“Despotic Powers” In South Africa Attacked

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28371, 2 September 1957, Page 11

“Despotic Powers” In South Africa Attacked

LONDON, August 31. The Nationalist Government in South Africa had so whittled away the rights of the individual that today it field despotic power over every citizen, a leading member of the Natal Provincial Council, Mr Lester Hall, told a public meeting in his constituency yesterday, according to “The Times” today. Mr Hall said that while the nonEuropean had so far borne the brunt of the attack on civil rights, liberty was indivisible. This was so fundamental that if the fight to preserve liberty was left to those whose liberty was immediately affected, then the fight was already lost. Mr Hall, “The Times” reported, summarised the repressive legislation of the last few years as follows: Under the Suppression of Communism Act, as amended, the Minister of Justice could deprive citizens of their legal rights and status without trial. Under the Group Areas Act the Government was permitted to remove groups of the population, black or white, from residential or trading sites on the basis of racial discrimination.

The Passport Regulations Act granted vicious powers to the Minister to make people prisoners in their own land without disclosing the reasons. The Native Urban Areas Amendment Act gave officials of any local authority the right to banish any African from the area without giving reasons, and the Prohibition of Interdicts Act denied a banished person access to the Courts until he or she had complied* with the banishment order.

The Criminal Procedure Act gave the police the right to enter and search any premises at any time of the day or night without a search warrant. Penalties for Protest Under the Criminal Laws Amendment Act anyone who so much as protested against any of these laws was liable on first conviction to a fine of £3OO or three years’ imprisonment, or a flogging of 10 strokes or any two of those penalties. “The Times” said that Mr Hail quoted three examples of how these powers were being used:— Because an African municipal employee in Johannesburg, wearing official overalls and a badge could not produce his registration book on demand he was arrested, given no chance to get his book frpm his home or tell his family what had happened, and was whisked off to a labour camp in another .part of the coimtry. He was discovered there a month later, after extensivejnquiries had

been made with the aid of a European lawyer. While an African lorry owner was delivering goods in Johannesburg, his 15-year-old nephew, whom he had taken with him, disappeared. Eventually the boy was traced to a place outside Johannesburg, where' he had been taken as a farm labourer. He had been arrested without warrant and “taken away without trial. Mrs Mary Louise Hooper, an American citizen, was arrested and thrown into prison at 5 o’clock one morning and the Minister later indicated that he was taking steps to have her deported, but refused to* state any reasons. She instituted action for unlawful arrest and the Minister settled her case by paying her £l4OO.