Plea for release of jailed black children

Press, 5 December 1986, Page 4

Plea for release of jailed black children

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg White mothers today appealed to President P.W. Botha to free thousands of black children they say are being held in South African jails. The Black Sash civil rights women’s group voted at a public meeting to campaign for the freeing of the children by Christmas. They said they would write to the president and his new Minister of Law and Order, Mr Adriaan Vlok. The Black Sash, which announced • its “Free the Children” campaign last month, estimates that between 13,000 and 18,000 black children have been imprisoned under a nationwide state of emergency imposed last June.

The Government has said children were among

those detained since the imposition of the emergency but has given no figures. A Black Sash official, Ethel Walt, said the fact that the meeting was backed by persons such as the author, Nadine Gordimer, the civil rights advocate, Sydney Kentridge, the anti-apartheid veteran, Helen Joseph, and the Opposition parliamentarian, Helen Suzman, signalled strong support for the campaign. She said the national Child Welfare Association, which is not an active anti-apartheid organisation, had lent support to the cause as well as many anti-apartheid groups. Speaking ffom behind a large white-and-black banner bearing a stark motif of children and the words, “Free the Chil-

dren,” a Black Sash activist, Sheena Duncan, said South Africans appeared more concerned about the plight of pets than detained children.

“There is more concern voiced for pets on (Staterun) radio than for children. I have yet to hear any appeal for the children on radio or television,” Duncan said.

The parent of a detained 13-year-old, Matthew Molefe, who attended the meeting, told reporters that two white and two black policemen had come for his daughter for questioning on September 24.

Molefe, an unemployed driver, said he did not believe his daughter was “politically active” but she was still in detention.