ANC calls on International community to save lives

At the end of the Soekmekaar and Silverton trial in Pretoria, three young Black men, Noimbithi Johnson Lubisi 28, Petrus Tsepo Mashigo 20, and Naphtali Manani were found guilty of high treason, the murder of two women as well as of attempted murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances. They were sentenced to death while six others were given prison sentences. The Soekmekaar and Silverton trial followed an attack on the Soekmekaar police station on 4 January, 1980 and the Silverton Bank siege on January 25, 1980, in which two civilian women and three MK cadres were killed. The accused were not present at the shoot-out in the bank, but all nine were accused of murdering the two women (according to the common purpose doctrine). The African National Congress (ANC) called upon the United Nations to impose mandatory sanctions against the South African regime and asked the world community to intervene to save the three condemned men. On 2 June 1982 President Marais Viljoen commuted the death sentences on them.