Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 26, 1969, Winnipeg, Manitoba 10 Winnipeg free press. Saturday. July 26, 1969 terror wipes out s. African rebels and quiet flows the Vaal by Cyril Dunn Johannesburg Spe Cial owns during the past 10 years a selective kind of tidal wave seems to have swept through the City of Johannesburg. It. Has obliterated a whole Way of life. It has destroyed the liveliest White directed res Istance movement so far known in White dominated Africa and with it the continent s one genuine multiracial society Gay creative and unlawful. According to one of the few survivors of an other Wise clean sweep what re Mains is the Ideal White City As it might have been conceived by the pleasure loathing Calvin. There can be no doubt that the afrikaner nationalists who run South Africa have won a great Victory in the race War. The destruction is so Complete that for anyone returning to the City As i have just done after a decade away from it even nostalgia is baulked. The old Access routes Between Whites and non Whites Are now constantly patr611ed by spies and informers and blocked by threats of yet More imprisonment for africans whose spirit has been already broken by an excess of it. Even the old meeting places Are gone. Sophia town is no More. Overcrowded Lawless and alive this was the african Quarter which had somehow survived in Side the City s limits and was not subject to those excluding regulations now rigidly applied in Soweto the vast african township Complex far out on the threadbare suburban veld. Every shabby Trace of soph i town has been bulldozed from the face of the Earth and in its place now stands a White suburb quite deathly in its neatness. The Little Mission station on top of the Ridge where father Hudd Leston and his Brothers once preached their subversive gospel has also been knocked Down. But Here the site has been left blasted and derelict perhaps As a memorial to the Victory also immortalized in the name the Whites have chosen for their new suburb Trio of. Slop Stop the whole tone of life has changed. In the old Days at least on the surface the mood of tie resistance was one of conscientious Frivol Ity lit seemed to be inspired by an almost patronising contempt for those in authority. Even the chief of the special police was then a rather Jokey Man. It was possible to Exchange Repar tee with him across no mans land at one of those Sophia town riots which were occasionally organized but which rarely came off. It was this police major who at Shar Evilie in 1960. Cried Stop Stop when his men wildly opened fire killed 69 africans and changed the course of South african history though not in the generally expected direction. Today the major s local replacement is a fat red reckless and bristling Man of whom everyone with a tinge of subversion in his nature is mortally and pro Perly afraid. Under interrogation by the major and what he Calls his several non Whites have by official account committed suicide or died in other abrupt and unexpected ways. A distinguished englishman not Given to extravagant judgments has called him the embodiment of so if a visitor still ignorant of this character s existence and methods bustles into Johannesburg and starts making old fashioned jokes about the Security police what greets him is Apt to be a severe and reproachful silence. For the handful of White people now even re Motely involved in it ser ious opposition has Long since ceased to be a laughing matter and is maintained Only in an atmosphere of entirely justified fear. Serious doubt even so with informed persistence it is still pos sible to penetrate the screen of restriction treachery and dread with which authority has isolated every one of its revolutionary opponents. I have to confess that my own successes were trivial. Although i was in South Africa for some time i never got to Exchange a word with a single politically Active african and be Gan seriously to doubt if any still existed. I met people who try to contest the wrongs now being inflicted in the name of the Law by policemen whose Power is for All practical purposes absolute but it seemed to me that they were a splendid embarrassment rather than a danger to the state. And even these encounters were Only rewarding to a limited extent for nobody in this category is today willing to talk without the radio going full blast to thwart the bugging devices thought to have been installed in every suspect household by an omniscient Security Branch. On several of these Occa Sions i was struck and at first nonplussed by a sudden and unnatural turn imposed upon the conversation. Once i was talking to a Young african writer about life in the townships How wild and Drunken it had become How apathetic everyone seemed to be about politics. While i was there Robert souk we the pan african Congress Leader and once a great hero to the african people was released from the maximum Security prison on Robben Island. Golden. City Post the Johannesburg african paper brought out a specially designed edition to Mark the occasion and in the townships it sold no extra copies but then this Young Jan started telling me How uniquely close the relationship Between the races had always been in South Africa and How if it. Came to the Point no White Man with his Rifle aimed at a Black Man could really bring himself to pull the trigger. Police raid in the pause which Fol Lowed we stared at each other thoughtfully. And then of course it dawned on me that he had not actually been speaking to me but to the Little tape recorder pro Bably winding slowly somewhere in the plumbing and anyway South Africa is now a country where no body in his right mind entirely trusts anyone else. In a sense i suppose my greatest achievement was the Long Day i spent at his Home with one of those now condemned apparently for Ever to House arrest. As a piece of reporting it was a waste of time because obviously i cannot now relate How the government s part time Neighbour Nood spy Long identified was by passed nor describe the elaborate devices used to frustrate a police raid had it come. I went All unaware that by so doing i ran no serious risk myself but that my Host already battered by years of punishment faced the certain Prospect of yet another 18 months in jail. For to ensure that a Man under House arrest shall be Cut off from All free com Munion with his friends and that nothing shall relieve the stupefying boredom to which he is subjected the government has so arranged things that people will stay away from him for his Sake and that he himself will be prudently inclined to Nour ish his own isolation. Though i might not go again i do not altogether regret having gone. My Host certainly enjoyed it he talked for six hours almost without stopping. He also proved that in a society where the people next door can be one s worst enemies Shar Evilie happened and when a 11 those africans slipped silently into Cape town this was it. I genuinely believed the revolution the Bloodbath was about to begin. I Laid in stocks of food. I bought Gas cylinders for when the Power supplies would be Cut. Then we All stayed Home and waited hourly for news. And Noth ing happened. Nothing unique Laws from the moment he thinks the government realized that the africans were never going three million Whites who had an advanced Industrial base and massive resources. Of hers what i got in return was a look of Blank astonishment. When she came this Friend said she was a wreck. She changed her style of Dreas and dyed her hair trying to hide from the All these detention sys tems have horrors in com Mon. The aim in each Case As a judge once said without audible revulsion is to induce the Detainee to each specifically forbids the intervention of the courts. But although All three Are harsh each has been made harsher than its predecessor. Under the 90 Days one had at least to be suspected Durban police flail negro women at least one Man could Trust his Neighbours implicitly. And above All he was shown that where most people Are cowed and humiliated by the terror of their times a fragment survives of that Calm Defiance which Glori fied tile More adult aspects of that old resistance movement. Test bombs it will be Clear that in South Africa now there Are Many intelligent people with plenty of time to Brood upon the immediate past. Without exception they concede that effective resistance inside the country has been smashed like a bottle of milk dropped on the As one of them said. There Are differences of opinion about How it was done. Some Are bitterly inclined to blame what they Call the levity of the old resistance and claim that when the resisters found themselves obliged to turn from gandhian techniques to violence and sabotage the Carefree attitudes of earlier times infected the whole operation with incompetence or As one of their harsher judges preferred to state it with criminal they quote the sad Case of the Young Man assigned to produce explosives Practised the Art of setting off Small test bombs in his own Back Garden in the genteel sunday afternoon quiet of port Elizabeth. But whatever their fail Ings the old resisters have surely been absolved by their sufferings. And these began to be inflicted when it dawned on the afrikaner nationalists soon after the Shar Evilie massacre that they really had nothing serious to fear that with determination All opposition outside parliament might be crushed absolutely perhaps for All time. I honestly one of the crowd told me when it occurred to them that British Premier Harold Mac Millan s wind of change had dislodged Only those Whites weakened by an inherent liberalism. No where in Africa South of the Sahara had the Whites Actu ally been thrown out not even the portuguese. And at the same time although the nats could scarcely have guessed it other forces were gathering to work in their favor the disorder and tyranny in some of the new Black states the racial upheaval in Liberal America the tensions in Wolverhampton the British socialist government s new attitude towards coloured Immi Grants the White backlash everywhere. So the White rulers of South Africa set out to obliterate a 11 resistance. With the patriotic co opera Tion of magistrates and judges they used a unique set of repressive Laws in venting new ones As the need arose and making them retrospective to cover persons already in custody. But chiefly they have relied on three novel expedients for detention without trial. Known As the 90 the 180 Days and the terrorism act they Merit close study by any govern ment anxious to set up a viable tyranny. Fat major by common report the 90-Days alone was enough to break the White resisters. Those who went through someone said were never the same oddly enough one White woman told me that Al though she had the fat major As her interrogator and although he yelled at her and almost smashed the table with is fists As he called her a traitor to South she had not been in the least put Down. But when i repeated this with admiration to a Friend corpses strew ground after it it 1960 Shar Evilie massacre of something such As hav ing guilty knowledge of an intended the Iso Days it is sufficient to be identified As a witness though curiously few of those held Ever seem to have Given evidence. Under the terrorism act anyone May be taken from his Home in the dead of night for no declared reason nobody need Ever be told where he has been taken and May be kept there foreign news exclusive indefinitely. They Are kept in solitary confinement and Are subjected to brutal methods of even if a Detainee Dies mysteriously in custody one for example was mortally injured when he slipped on a piece of Blue soap it is difficult to arrange for his Fate to be discussed in a courtroom and invariably pointless. When detention has served its purpose few Are released into perfect free Dom. Non Whites Are usually banished to parts of the country where they have no friends and do not speak the local language. Whites Are put under Banning immensely varied in the restrictions they impose but All aimed at isolating them from Normal life. Complete cure these techniques Are based upon a preliminary official study of sensory deprivation and its effects of the human mind. Some of the results now being achieved by the South Afri can Security Branch will surely interest specialists elsewhere. I was told by someone who had seen it about a confession writ ten voluntarily on toilet paper by a Detainee at the of his interrogation. In ii he not Only admitted sinning against god and looking upon the private parts of a but also babbled on about the Loving kindness of his inter Raga tors. Other detainees come out afflicted with vagueness and showing other signs of mental damage. Except for those who have been induced to become informers All have this much in common they show no sign of any surviving interest in politics. The cure is Complete. As might be imagined nobody White can now really Hope to discover what if anything is going on in the african townships. A South african journalist said it must be terribly difficult for anyone to build up a new network for anything at All to get off the ground. Because the townships Are riddled with spies. If any. Thing is cooking it la take us by Surprise because it would have to be totally secret. The press Here Daren t touch it. A reporter who refuses to disclose a source can now be sent Down for a year. So the papers try not to get the information in the first All out War the Whites May be for Given if they suppose that ail is now quiet in the townships. For although Urban africans Are being pushed around More harshly than Ever before there Are no longer any of those protest demonstrations which 10 years ago were a regular feature of Urban african life. No doubt most Whites readily accept As True the Assurance recently Given in the London illustrated news by a South african financial journalist that Mack revolution is no longer possible in his country because the Whites command every Centre of Power. Nor do they seem at All concerned about the fre adorn fighters heading towards them from beyond the Zambesi. They react with derision to foreign newspaper accounts which give these operations the status of an All out War. In fact the Only firm evidence of anything still going on inside South Africa comes from the Security Branch itself. While i was there the Security police raided the Johannesburg townships and took an undisclosed number of Afri cans into custody supposedly for belonging to the banned african National Congress. From time to time they produce in court Small groups of self con fessed Freedom fighters who Are Apt to be ridiculed for the cowardly and feeble nature of their operations by a judge who then seems rather to contradict himself by sending the leaders off to life imprisonment. It is difficult to see How these Security Branch activities can be reconciled with a recent boast from the prime minister or. Vorster. He said the people of South Africa have every right to Point with Pride to the peace quiet and visible Lack of tension existing As he had then gone on to say that we can Tell any stranger this with plea i naturally hurried Down to Cape town to seize an Opportunity which rarely occurs for foreign correspondents in those parts. Moreover or. Vorster was minister of Justice when the South african resistance movement was crushed and 1 was eager to have him Tell me How it was done. But alas neither the prime minister nor any member of this government was Able to see me. They were All too Busy getting ready to celebrate ascension Day. Field marshal Jan Smuts top fought against the British in the Boer War but As prime minister of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and 1939 to 1948 pursued a policy of afrikaner English co operation. The present govern ment under prime minister j. B. Vorster Bottom has adopted an oppressive anti British afrikaner nationalist policy. Newspapers muzzled after years of running Battle with the English language press the South african government at last has its Long sought pretext for applying a final solution or Laurence Gandar editor in chief of the Rand daily mail the most outspoken of the daily papers and a senior reports or. Benjamin Pogrund have been convicted of publishing incorrect information about Pri sons without taking reasonable Steps to verify it in afrikaner nationalist eyes the two newspapermen Are guilty of besmirch ing their country s name in the outside yet events since the Long trial ended suggest that die government May not grasp its Long awaited Opportunity after All. It has plainly been shaken by the strength of the International reaction. Even before the Case began the Rand daily mail s stablemate the sunday times which had published some of the allegations at the same time and whose editor or. Joel Mervis had been charged along with or. Gandar and or. Pogrund found that the state was prepared to drop the charges on the strength of a published apology. Rumor has it that toe Rand daily mail received similar offers of a Deal. But or. Gandar convinced that what he had published was substantially True refused and was courageously backed by his Board of directors. The prisons act under which or. Gandar and or Pogrund were prosecuted is less comprehensive and less severe than others Only because it is one of the older Laws. The pervading intention is to prevent publication of embarrassing information about he operations of an oppressive political system. By any Normal standards the Rand daily mail s prison articles would have been considered amply justified. For instance the judge found that what was surely the most serious of the part s allegations that electrotherapy equipment was mis used on a prison doctor s prescription possibly to inflict shocks Oil prisoners was True. He also decided that the slate had failed to prove that several specific allegations of assaults on prisoners and of unhygienic conditions were untrue. For the rest the state challenged Only a Small number of the allegations contained in file lengthy sworn statements by sex prisoners. On these allegations the state used evidence from 116 witnesses mostly warders and prisoners either on parole or hoping for parole who testified that conditions in South african jails were excellent. The defence had difficulty in finding prisoners willing to testify otherwise which the judge conceded was not altogether surprising but it did bring Forward 16 witnesses. Even the lightness of the sentences indicates an official desire to give the matter a pianissimo finale. But even if the government does not use the Case As a pretext for introducing comprehensive legislation to control the press during the next parliamentary session the Rand daily mail s experience has probably had a Strong deterrent effect on the whole English press in South Africa. The fines were Small but the Legal expenses were frightening. The Rand daily mail has paid out some with a possible Appeal still to come. So despite government denials the prisons act must now be added to the Laws that effectively prohibit or inhibit Normal newspaper reporting. As it is the list is formidable one South african editor once described his Job As being like walking through a minefield Blindfold. For instance an editor May be sentenced to ten strokes of the Birch or five years jail if he uses any language or does any act or thing calculated to cause any person offence by Way of protest against a Law or in support of any Campaign for the repeal or modification of any there Are indications that the government realizes that it seizes its Opportunity and grabs tile English press by the neck As backbench nationalist maps have urged for 21 years it will be doing precisely what it accused the Rand daily mail of doing be Smi Ching South Africa s name abroad. One such sign is that a leading nationalist newspaper Dag Breek agreed with foreign papers that the judgment May have the effect of inhibiting future revelations about conditions in South african jails. No newspaper s Legal advisers will give specific advice on that one. There is a number of other Laws of the same kind. Anyone who utters any words or does any act or thing that promotes any feelings of hostility Between White and Black May be fined 200 Rands or jailed for a year. A paper May be closed if in the opinion of the govern ment it publishes anything calculated to Engineer feelings of hostility Between the european inhabitants feelings of hostility Between the european inhabitants of the Republic on the one hand and any Oiler Section of the Republic on the or if in the opinion of the minister of Justice it does anything calculated to further the achievement of any of the objects of any editor who advocates foreign intervention in South Africa May be hanged. No newspaper Many publish any words Ever uttered by a person who has been served with a Banning order which covers just about every non White South african who has Ever taken an Active interest in politics. Under the official secrets act nothing May be published about the movements of the South african armed forces and now under the newest of the restrictive Laws the same applies to All activities of the Security police nothing May be published without official approval about who is incarcerated or How 180-Day detainees Are interrogated. Perhaps the most revealing moment in the trial of or. Gandar and or. Pogrund came at the opening of the state s final argument when the senior prosecutor or. Liebenberg submitted quite matter of factly and with obvious sincerity that it is the duty of a news paper not to make Public attacks on government departments and their officials and not to cause stirs and that in a nutshell is How most afrikaner nationalists feel about the press and it is unquestionably the kind of press the government would like to have. The economist boss9 grip tightens Cape town special the economist the situation in South Africa is looking More and More ugly. The latest addition to the formidable body of legislation permitting House arrests bannings banish ments and detention without trial is a Brace of Bills already passed by parliament and now due for promulgation. These establish a Bureau of state Security quickly dubbed Boss by South Africa s opposition newspapers that will be Able to operate in Complete secrecy and beyond any effective Public scrutiny. At the moment Security matters Are handled by the ruthlessly efficient special Branch of the South african police and by military intelligence. With an initial allocation of in the current budget it is Clear that Boss is going to be More than double the size of these two together. It will be headed by . Hendrik Vandenbergh a close personal Friend of prime minister John Vorster who was interned with him. During the War because of his nazi sympathies. Boss will not be answerable to parliament or anyone else except the prime minister. It will be an offence for 1 anyone to publish or speak about any matter with which it is dealing. Boss will also have the Power to prevent any evidence that it considers contrary to the interests of the state from being presented in court it will be Able to prevent anyone from giving evidence accusing i Boss itself of illegal behaviour and even to prevent an accused person from giving evidence in his own ;