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Bethal 18

Explanation
In 1977, 86 PAC members were arrested on various charges related to furthering the aims of the PAC and 'fomenting revolution'. Eighteen accused, including PAC leader Zephaniah Mothopeng, were convicted of these charges in 1978. The trial was held in the small rural town of Bethal, Tvl, in order to isolate the accused and reduce media coverage. It was also held in camera. By the time the trial opened, four of those detained in connection with the trial had died in detention. It is alleged that all the accused had been severely tortured while awaiting trial.

... THE COMMISSION FINDS THEM RESPONSIBLE FOR GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS. THE COMMISSION FINDS FURTHER THAT FOUR PAC MEMBERS, CHARGED IN THE BETHAL TREASON TRIAL WITH FURTHERING THE AIMS OF THE PAC, DIED IN POLICE CUSTODY. THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT MR NAOBOTH NTSHUNTSHA, MR BONAVENTURE ...
... no one was responsible. 186 Another of the accused, Mr Mark Shinners, testified at the Commission’s Witbank hearings, alleging that most of the Bethal treason trialists were severely tortured: In a sense, the trial was prismatic. It was something that took place in an isolated place and yet ...
... encouraging violence and sabotage during unrest in Kagiso in 1977, and attempting to re-activate the PAC.20 184 The trial came to be known as the Bethal Treason Trial. It was held in the small rural town of Bethal in order to isolate the accused and reduce media coverage. The trial was also ...
Yoyo said they lifted him up and hung him out of the window, threatening to let go. 174 Mr Vusumzi Johnson Nyathi [JB02097/03WR], a detainee in the Bethal trial of the State v Mothopeng and seventeen others, survived after he was allegedly thrown out of the window during an interrogation session. ...
... were tried under the Terrorism Act for furthering the aims of these banned organisations. During the course of the 1978 trial of PAC members (the Bethal Treason Trial), three of those awaiting prosecution died in police custody. The torture of Mamagotla Paulina Mohale Twenty-six-year-old Ms ...
... that they were too afraid to take him to the Ermelo hospital in case he was detained. Eventually they decided to take him to the hospital in Bethal. He died on the way. 705 Ms Mawane Gertrude Mabuza [JB03500/01MPPIT] testified about the death of her daughter, nineteen-year-old Ms Queen ...
... told the Commission: I together with my brother Qawukeni Sigwinta was taken by helicopter to somewhere in the Northern Transvaal which I think was Bethal. We were taken to farms where we were distributed to various farmers where I was subjected to hard labour and corporal punishment. That was ...
... uprising in 1976. Mr Zephaniah Mothopeng, at the time an “internal leadership member of the banned PAC”, was tried with seventeen others in the Bethal 18 ‘secret trial’ for their role in “fermenting revolution” and for “being behind the Soweto uprising”. Mothopeng and others were ...
and secretary for foreign affairs. In 1963, he was sentenced to six years on two counts of leaving the country illegally. He gave evidence at the ‘Bethal 18’ trial of PAC and black consciousness leaders. He was a member of a London-based Sobukwe Forum which contested the legitimacy of the ...
 
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