta person can be detained for 90-day periods for questioning
al5-
without ever appearing in court. This will, in fact, mean indefinite periods of torture,! a
-YAafter saying that South Africa could expect !brutal! methods of persuasion similar to those used by the French in Algeria, the document proceeds: ,
“tEyen before the G.L.A. Bill became law, allegations of torture were made in practically every case in which the accused was arrested for "subversive" activities, .
"riThe allegation, very significantly, was never denied, This was done with the very obvious intention of threatening the oppressed and scaring them away from "subversive". activity.!
“Aas its first example, the document refers to the Fort Hare Loos turer, Andrew Mandla Masonda, who was sentenced to le yearst jail this year for sabotage, It alleges that only after he had been 'manhandled and was about to receive electric shock! had he made a statement to the magistrate, oe
"tSecond case -~ five men who appeared in the Johannesburg Magis~ trate's Court on 19th April, 1963, charged with, and later found guilty of, blowing up a railway shed,
"tThese men were given electric shock and severely kicked, Wet sacks were tied round their heads and twisted. They were suspended upside down with sacks tied over their bodies and were manhandled on the . ground and pulled up by their hair, ;
"tall five received ‘long prison sentences,
"tThird case -- twelve men’who appeared in the Cape Town Magis-~ trate!s Court on April 22, 1963. Two had burn marks on their little fingers, which they said were caused by electric shocks, All 12 comeplained of hunger,!
"tWhere these people are being kept is uncertain, and whether we will ever see them again is very unlikely. If we do, we might not recognize them,
"1This, I am sure, will not deter any of us in the NFL. [National Liberation Front which the dofendants are accused of organ= izing] from the struggle ahead, but will rather make us more deter~ mined to get what we have set out to achieve, !"
A Nationwide Witch-Hunt
South Africats use of witch-hunt trials such as this’ to put down and terrorize potential political opposition in the country was pointed up in an exchange of letters in the columns of the February 2 London Observer, M.C.Lomberg, Information Counsellor for the South African Embassy in London, protested an article in a previous issue by Colin
Aes
Legum in which the author said "There is mounting violence in South Africa," .
Legum, in rebuttal, called attention to the witch-hunt trials: "My statement is based in the first place on the South African Government's own admissions, as shown by the trials now going on all over ‘the Republic. In Pretoria, the seven men involved in 'the Rivonia trials! are accused of being involved in 222 acts of sabotage, In Cape Town, Dr. Alexander and 10 others are accused of having caused an unspecified number of acts of sabotage... In Pietermaritzburg, 19 alleged Natal leaders of 'the Spear of the Nation! are accused of 28 acts of sabotage, Other trials under the Sabotage Act are in progress in Port Elizabeth, where 55 people are accused3 in Grahamstown, where 66 people are accused; in Pretoria, where 19 Africans are accused of recruiting for military training; in Bellville, where 10 Africans are accused of sabotage, ae
"This: is by no means a complete list, Nor have.I mentioned the. cases of violence on the part of the authorities against those suspec= ted of working for the violent overthrow of the State; e.g., the torture of detainees, instances of which have already been proved in the courts, Then there is the straightforward 'violence! against dotain= ees kept in strict solitary confinement under the '90-day law,! some of whom have been held for as long as 182 days, At least two are known to have committed suicide and a number have landed up in mental hospitals," _ ot coe are
In Germany student associations have rallied to the support of Dr. Alexander, More than 1,000 West German students signed a petition calling on United Nations Secretary General U. Thant to intervene in the case, :
Miss Irmgard Bolle, secretary of the West German Special Committee for Matters Concerning Dr, Alexander, who has appealed for financial . help in conducting the defense, said that the response has been good among the German schools,