UNDER THE VERWOERD REGIME
In an official report to parliament, Minister of Justice Balthazar J. Vorster has admitted that 1,439 persons have been convicted of “sabotage in South Africa. The figure includes 1,162 © alleged members of "Poqo" and 277 others mostly belonging to the African National Congress and Umkonto We Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation"),
The figures show that 126 people have been found guilty of “receiving training outside the borders of the Republic’ for subversive activities." It was not clear whe ther these victims were included in the number convicted of "sabotage."
Vorster also revealed that 737 people have been detained under the notorious 90-day law. This provides that a victim can be held indefinitely in solitary confinement without charges,
As in Nazi Germany, people live in dread of the police knock-: ing at the door at any time for evidence of "subversive" activities. Raids are by no means confined to blacks or coloured people. Last July 4, for example, a nation-wide police raid, staged at seven in the morning, terrorized some very prominent citizens.
The list of those subjected to police questioning, sometimes for hours, included the following: Leo Marquard, South African historian and publisher; Gerald Gordon, QC, leading counsel in the Alexander case; Dr. W. Hoffenberg, a leading medical figure; Dr. R. E. van der Ross, principal of Battswood Training College; Anthony Delius, political correspondent of the Cape Times; Brian Barrow, magazine editor of the same daily newspaper; R. A. Gill, editor of the Pretoria News; Cecile Eprile, editor in chief of the Golden City Post and Drum; Braam Fischer, QC, defense counsel tH ~ the Mandela case; and Peter Brown, national chairman of the Liberal
party. -
Sir De Villiers Graaf, léader of the Opposition (which is so tame that Prime Minister Verwoerd permits it to function in parliament), said of the raid that it left a "gnawing suspicion that the vast powers enjoyed by the police are either being abused, or that the police must be harbouring suspicions of plots so widespread, and involving such important sections of our | people, that the very existence of the State is threatened," oe The police in fact hold powers only comparable to those of the Gestapo. Yet even this does not appear to be sufficient for - the racists of South Africa's Herrenvolk. A General Law Amendment Bill was submitted to the Assembly in June to extend the death pen~ alty, now provided for those who undergo training in "sabotage" out- Side the country to those trained inside the country. The death penalty would apply to anyone who has "in the Republic or elsewhere attempted, consented or taken steps to undergo, or incited, instigated, commanded, aided, advised, encouraged or procured any person to undergo training or obtained any information."
A compulsory minimum penalty of five years imprisonment. is provided and application of the law is made retroactive tio 1950.
The bill would extend for one more year an "emergency" tem- | porary law, passed in 1962, under which the police can hold anyone for twelve-day periods without bail. It would make it unnecessary for the prosecution to show 90-day detainees copies of statements they might: have. made while in the: hands of the police,
Witnesses who refuse to give evidence in court can at present be jailed for successive eight-day periods. This would be extended to successive one-year periods.
A witness can be made liable to this provision, moreover, if he “fails to answer fully and satisfactorily any question put to him."
(Another provision makes it possible to take a person charged as an “accomplice, " swear him as a "witness," and thus subject him to these provisions. The defendant can be compelled to become a "witness" in this way and forced to reply to any question "the reply to which would tend to incriminate him,"
PLAN