Luthuli Unable To Attend Meeting

Press, Volume C, Issue 29657, 30 October 1961, Page 13

Luthuli Unable To Attend Meeting

(N.2 Press Association—Copyright) JOHANNESBURG, October 29. An enthusiastic coloured crowd of more than 1000 packed a small hall at Stanger, Natal, last night to honour Chief Albert Luthuli, the Nobel Peace Prize winner. But the guest of honour did not attend, the Associated Press reported. Cries of “shame” greeted the reading of a telegram saying the Government had prevented him attending under its Suppression of Communism Act.

Chief Luthuli is bound by a government order which restricts him from leaving the district of Stanger, and also bans him from attending any gatherings or meetings. The Minister of Justice (Mr B. J. Vorster) said the restrictions on Chief Luthuli were imposed for “good reasons, which have not disappeared because a prize has been awarded to him overseas for whatever reasons.” Mr Vorster said in a statement that the decision had nothing to do with Chief Luthuli’s request for a passport to go to Oslo to receive the prize. A decision on this would be made by the Minister of the Interior (Mr Jan de Klerk). Licence Given Up One of South Africa’s most distinguished authors, Nadine Gordimer, announced yesterday she has given up her radio licence as a protest against the South African Radio’s “shameful attack” on Thursday night on Chief Luthuli. There has been heavy criticism by Liberals of this

broadcast, which told of allegations against the Zulu leader and said that the Government had to place him under a political ban because he had been a trouble-maker, the Associated Press reported. In a letter to the Johannesburg English-language “Rand Daily Mail,” Nadine Gordimer said she was surrendering her radio licence—which means boycotting the South African Radio, because each set owner must buy a licence to listen—for three reasons. “The Nationalists (Government Party) have forfeited their right to share the pride of millions of South Africans in their great countrymah (Luthuli)," she said. “The Nationalists could not forfeit their vengeful self-

degrading attempt to degrade that pride. “I have no further wish to hear my news of the world in a version that comes from the mouth of the Nationalists —the South African Broadcasting Corporation.” Some leading members of the board of directors and functionaries of the South African Radio have publicly defended the Luthuli commentary as fair, adding that they considered him unworthy of the prize.