SOMETIMES SOUTH AFRICA'S POLITICAL POLICE GET IMPATIENT
{The following is the full text of an article by Colin Legum which appeared in The Observer of November 3. The Qbserver is a welleknown generally reliable London weekly that avoids sensationalism, The sub-= heads in the article appear in the original. -- Editor,
In Johannesburg last week, a prominent South African parrister, Drs. George Lowen, Q.C., complained about the "curtain of silence" which hangs over political prisoners held under the General Law Amendment Act 1963,
This Act empowers the police. to arrest any person on suspicion: for questioning, and to keep him in prison for 90 days without any charge and without the right to see anybody. ©
After the first 90 days prisoners can be committed and reconmitted to prison indefinitely. The object of the Act is to make "suspects" talk in order: to. combat subversion, ; ;
This silence, which shrouds between 350 and 500 political prisoners, has been lifted by 11 detainees recently released from the Pretoria Cen= tral Prison, Their sworn affidavits about the methods used to make them talk have been brought to London, Three of the 11 give details of torture by electric shock methods which were first used in Algeria, .
The names of the detainees and of the policemen they mention in their .affidavits have been withheld to protect enemy as they are all still in South Africa.
Handeut ted
B. was arrested in Cape Town last June, and was transferred to Pretoria in August. "On arrival I was called into an office where I found .Lieutenant S., who asked me some questions which I was unable to answer, Then S. said he had no time to waste, I should be taken away and shock my brains into remembering. ...
"They immediately took me to another office, where Sergeant G. and another ordered me to undress myself. I was left with only my underpants. They started to hit me while undressing with clenched fists. For some days I could not open my jaw. They handcuffed me and ordered me to squat with my knees protruding above my arms which were handcuffed so that I was "Placed ina helpless position,
A canvas bag was pulled over my head to the neck, which made breath= ing very difficult. .. . I could feel something tied round my. two thumbs and my left little finger. From there I felt the electric shock as if it were being switched on and off time and again. At the same time they kept on asking me questions as they switched off, and when I refused to answer the questions they switched on,
Mat one stage I felt a blow on the right side under my armpit as if it was a kick. They did this to me until I promised I would answer the questions, and then they removed the handcuffs and the canvas bag. I was ordered to dress,"
~R4m- “,
P. was also arrested last: June while trying to get to Bechuanaland. He was taken to Pretoria in July. "“When_I came in there were several of the Special Branch men including Mr, F. [whose name is mentioned by sever~
~"T was choked and my neck ringed up and-twisted, They all started hitting me-with fists and kicked me.about. At this stage Mr. F. was. sitting behind the desk," ” . ae
He described how they tried to get him to tell about a camp he had attended in Cape Town, Unlike Mr. B.'s experience, he described how a stick was pushed between his arms, which were thrust underneath his imees . and. then handcuffed, .
"A canvas bag was put over my head. . .-. Then I felt something like wire tied to my little fingers on both hands. Then I felt electric shdcks which were applied occasionally. Then I would be lifted up by the stick and be left to drop down on my back. ...
- "All the time they were doing this to me they were forcing me to admit that _I know Mr. G. Lone of the accused in the. sabotage trial] and Mr. Sachs [Albie Sachs, a Cape Town barrister now held under the 90-days detention law]... . I was whipped with a hosepipe and. also Judo chops | [were] applied on my kidneys and on the back of my neck, : "TI was handcuffed for the second. time and they told me they were go’ ing to kill me and that nobody would ever ask them anything. I was put to the same treatment of electric shocks. .. . The pressure was so high that I messed myself Up. Then I was released to go to the lavatory.
"On my return from the lavatory the same treatment was applied and rT messed myself up again."
List of Names
Much the same story of repeated assaults and subsequent applications of.électric shock is described by 33-year-old M., who was questioned about two other detainees and about Looksmart. Solwandle, who, the police Bay, committed suicide in prison,
"I. felt a shock on my arms. I again started to cry. As I was crying they kept on. saying 'talk,! After a while I said all right I will talk, They then took- the canvas bag off my head and the kierie [stick] from between my legs, and I was then able to stand up. ...
"They had a list containing a lot of names and asked me if I knew the names of seven people. . .. My reply was that I did not know any of them. They again put the canvas bag over my head and the kierie between my legs and proceeded as before,
ny again said that I will talk, and then they said I should talc whilst in that position, and they called out the names again one by one and I admitted that I knew them. . .. They then told me that those boys were being sent out of the Republic of South Africa for military training and that when they finished training they would come back and kill the © whites. . «6 .
Two of the detainees tell in their affidavits what happened when they
tried to report the assaults to the visiting magistrate, who,.- according to the Minister of Justice, Mr. B. Vorster, is supposed to ensure that the detainees are properly treated.
Magistrate's Reply
L., a 40-year~old member of the African National Congress, says: "I saw the visiting magistrate and reported to him that I was assaulted by the police, In reply the magistrate said: 'You also wanted to go to Tanganyika to learn and come back and kill the whites so they are doing what they Like. on you,.?!
An, attempt to clarify the circumstances of the death of Mr, Solwandle, a former newspaper seller of the now defunct left-wing newspaper New Ago, was abandoned last week, Dr. Lowen, lawyer for the dead man's family, withdrew from the inquest because he said he did not want to expose himself or witnesses to prosecution.
This fear arises from the fact that some of the witnesses are 90=day detainees who are under banning orders, and it is an offence to publish or quote any statement by a banned person, Their evidence, therefore, can= not be used,
It has also just been revealed that Solwandle himself had been served with a banning order while he was in jail. Nothing that he told other prisoners, therefore, can be used in evidence either, For these reasons the attorneys have instructed Mr. Lowen to withdraw and that seemed to. be the end of the matter. -But the Deputy of Justice announced that permission would be granted for the statements of banned persons to be quoted at ine quest hearings. In view of this assurance the instructing attorneys are now reconsidering their position, .
FIRST HANGINGS UNDER SOUTH AFRICA'S NEW LAW
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