S. Africa Lifts Emergency, Releases 330 : Most Freed Activists Vow Prompt Return to War on Apartheid

The government today lifted a 7-month-old state of emergency imposed in parts of South Africa and freed about 330 prisoners--the last of nearly 8,000 held for various periods under the sweeping powers given police in a bid to end anti-apartheid violence.

The government gazette carried a proclamation signed by President Pieter W. Botha and Law and Order Minister Louis le Grange ending the state of emergency. However, security forces retain broad powers to use force and to detain activists without charge.

Maj. Steve van Rooyen, a spokesman at national police headquarters in Pretoria, said all detainees still held under the state of emergency--about 330--were released from prisons around the nation early today.

After their release, former detainees embraced one another at Khotso House, a downtown Johannesburg office building housing anti-government groups.

Most of the activists vowed to return immediately to the anti-apartheid campaign.

‘We Won’t Rest. . . .’

Gabu Ngwenya, one of those freed today, said: “We’ve been released to a sick society. We won’t rest until our country is freed from political bondage.”

“While in solitary confinement, some of us got new ideas and we are going to implement them with our progressive organizations,” said Ngwenya, who previously organized a consumer boycott in Soweto, the black township near Johannesburg that has 1.5 million people. Ngwenya did not elaborate.

Some detainees said they had not been questioned in custody. Others said they had been interrogated repeatedly and assaulted.

Ismail Momoniat, secretary of the Transvaal Indian Congress, said on his release: “Events of the past 18 months must make it abundantly clear to the government that its so-called reform initiative lies in tatters. . . . The lifting of the state of emergency does not resolve the fundamental problems of our country.”

Momoniat, who was detained in July, also said: “Although the state of emergency has been formally lifted, there is still an undeclared state of emergency, there are still many people detained. The government has said it will give police more powers. This is just an attempt to fool the outside world.”

Some Still Detained

Van Rooyen said some people are still being detained under laws that preceded the emergency decree. The government has had laws since the early 1960s that allow detention without trial.

The Detainees’ Parents Support Committee said it knows of 138 people still being detained without trial. But a spokesman for the group said the actual number of people being held could be twice as high.

The state of emergency was imposed in 30 urban and rural districts July 21 to give security forces wide powers of curfew, arrest and detention without charge, and to restrict news reports of unrest. The number of affected districts rose later to 38 but dropped to 23.

Botha said Tuesday that he would lift the state of emergency in the remaining areas because of what he called a decline in violence around the country. But he told Parliament that the government will seek new legislation to strengthen controls “to protect lives and properties” against mass protests.