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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 39, Number 14, 5 July 1976.
[Introduction]
The events occurring in South Africa during the last few weeks have shown up the frustration existing within the brutal apartheid system.
Soweto and other black African towns have been transformed overnight from seemingly peaceful dormitories to raging infernos. And the Government's answer is more bullets, more police, and more stringent regulations.
Anyone who has been surprised by the violence unleashed should look deeper at the day-today experiences by a black worker, or any South African working for change to the apartheid system.
In this article NZUSA Southern Africa Scholarship holder, Henry Isaacs, describes the life of critics of the system in the face of a repressive police force, and an equally oppressive legal system.
When I turn on my radio and hear that yet another detainee has died at the hands of Vorster's security police I realise that we've been lied to - Hitler is not dead! He is alive and well in the Union Buildings, in Pretoria.
"Mrs Lydia Mdluli, the widow of Mr Joseph Mdluli who died on Friday while being detained by the Durban Security Police, today claimed that her husband's body was bruised, swollen and cut when she identified it at the government mortuary on Saturday.
"The post mortem on the former member of the banned African National Congress was performed yesterday but the finding is still to be released.
"Surrounded by fellow mourners at her Lamontville home, Mrs Mdluli (48) today told The Daily News that she first saw her husband's body on Saturday. She was accompanied by her only child, Thomas (25) and an attorney.
"Mrs Mdluli said her husband was lying on his back on a glass encased slab.
"She said a severe swelling stretched across his forehead. His lower lip was bruised and cut, and his stomach was dilated to twice its normal size.
"Mrs Mdluli said these injuries were witnessed by both her son and the attorney who accompanied her.
"She and her son yesterday saw the body for a second time - after the post mortem had been performed.
"Mrs Mdluli said the glass case had been removed enabling her to touch her husband.
"She lifted his head and saw two criss-cross cuts at the base of the skull near the back of his left ear. A watery substance was oozing from the wounds which measured about 3cm and 5cm respectively. The forehead swelling had subsided she said.
"Mr Thomas Mdluli today confirmed all his mother's observations. He and Mrs Mdluli both said they were prepared to swear on oath to their allegations and that Mr Mdluli suffered none of these injuries before being detained last Thursday.
"Their attorney could not be contacted for comment.
"Brigadier A.O. Hansen, Durban's CID chief who is heading an investigation into Mr Mdluli's death said today he had no comment to make on Mrs Mdluli's allegations."
On Wednesday 24 March the Security Police detained MrMlungifi Griffiths Mxenge, the attorney and close friend of Joseph Mdluli. Colonel Francois Stecnkamp, head of the Security Police in Durban, said that Mr Mxenge, a former Robben Island prisoner was being held under Section Six of the Terrorism Act, which provides for indefinite detention without trial. (2) Any person who is detained under the so-called Terrorism Act has no access to family, friend, or lawyers, and no court of law can pronounce on the validity of any action taken under the Act. Mrs Edna Mdingi, wife of another detainee, Mr Leonard Mdingi who has been in custody since 5th December 1975 was similarly detained on the same Wednesday night.
Joseph Mdluli is neither the first nor will he be the last, to be murdered by the South African Security Police whose extensive arbitrary powers of arrest and indefinite incommunicado detention without trial are grossly abused.