Political Prisoners
Basil February
Basil February was born in Cape Town in 1943 and attended Trafalgar High School. He joined the South African Coloured People’s Congress (SACPC) in 1963. He was arrested and detained under the 90-day detention laws twice for his political activities.
He joined uMkhonto weSizwe in 1964 and secretly left South Africa for training. He was killed in southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the Wankie Campaign, a joint military operation between the ANC and ZAPU, in 1967. He was one of the first South Africans to die in the armed struggle. His body was repatriated in 2024.
James April was born in Cape Town in 1940 and joined the South African Coloured People’s Congress (SACPC) in 1961. He and Basil February and others were arrested and held in Roeland Street Prison for painting political slogans – “Free Detainees” and “Resist for your Liberty” – in 1963.
They were subsequently charged with sabotage for being part of a military training camp in Mamre in 1962 and represented by Advocate Albie Sachs. After undergoing military training outside South Africa, James April reentered the country in 1970 to set up ANC underground networks. He was arrested, tried under the Terrorism Act, and served 15 years on Robben Island.
He Joined the SANDF in 1990. He lives in Cape Town.
Albie Sachs
Albie Sachs is an activist , writer and former judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa (1994 – 2009). He began practising as an advocate at the Cape Bar at the age of 21, defending people charged under the racial statutes and security laws of apartheid.
He endured two spells of being detained in solitary confinement without trial. The first was for five months, where he was held in Maitland, Wynberg and Caledon Square Police Stations. The second was for three months in 1964s, in Roeland Street Prison. Thereafter, he went into exile in England.
In 1988, he lost his right arm and sight in one eye when a bomb was placed in his car by South African security agents in Maputo, Mozambique.
After the bombing, and when he returned from exile, he devoted himself to the preparations for a new democratic constitution for South Africa.
He has continued writing and with his work to promote, constitutionalism, the rule of law, and healing in divided societies.
Quotes by Albie Sachs
Two days after my interrogation ended I was transferred by car to Roeland Street jail, where I was led as a captive through the massive front entrance. I penetrated beyond the visitor’s section where I had gone so often as counsel, passed through one large and two small dismal concrete yards, each of which was surrounded by cells, and eventually found myself locked in a big airy room, on the door of which was written the word HOSPITAL.
(Extract: Stephanie on Trial (1968), Albie Sachs, p. 256)
I was kept in total isolation from the other prisoners whom I never saw except through a spyhole, and even then only for moment and at a distance.
(Extract: Stephanie on Trial (1968), Albie Sachs, p. 262)
Fire-engines entering and leaving a nearby fire-brigade station filled the air with a clamour that made me anxious. Each day at lunch-time I could hear the excited shrieks of schoolchildren coming out form their classrooms on to a playground about thirty yards from my cell.
(Extract: Stephanie on Trial (1968), Albie Sachs, p. 261-2)
Clangs the steel gate Unlocked the iron door Stone the hard floor Tin the cold plate Of food
Extract from a poem written while in solitary conferment for 168 days in Caledon Square Police Station, 1963.
From The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (1990), Albie Sachs, p. 243).
(Extract: Stephanie on Trial (1968), Albie Sachs, p. 256)
(Extract: Stephanie on Trial (1968), Albie Sachs, p. 262)
(Extract: Stephanie on Trial (1968), Albie Sachs, p. 261-2)
Extract from a poem written while in solitary conferment for 168 days in Caledon Square Police Station, 1963.
From The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (1990), Albie Sachs, p. 243).
Political prisoners known to have spent time in Roeland Street
Marcus Solomon
Don Davis
Lionel Davis
Fikile Bam
Lesley van der Heyden
Gordon Hendricks
Cyril Jacobs
Dulcie September
Stephanie Kemp
Hennie Ferris
Sarah Carneson
Dorothy Alexander
Elijah Loza
Cardiff Marney
Doris van der Heyden
Elizabeth van der Heyden
Lesley van der Heyden
Mustapha Satardien
Basil Mphololo
Kivu Madolo
‘Rice’
Reginald September
Njongonkulu Ndungane
Samuel Gaba Mkobani
Solly Malindi
Shadrack Plaatjies
Fred Carneson
Blanche La Guma
Sedeeq ‘Chips’ Levy
In collaboration with the Western Cape Archives and Records Service
