Apartheid Convicts MK Commander James April

Apartheid Convicts MK Commander James April

On Sunday, 30 May 1971 (exactly 50 years ago), Duma Nokwe was going through weekend newspaper reports on the conviction of James Edward April, who had on 6 May 1971 been charged under the Terrorism Act. April was convicted on the following counts: that during June 1961 and February of 1971, April – as a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) – was trained in communism, warfare, guerrilla warfare, methods of revolution, propaganda and methods of secret communication with intent to endanger the maintenance of law and order in the Republic.

On Monday, 31 May 1971, after the news of James April’s imprisonment had reached the headquarters of the External Mission of the ANC in Morogoro, Tanzania, Duma Nokwe, as the Director of Political Affairs, had to issue a statement on behalf of the Movement condemning April’s arrest and conviction.

In the statement Nokwe said: “The ANC of South Africa vehemently condemns the arrest and savage sentence imposed on James Edward April, a hero and patriot of the struggle against apartheid and racialism. The ‘Terrorism Act’ under which he is supposed to have been found guilty is a criminal device of terrorism and tyranny by the White fascist regime whose purpose is designed to suppress and crush all resistance against its obnoxious rule. It is a pseudo-legal method of condemning all opponents of racism to the dungeons of the White South African racists.”

Further charges against April included that between August 2 and August 30, 1967, he had entered Rhodesia bearing arms and took part in armed fighting against Rhodesian security forces with the intention of getting through to arrange and take part in armed revolution in the Republic of South Africa; that between December 29 and February 17, 1971, April entered South Africa with a forged passport and falsified documents, and that he had materials to establish a system of secret communication; and that he took part in a system of secret communication to promote plans to overthrow the South African Government by violent means between 29 December 1970 and 17 February 1971.

According to evidence presented at the Natal Supreme Court, in Pietermaritzburg by the Rhodesian army officer, Lieutenant W.R. Winnal, of the Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR), gun battles between “communist-trained terrorists and Rhodesian security forces” occurred when a patrol under his command was attacked in the Wankie Game Reserve in August 1967, and he got five bullet wounds.

The newspapers maintained that Winnal was giving “evidence in the trial of 31-year-old Coloured, ANC militant, James Edward April. April was charged on four counts under the so-called Terrorism Act.” Lieutenant Winnal said the “terrorists” used hand grenades and automatic weapons in the attack in which a White Rhodesian officer and a non-commissioned African officer were killed. “The attackers were very aggressive, and their morale was very high”, he added.

April’s participation in the Rhodesian clashes was further described by a deserter from the guerrilla fighters, Leonard Nkosi, one of the Commanders of the Wankie Campaign who testified as an “Askari” – a turncoat for the State. Confirming that April had participated in the encounter detailed by Lieutenant Winnal, the witness said that because his skin was so light, April had been able to walk unhindered into a Rhodesian Army camp in a dead soldier’s uniform, throw hand grenades and escape in the confusion that followed.

Nkosi said, “The Rhodesian forces fled, leaving behind arms, food and two radios behind. The following day we engaged the Rhodesian forces in another battle. I do not know how many we killed, but I saw two die. April was present and also attacked with us. After the Rhodesians had retreated, a second time, April told me that at one stage he had difficulty because his sub-machine gun had jammed. April was among the Security forces and because he had a revolver, he used it and killed many persons”.

The prosecution also introduced evidence to show that April had first undergone training in guerrilla warfare training in a Mamre camp, in Malmesbury, Western Cape Province, run by Dennis Goldberg, who was arrested at Rivonia and sentenced to life imprisonment together with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and others.

Another key witness for the State, Captain H.D. Stadler, of the apartheid Durban Security Police, was cross-examined by Mr A.S.K. Pitman, April’s defence advocate. Stadler said he remembered the late Chief Albert Luthuli’s statement as President-General of the African National Congress (ANC), when he warned that the banning of the ANC would open the gates of violence. Referring to the plea by Nelson Mandela, on behalf of the broad united front of African leaders for a National Convention of all the people of South Africa – Black and White – before a decision to declare South Africa a Republic was taken, Captain Stadler said, “I recall the pleas made by several other African leaders for a round table conference in 1961”.

James April entered South Africa on 29 December 1970, when Johannes P. Botha, a passport control officer at Jan Smuts Airport, Johannesburg, stamped the travel document made out in the name of “Mr Henry Dirk Marais”, who was in effect James April. Later that day, April checked in at the Planet Hotel in Fordsburg, Johannesburg, telling the receptionist that he had just arrived from England.

Unfortunately, a revealing East German watch with a concealed microphone, which was a farewell present from his Marxist-Leninist tutors, led to his early detection. At some point, one of his contacts remarked that April’s watch seemed to be a remarkable precision instrument. Caught unawares, April said it had been given to him as a present on one of his study tours. However, it turned out that his contact had a friend who was a member of the Police Reserves. It was quite natural for him to mention the watch.

On 17 February 1971, at around 06:30 in the morning, Lieutenant Keith Nayager of Indian ancestry, working for the apartheid Durban Security Branch, knocked at house No. 77, on Road 201, in Chatsworth, Durban, and the door was opened by James April, who gave his name as Henry Dirk Marais. April was immediately arrested despite producing a passport and an identity card confirming his identity.

The following day, on 18 February 1971, April was accompanied by Captain Ignatius Coetzee to the Chatsworth house, where April retrieved two capsules from a jacket in the wardrobe and handed them to Coetzee. At the Security Branch offices in Durban, on 25 February 1971, Coetzee took a small amount of powder out of one of the capsules and dissolved it in a teaspoonful of water, resulting in a brown solution. Using two sheets of paper on specific pages of a book titled, “Penny Green Street”, which was seized at the house in Chatsworth, he managed to expose indecipherable words written on the blank pages with the brown solution. Coetzee then handed the documents and the capsules to the Bureau of Standards in Pretoria.

Being found guilty on the first three of the four counts on which he was charged, pleading guilty in mitigation of sentence, April told Justice Kennedy and his two assessors that “the African people” will eventually be victorious over the fascist South African government. Stating that it was no use blaming the ills of South Africa on communism, April said, “This is the way you hide behind your own fascism”. Turning to the ANC, April said as long as its aspirations were not satisfied from a democratic and social point of view, it would never be crushed.

Sentencing April to fifteen years hard labour, from his address, Justice Kennedy said, it appeared that April stood by his principles, “Nowhere has there been a disavowal by April of allegations against him. Indeed, the accused was not a reformed character; he remained to the end an enemy of (apartheid) South Africa and a revolutionist”.

The statement of the ANC, issued by Duma Nokwe, concluded: “James April’s name goes down on the roll of honour of all those devoted members of the African National Congress who were serving the cause of their people with unflinching courage.”

“THE ATTACKERS WERE VERY AGGRESSIVE, AND THEIR MORALE WAS VERY HIGH!”

Sources:
Wikipedia.
South African History Online (SAHO).
Ronnie Kasrils, “MK in the Aftermath of Rivonia (1963 – 1976)”, The Thinker, Vol. 80, 2019.
Sechaba Correspondent, “James April’s Arrest”, Vol. 5 No. 8, August 1971.
Editorial, “James Edward April: ANC Patriot and Hero”, Vol. 5 No. 7, July 1971.
Nicole van Driel, “Opinion: The life and death of Basil February”, Sunday Independent, 19 December 2004.
Rendani Moses Ralinala, Jabulani Sithole, Gregory Houston and Bernard Magubane, “Chapter 12: The Wankie and Sipolilo Campaigns”, The Road to Democracy in South Africa, Volume 1, 1960-1970, Sadet, Zebra, Unisa Press, 2004.
James April, “The Road to Democracy: South Africans Telling Their Stories”, Vol. 1, South African Democracy Education Trust, 2015.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.
Stephen R. Davis, “The ANC’s War against Apartheid: Umkhonto We Sizwe and the Liberation of South Africa”, Indiana University Press, 2018.

Castro Khwela
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