NO ACTING PREMIER

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29193, 2 May 1960, Page 11

NO ACTING PREMIER

“Cabinet Too Scared”

CAPE TOWN, April 30. The leader of the Opposition United Party In Natal, Mr Douglas Mitchell, said in Cape Town last night that the South African Government had not elected an acting Prime Minister because Cabinet Ministers were ‘ scared stiff to elect one of themselves to the post.’’ Mr Mitchell spoke at a United Party fete at Sea Point, a Cape Town suburb. He said that with the Prime Minister (Dr. Verwoerd) seriously ill in hospital, it was shocking that there was no-one as Head of State to take charge of the machinery of State.

The Cabine; Ministers were a "bunch of very frightened men.” he said. He appealed to South Africans not to be afraid to speak up or to become frightened men. What could be frankly said without injury to the State must be frankly said.

The Minister of Justice (Mr F. C. Erasmus) warned at Prince Albert, Cape Province, last night that the South African Government could expect further difficulties on June 26—the so-called “Freedom Day.”

This was the anniversary of the adoption in 1955 of a “freedom charter’’ by the Bantu organisations in Johannesburg. Mr Erasmus said that certain Bantu organisations had set up funds to attain "freedom” this year. He quoted an African speaker as having said: "We are no longer afraid of Saracens and guns. I call on you men, women end children to sacrifice yourselves in the struggle for freedom.”

Although the situation was now under control and many agitators and intimidators were in prison, “this did not mean that the difficulties were at an end.’* The Minister said Africans had been told that police Saracen armoured cars were not invulnerable and that efforts would be made to destroy them by throwing burning rags into them. During last month's riots, African plans to take over buildings of the South African Broadcasting Corporation had been foiled, Mr Erasmus said. Mr Erasmus did not say in which parts of the country the attempts to get control of radio transmitters had been planned. The Minister said African and coloured police had acted loyally in very difficult circumstances, such as threats by agitators and destruction of their personal proI rty. Giving evidence today before the treason trial, in Pretoria, former Chief Albert Luthuli said the African National Congress generally believed that the majority of whites would become “more vicious and sadistic'* as the “liberatory movement” in South Africa grew. Chief Luthuli, giving evidence for the defence, was under crossexamination by Crown counsel. The A.N.C. believed that after a certain point the majority of whites would then “change their attitude'* and the Government of the day would make negotiations possible, he said. “We are amenable to progressive reforms,” he said. “But certain fundamental laws of discrimination should abolished right away.” The A.N.C. would expect immediate universal franchaise for all persons over 18. and acceptance of the principle of redistribution of land among those who work it