MOVE TO EASE S.A. TENSION

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29165, 28 March 1960, Page 13

MOVE TO EASE S.A. TENSION

Pass Laws Suspended For Africans

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) PRETORIA, March 26. Police headquarters in Pretoria announced today that South African police would not call on Africans to produce their reference (pass) books. It said Africans would not be arrested for not being in possession of such documents.

The decision was taken to “ease tension” among Africans.

The Minister of Justice (Mr Erasmus) said in a statement in Cape Town that freedom from arrest for Africans not possessing reference books was a temporary measure.

Demonstrations against the law requiring all Africans over the age of 16 to carry pass books sparked off last Monday’s riots at Sharpeville and other nearby townships south of Johannesburg and at Langa, near Cape Town. Seventy-one persons were killed —67 of them at Sharpeville—and 171 injured, according to latest, available figures. The demonstrations were organised by the PanAfricanist Congress, which broke away from the African National Congress in 1958 A statement issued by police headquarters said: “Seeing that the Bantu (Africans), as a result of intimidation, are now so afraid to carry on their persons their reference books and other documents and are afraid even to carry their money with them, it has been decided to ease tension. “Instructions have been given that Bantu men and women should not be asked to produce their reference books and other documents and they should not be arrested for non-posse’tesion of these documents.”

Today’s police announcement came as the newspaper “Die Burger” carried in its political column a suggestion that South Africa must study the grievances of Africans and try to reduce friction to a minimum.

The columnist said: "If it is necessary to alter radically or to reduce entirely certain pet ideas which would have found favour in more normal times, then my advice is: ‘Do it and do it quickly. “I believe there are certain grievances which the whole mass of the Bantu in the cities share. Among them are grievances about wages, the pass system and drink. “We must discover what these grievances are, so far as we do not know already, and see what we can do to reduce friction to a minimum,” the columnist said.

The riot areas in Cape Province and the Transvaal were again reported quiet today, but police at Langa and Nyanga, centres of the trouble near Cape Town, have been reinforced from other areas. More Africans have returned to work at Vereeniging and Vanderbijil Park, the big Transvaal industrial centres close to the African townships of Sharpeville, Boipelong and Bophelong. Most residents of Langa and Nyanga townships stayed indoors during the night. Police patrolling the townships throughout the night had to contend with road blocks but these they largely ignored. “It’s a waste of time removing road blocks because as soon as our backs are turned they are erected again,” a police official said.

During the night Langa police arrested three men who, they said, would be charged with incitement.

There were no arrests in Nyanga, but several African constables living there asked for protection for their families after rumoured threats that their homes would be burnt. Defence Force units with armoured cars remained on guard at the nearby Philippi police station, the Nyanga East administrative offices and the Langa police station.

The two judges who will form one-man commissions to inquire into this week’s shootings at Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, and in the Cape peninsula were named in Cape Town early today Mr Justice M. A. Diemont of the Cape division will conduct the inquiry into the Cape shootings and Mr Justice P. J. Wessels of the Natal division will inquire into the Sharpeville shootings. The inquiries will begin as “soon as possible,” it was officially stated.