White Foe of Apartheid Found Guilty of Arson

One of the Watson brothers, controversial white anti-apartheid activists, was convicted here Thursday of arson and fraud, but two others were acquitted after a trial that the brothers described as a government effort to curb their political activities.

Valence M. Watson, 34, was found guilty of ordering two black employees to burn down the family home in October, 1985, in what the prosecution called a plot to get about $280,000 in insurance to pay off the debts of the brothers’ failing clothing stores.

Magistrate Gert Steyn, president of the Port Elizabeth regional court, said there was insufficient direct evidence to prove that either Ronald J. Watson, 36, or Daniel J. Watson, 32, was involved. But he indicated that he believes they were.

All Denied Charges

All three brothers had denied the charges. Valence, who reasserted his innocence after the verdict on Thursday, told the court in testimony earlier this month that the family members believed that the police were persecuting them because of their strong stand against apartheid and their close association over the past decade with militant black leaders in eastern Cape province.

Valence Watson faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison on each of the two charges. He said he will appeal the conviction to the provincial Supreme Court. He was acquitted of a charge of attempted murder arising from the extensive burns suffered by two employees in the fire.

As they left the courthouse, the three brothers were greeted by a cheering crowd of nearly 1,000 supporters, mostly blacks, and were carried shoulder-high through the streets around the courthouse in a brief demonstration.

Were Top Rugby Players

The case has attracted wide attention because of the Watson brothers’ prominence in anti-apartheid activities and because they used to be leading rugby players. Family members said they have received hundreds of messages of support from around the country and from overseas.

A fourth brother, Gavin Watson, 38, was not charged in the case, although he was questioned by the police in connection with both the fire that destroyed the house, where three of the brothers lived with their parents and their own families, and with his and his brother’s advocacy of majority rule for South Africa and their support for the outlawed African National Congress.

“They want to silence us,” Gavin Watson commented. “The authorities have wanted for a long time to harass us into silence, to intimidate us into silence and, if that failed, they have shown their willingness to put us in jail to force us into silence . . . and not just us, but anyone willing to stand up and fight this system as we have done and will continue to do.”

Masked Men Blamed

The Watsons contended in their defense that the explosion and ensuing fire was caused by masked men who attacked the two employees, who were guarding the 14-room cliffside mansion. The masked men apparently planted false evidence that would point to the brothers, the Watsons said.

Magistrate Steyn dismissed as unfounded the Watsons’ assertions of political persecution and concluded that “the totality of evidence leads only to one inescapable inference--that there was a conspiracy” to burn down the house and file an insurance claim in order to pay the Watsons’ creditors.

In his detailed, 95-minute summation of the evidence, Steyn said he accepted as true the crucial but hotly disputed testimony of one of the employees, Geoffrey Nocanda, who had said that Valence Watson ordered him and Archie Mkele, another clerk, to empty more than 10 large containers of gasoline through the house and then set fire to it.

Steyn said that Nocanda’s confession as an accomplice had probably been obtained after severe police beatings, but this did not mean that it was not true.