The World - News from Dec. 7, 1988

The South African police commissioner banned all protest meetings related to the treason and terrorism trial of 11 black activists. Gen. Hendrik de Witt’s order specifically prohibits a planned meeting at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand at which several anti-apartheid leaders were to speak. The activists, who include three leaders of the banned United Democratic Front, the country’s largest anti-apartheid group, were found guilty last month--four of treason and seven of terrorism. Hearings are now under way to determine their sentences. The commissioner said that meetings such as the planned protest are used to “mobilize the masses” against the government.