The document makes six points about political prisoners jailed in the "homelands." (1) The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 (CAAA) applies to all South African government-created authorities, explicitly including "homelands," and naming the Transkei, Ciskei, Venda, and Bophuthatswana. (2) The "homelands" are unambiguously constructs of apartheid. "Homeland" security forces collaborate with and are reinforced by South African security forces. (3) In supposedly "independent" Bophuthatswana, 166 people are imprisoned on purely political charges, many of them convicted of high treason. In the Pretoria Minute of August 6, 1990, the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African...
The document makes six points about political prisoners jailed in the "homelands." (1) The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 (CAAA) applies to all South African government-created authorities, explicitly including "homelands," and naming the Transkei, Ciskei, Venda, and Bophuthatswana. (2) The "homelands" are unambiguously constructs of apartheid. "Homeland" security forces collaborate with and are reinforced by South African security forces. (3) In supposedly "independent" Bophuthatswana, 166 people are imprisoned on purely political charges, many of them convicted of high treason. In the Pretoria Minute of August 6, 1990, the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African government both recognized the charge of treason as strictly political. (4) The U.S. State Department claims that the South African government has released all prisoners that the Bush administration defines as political prisoners, but the U.S. administration's definition should not supersede the definition worked out between the South African government and the ANC. (5) President Bush claims that the South African government cannot be held responsible for prisoners incarcerated by "homeland" authorities; however, many of these prisoners were initially arrested and detained by South African security forces. (6) Both President Bush and the South African government have distorted facts about political prisoners. The South African government has consistently underestimated the number of prisoners who meet the "political" criteria set out in the Pretoria Minute. Independent human rights organizations estimate that at least 850 political prisoners remain in jail throughout South Africa.
