S. African guerrillas sentenced to hang

Press, 28 November 1980, Page 7

S. African guerrillas sentenced to hang

NZPA-Reuter Pretoria i Three South Africa blacks have been sentenced to death for high treason after a long trial on charges con-; nected with a bank siege and an attack on a police 'Station last January. Justice Jaap de Villiers of the South African Supreme Court said that die sentences might provoke shock ibut the crimes were very’ iserious. ’ One man in the gallery fainted and others wept as i the death sentences were announced. There were chaotic' ■scenes when the court ad-1 ! joumed as a screaming jcrowd surged towards the; -accused in the dock. j The police struggled to, ’force the crowd out of the; Palace of Justice as relatives; ;and friends tearfully tried to’ I shake the hands of the ac-! icused. Once outside, the! crowds chanted and sang; freedom songs. Altogether nine blacks were found guilty of high treason charges. Two were jailed for 20 years, two for 15 years, and two for 10 [years. During the four-month trial the State charged that all nine conspired in the planning of the bank raid

i and conspired or took pan in a grenade attack on a res mote police station in north- > ern Transvaal province. J In the bank attack, thret iblack guerrillas seized 2c ’’hostages and held them foi ? seven hours before thf j police stormed the building The guerrillas and two while women hostages died in the f ensuing gun battle. ? All nine on trial were -(found not guilty of the t, deaths of the two white ’’women. Three were convicted jof attempted murder in the '’ attack on the police station. >i Tire judge said the accused - had received military traint'ing abroad, were in posses•’sion of dangerous weapons, 1 and had reconnoitred build"ings for possible attacks. He [granted the three men condemned to death leave to ti appeal against conviction s'and sentence, but refused >;this to the other six. ■! Those sentenced to death hwere: Ncimbithi Johnson Lulibisi, aged 29. Petrus Tsepo Mashigo, aged 20. and ; Maphtali Manana, aged 24. i During tire marathon trial, : that the court heard evidence • the nine were members of I the African National Congress, banned in South Africa and pledged to fight : the racial separation policies of the Pretoria Government. The last black guerrilla

in South Africa s- was Solomon Mahlangu, i- aged 23. who was hanged in April last year despite e worldwide appeals for tie--5 mency. t Mahlangu, an A.N.C. meme her. was sentenced to death ;. for his part in the killing of e two white men during a gun e battle between guerrillas and the police. e In The Hague, the death e sentences were condemned eias outrageous and vicious d 1 by the president of the ore'ganisation to which they ibelonged. d Oliver Tambo, president of i-1 the African National Congress who is visiting the >,! Netherlands, said the sen-l-'tences “are unduly vicious.” e Mr Tambo called on gov-i-lemments to put pressure on □ South Africa not to carry n’out the sentences. dj At a press conference I earlier, he called for an oil v boycott of South Africa as a ■[means of forcing it. to □ ■change its apartheid policies. J He did not link the oil boyIcot to the death sentences. i, Mr Tambo told reporters JI that concern about the confi sequences of such a boycott -lon black “front-line” States ijin southern Africa should t[not be allowed to outweigh >ithe need for tough economic I sanctions against the Pretltoria Government.