Judges lenient with whites and Rightists, says M.P.

Press, 29 May 1984, Page 8

Judges lenient with whites and Rightists, says M.P.

By NEIL LEWIS, of Reuter (through NZPA) Johannesburg A row has erupted in South Africa’s Parliament over a member’s assertion that blacks are routinely given harsher sentences than whites and that extreme Right-wing offenders are treated more leniently than Leftists. Helen Suzman, the long-est-serving member of the official Opposition, caused a storm of controversy when she named two judges whom she said were notoriously biased in their judgments. Mrs Suzman was ruled out of order for impugning the integrity of the South African judiciary, but lawyers interviewed by Reuter said that she had revealed only a small portion of the disparity in South African justice. “The Government likes to propagate the myth that there is an independent judiciary,” said one lawyer who asked not to be named, since .even the slightest negative comment about judges may mean that an attorney will be charged with contempt. The judges named by Mrs Suzman are well known to lawyers for their strong Right-wing and anti-black statements. Mrs Suzman noted that one of the judges had sentenced a young white woman to jail for 10 wrs for being a member oßhe

outlawed African National Congress even though she had been a first offender and had not had anything to do with violence. The Congress is the main black nationalist group pledged to oust white rule. She compared that with another case heard by the same judge in which members of the admittedly neo-fascist Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (A.W.B. — Afrikaner Resistance) had received suspended sentences after having been tried on terrorism and arms charges. They had been found in illegal possession of grenades, land-mines and AK47 rifles. There had been evidence in a related trial that the A.W.B. had considered assassinating black leaders. The judge who had tried them said that the A.W.B. defendants were decent people for whom jail would serve no useful purpose. Mrs Suzman said that one of the defendants, A.W.B.’s leader, Eugene Terreblanche, had given “the Hitler salute” at public meetings. The other judge she identified had given suspended sentences to three policemen who were found guilty of torturing to death a black man suspected of cattle theft The judge acquitted another policeman of shooting a black leader, Saul Mkhize. Although he had never met Mkhize, a widely respected

figure, the judge had called him “arrogant and impolite,” Mrs Suzman said. Lawyers say that a black is more likely to be sentenced to death than a white. Of 100 people sent to the gallows last year, 99 were black. A study in 1982 of the death penalty had shown that where the victim was white, the risk of a death verdict was much higher than if the victim was black. If a black murdered a white, the study concluded, “the gallows are a very real probability.” Last year a white man who battered a black to death was ordered to serve 1200 hours in prison on week-ends. According to trial evidence Ronnie van der Sifikwe was walking

down a street with a girlfriend and bragged that he was going to kill a “houtkop” (blockhead), a derogatory term for blacks. He beat to death the next black man he met. The judge said that van der Merwe, aged 20, could be partially excused since he had been upset because his parents were on the verge of a divorce. Last week a white who killed a black outside his house as he stole 63c (75c) of money for the milkman was cleared of murder charges and praised for performing a civic deed. In contrast, lawyers say, two black musicians were jailed for four years for including in their songs praise of Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned A.N.C. leader, and a factory worker was given 18 months for having a tea-mug bearing an A.N.C. slogan. Lawyers say that the same brand of justice occurs in Namibia (South-West Africa), which is administered by Pretoria. Black leaders in Namibia were outraged last year when a white farmer received a six-year sentence for torturing a black worker to death over three days while his brother took pictures. Also in Namibia two soldiers were fined 50 rand for beating a black, raping his wife, and roasting him on a fire. There are no juries in South Africa .and all judges are white.