Political prisoners

This poster features a photograph of Joseph Mdluli, an ANC activist killed by Security Police after being detained without trial in March 1976. In the mid-1970s there was a big increase in the number of detainees tortured to death. Daily pickets were held outside South Africa House in London for six weeks in May–June 1976 to protest against the deaths. This poster was one of a set of three published as part of the international campaign for the release of South African political prisoners.

This poster was one of a set of three published as part of the international campaign for South African political prisoners.

Poster for the international campaign for the release of South African political prisoners. It shows prisoners breaking rocks on Robben Island.

Poster publicising the campaign for 12 South Africans charged under the Terrorism Act in June 1977. The 12 were charged with recruiting people for military training and organising sabotage attacks. After an international campaign for their release, six were acquitted and six were sentenced to long jail terms in April 1978. Among those sentenced was Tokyo Sexwale, who had left South Africa for military training and infiltrated back into South Africa. 

Participants in a conference on Repression in Southern Africa organised by the AAM and Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS) on 16 April 1977. Specialist groups discussed campaigning among lawyers, trade unionists, students, church people and journalists. Two groups focused on Zimbabwe and Namibia. Left to right: Rev Cecil Begbie, Nkosazana Dlamini, Horst Kleinschmidt, SWAPO representative Shapua Kaukungua and ZAPU representative Arthur Chadzingwa.

Anti-apartheid protesters picketed the South African Embassy on 11 October 1977, UN Day for Southern African political prisoners. They collected signatures for an international petition calling for the release of the Pretoria 12, 11 men and one woman charged under the Terrorism Act with recruiting people to undergo military training. The 12 included ANC veterans and students who had joined Umkhonto we Sizwe after the 1976 Soweto uprising. Eventually six were sentenced to long jail sentences and six were acquitted.

Anti-apartheid women supporters demanded an end to police harassment of Winnie Mandela at a demonstration at South Africa House on 9 February, 1978. She was charged with breaking the banning order that confined her to Brandfort, an African township outside Bloemfontein.

Leaflet publicising a memorial service for Steve Biko on 12 September 1978, the first anniversary of his death. Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS) hung a banner from the roof of St Martin’s in the Fields, next to the South African Embassy, listing the names of all those who had died in detention in South Africa.