Bill Enables S.A. To Hold ‘Freed’ Man

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30121, 3 May 1963, Page 11

Bill Enables S.A. To Hold ‘Freed’ Man

(N.Z.PA..-Reuter—Copyright)

CAPE TOWN, May 1.

An African nationalist leader due to be freed on Friday after three years in gaol is to be held under South Africa’s new “no trial” Bill.

The Minister of Justice (Mr Balthazar Vorster) announced tonight that a meeting of the Cabinet had decided this today. The African, Robert Sobukwe, was gaoled after tne Sharpville massacre in March. 1960. for incitement. He is a former university lecturer in Johannesburg and leader of the banned PanAfrican Congress. Mr Vorster. in a statement, said Sobukwe would continue to be detained on Robben Island just off Cape Town, but he would be held under a completely different set of conditions. Reporter Sees Quarters A reporter who visited the island today said quarters Sobukwe would occupy were away from the prison. They would be part of a former naval training college which later became a training centre for coloured prison warders There would be no armed guards. Robben Island, which has an area of three square miles, is five miles from the mainland The new law. called the General Law Amendment Bill gives the Minister of Justice power to detain a political prisoner indefinitely it also enables the police to hold suspects without warrant in solitary confinement for recurring periods of 90 days and introduces the death penalty for South Africans who leave the country to learn sabotage and for those who advocate the forceful overthrow of the regime from •broad. The bill received Its third reading in the Senate today after being rushed through Parliament in record time In Kampala (Uganda) the first Ali-Africa Church Conference passed a special resolution today expressing "deep concern" at “recent developments in coun’ries such as South Africa. Sudan Angola and Mozambique ’’ It asked al’ churches to nray for such countries and their people The Johannesburg City

Council, which employs thousands of Africans, from welfare officers to dustmen, has banned use of the word ‘boy." A report, adopted unanimously. Said Africans resented the word “boy” because they were men.

The council also voted to increase the African minimum wage to just over £l5 a month. The smallest of the three Dutch Reformed Churches in South Africa, the Gerefbrmeerde Kerk. has launched a courtesy campaign towards non-whites.