E/CN.4/1995/34 page 122 in connection with the police investigation into the murder of four people and wounding of seven others by gunmen who had attacked a tavern on 30 December 1993. The other detainees were arrested between 4 and 7 January, including Mncebisi Leonard Naso and Zola Prince Mabala, whom police arrested in the Eastern Cape near the Transkei border. It was reported that all of the detainees were being held incommunicado, apparently at different police stations in the Cape Town area, under section 29 of the Internal Security Act under which the police could detain a person incommunicado for interrogation purposes for 10-day periods renewable by the agreement of a Supreme Court judge (20 January 1994). 636. Disturbances broke out at Pollsmoor prison on 18 March 1994 following an announcement by the Transitional Executive Council that certain categories of prisoners would not be allowed to vote. Some prisoners reportedly barricaded themselves into their cells and set fire to bedding and the prison staff fired tear-gas into locked cells and assaulted prisoners with batons. Injuries inflicted on prisoners were said to include open wounds and broken ribs, as in the case of Ebrahim October, who was allegedly assaulted and suffered head injuries. No independent medical access to the prisoners was permitted and relatives feared that those injured were being denied adequate medical care. At Boksburg prison on the East Rand, more than 60 prisoners were reportedly injured on 18 March after officers of the Internal Stability Unit (ISU) of the South African Police assisted prison staff in securing the release of two prison warders taken hostage by prisoners. After the warders had been released unharmed, members of the ISU reportedly lined up prisoners and beat them with batons (25 March 1994). 637. Michael Mathe was arrested on 9 January 1994 in the East Rand township of Katlehong by officers of the ISU, after senior ANC and South African Communist Party officials and journalists visiting Katlehong were fired upon by gunmen from a nearby migrant worker’s hostel. After the attack, officers of the ISU shot dead one ANC member, and injured another youth whom they arrested together with Michael Mathe, who was a member of a local self-defence unit. On the night of 9 January, when police officers returned with Michael Mathe to search his home, a witness reportedly observed that he was unrecognizable because his face had been so severely beaten. Between 9 and 11 January he was taken to Nyoni Farm police base, the headquarters of the SAP Political and Violent Crime Unit, where he was allegedly assaulted repeatedly under interrogation by police officers who also threatened to use a police dog to attack him. He later told his lawyer that, under this duress, he signed statements which were repeatedly rewritten by his interrogators. According to the information received, he appeared to be seriously affected by the torture and those visiting him recently have expressed concern about his deteriorating mental state (29 March 1994). 638. The following persons from a rural area near Eshowe were reportedly arrested by police on 9 April 1994 and held under state of emergency regulations imposed in Natal province on 31 March 1994: Ollie Shange, Khumbuza Shange, Goodwill Shange, Bhekinkosi Shange, Mpusophe Shange, Bazakuyena Shange, Phendu Shange and Bhekuwiye Thene. They were said to be held at the Eshowe prison. The following persons were reportedly being held in a communal cell at Empangeni prison: Sibusiso Cele, Thokozani Ndlovu, William Sithole, Siyabonga Nthuli, Zwelakhe Mntambo, Efraim Mntambo,