The document reports that Security Police in the "independent homeland" of Ciskei confirmed the October 30 detention of Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, Secretary General of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC). Father Mkhatshwa is being held incommunicado despite repeated inquiries by church officials. Father Mkhatshwa was selected as the first Black Secretary General of the SACBC in 1981, although the SACBC knew that his activities would be severely restricted. He had been under "banning orders" since 1977, which meant that he was restricted to his parish of St. Charles Lwanga in the Pretoria Black township of Soshunguve, he could not be in the presence of more than one...
The document reports that Security Police in the "independent homeland" of Ciskei confirmed the October 30 detention of Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, Secretary General of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC). Father Mkhatshwa is being held incommunicado despite repeated inquiries by church officials. Father Mkhatshwa was selected as the first Black Secretary General of the SACBC in 1981, although the SACBC knew that his activities would be severely restricted. He had been under "banning orders" since 1977, which meant that he was restricted to his parish of St. Charles Lwanga in the Pretoria Black township of Soshunguve, he could not be in the presence of more than one person at a time, and he could neither preach nor be quoted. Father Mkhatshwa is also a co-patron of the United Democratic Front (UDF), along with Rev. Allan Boesak (president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches), Winnie Mandela (banned political activist and wife of the imprisoned African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela), and thirteen other prominent Black South Africans. There is serious concern for Father Mkhatshwa's life because severe torture is common in South African and Ciskei prisons. Ninety people have been shot and killed in Ciskei during the last few months, and 800 people have been detained in a crackdown on a bus boycott, including many leaders of the South African Automobile and Allied Workers' Union (SAAWU) and other unionists. Father Mkhatshwa's detention in Ciskei may be an effort by the South African government to shift responsibility away from itself. The South African government reacted strongly to a recent report by the SACBC about atrocities committed by South African troops against Namibian peasants, warning that SACBC president Archbishop Denis Hurley may be criminally charged for his statements in the report. A Co-Secretary of the SACBC Justice and Reconciliation Commission, Sister Bernard Ncube, was detained in March 1983 and later charged with ''furthering the aims of the African National Congress." Catholic officials in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and the Netherlands have protested, as have the Archbishop of Canterbury, the National Council of Churches, and major Protestant churches. People are asked to send telegrams protesting Father Mkhatshwa's detention to Prime Minister P.W. Botha, Secretary of State George Shultz, and National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane.
