ECSA Bulletin

Contents: DEAN FARISANI DETAINED FOR 4th TIME The newsletter says there is great fear worldwide for the safety - the very life - of prominent South African Lutheran pastor the Very Rev. Tshenuwani Simon Farisani. At midnight on November 21-22, security police broke into Dean Farisani's home in Sibasa, the "capital" of the Venda Bantustan. This is the fourth time in nine years the 38-year-old clergyman has been detained by South African security forces; the last time, in 1982, they almost killed him. An eyewitness reported seeing Dean Farisani being taken to hospital in Sibasa a few hours after the police had seized him. The dean's wife, Regina, his bishop, and his lawyers saw Venda's security chief who said he was acting on higher, unnamed, authority, and he refused to say where, even if, Farisani was held. Dean Farisani testified before a U.S. congressional committee in June 1984, telling of his torture in detention. The newsletter asks people to phone or telegram Secretary of State George Shultz; Assistant Secretary for Africa Chester Crocker, South African State President P.W. Botha, and South African Ambassador to the U.S. Herbert Beukes. The newsletter reprints newspaper articles including: "Beacon of death" by Victoria Brittain and Paul Fauvet, "Harare Stepping Up Rebel Fight" by Allister Sparks, "S. Africa to Restrict Funeral Of Imprisoned Activist's Wife" by William Claiborne, "PRIESTS' ATTACK ON VENDA," ""Black Christmas' township protest" by David Beresford, "A boy vanishes. The one clue to where he may be: The roll of a dice" by Jo-Ann Bekker, "Disinformation Scandal" by Anton Harber, "INTERVIEW: A lawyer in exile" by Victor Mallet, and "Botha Speech Leads Backlash In S. Africa Against Sanctions" by William Claiborne. The newsletter discusses the Black People's Convention (BPC), Balthazar Johannes Vorster, incommunicado, the security police, the British Council of Churches, 'THE TORTURE OF A SOUTH AFRICAN PASTOR,' Lutheran World Ministries, the Soviet Union, the plane crash that killed President Samora Machel, Deputy Civil Aviation Minister Ivan Vasin, a Tupolov 134A, flight recorders, Pik Botha, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Captain Yuri Novodran, a decoy beacon, Puma and Alouette helicopters, Impala fighter-bombers, the airports of Nelspruit and Komaartipoort, Robert Mugabe, Joaquim Chissano, Renamo guerrillas, the Beira corridor, the South African transportation network, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Mozambique army, the Southern Africa Development Coordinating Committee (SADCC), Edward G. Cross, Oscar Mpetha, the funeral of Rose Mpetha, the Progressive Federal Party (PFP), Tian Van der Merwe, the anti-apartheid United Democratic Front (UDF), Justice Minister H.J. Coetsee, Venda police, Anglican Bishop Simeon Nkoane, Reverend Zwoitwaho Nevhutalu, the Northern Transvaal Ecumenical Confessing Fellowship (NTCAF), the African National Congress (ANC), Nelson Mandela, Dr. Renfrew Christie, P.W. Botha, the state of emergency, a boycott of shops, political prisoners, Thomas Mnyakeni, KwaNdebele, Lucky Mtsheni, Imbokoto vigilantes, Jabulani Zulu, detainee, the Legal Resources Centre, Jakob Mnyakeni, a Catholic priest, Reverent Sean O'Leary, Tweefontein, Kalafong Hospital, police stations, Cullinan Police Station, Steve Kahanovitz, civil servants, covert efforts, discredit and spread disunity within legal black political organizations, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Joint Management Centres (JMCs), the State Security Council, Sacos, consumer boycotts, the National Security Management System, James Selfe, Oliver Tambo, the National Party, the South African Communist Party (SACP), mass funerals, the Freedom Charter, Chief Mangosuthu "Gatsha" Buthelezi, the U.S. Congress, black activists, Carl Noffke, the Institute of American Studies, Rand Afrikaans University, Herman Nickel, the U.S. Agency for African Development (USAID), the Conservative Party, Edward J. Perkins, and the 21st Lenasia Battalion. [Note: the proper spelling may be Imbokodo vigilantes.]