Verwoerd's Police. State, Christian Action: Pamphlet. London. pee.)
Let us take two examples. The Sabotage Act, 1962, defines as "sabotage" an extraordinarily wide. range: of offences, including trespassing, encouraging the achievement of any social, économic or political change, and obstructing traffic. Virtually anything disapproved by, the government can be called. "sabotage." Similarly, every opponent of apartheid.is a "communist" -- whether or not he ever heard of Marx, socialism or communism, The burden of the proof lies with the defen-
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dant. The minimun penalty is five years! imprisonment and the maxi mum is death...
The 90-day act empowers any police officer to arrest, without warrant, and to detain without trial, for indefinitely renewable periods of 90 days -- in solitary confinement -~ anyone suspected of intent to commit certain political offences or suspected of having information concerning the intent of someone else. The worst features of thé law are the following: : -.\.. (1) Detained persons are removed from the protection of the courts, a . ‘ a a
(2) The right of habeas corpus is withdrawn, .
(3) The police ‘can use torture.
(4) Detained ‘people are, compelled ‘to teatify against them~ selves under duress; they are forced through torture ‘to ineriminate themselves,--their families and.comrades. --
On January 11 this fascist-type law was suspended. But Vorster himself emphasized that the law was only suspended == not repealed. - He. said that he would not hesitate a moment to apply it again at any time if he deems it- necessary.
Despite official denials, massive evidence exists on the torture of political prisoners. Some of this evidence is cited in Wit- . ness in the Dark. For instance, a police officer accused of murder~ ing an African prisoner testified March 13, 1964: “I dontt think there is a police station in the. country that does. not use violence during questioning."
Here is a typical instance taken from the Rand Daily Mail of March 4, 1964: "Johannes Matlahotsoi told the court today he was arrested by Maree and Coetzee and taken to the Bultfontein police station. . .A blindfold was: placed over his eyes. . . he was hit on the hands with what felt like a sjambok [leather whip]. .. . What felt like two pieces of wire were attached to his little fingers, Johannes heard a 'burning sound, ' and his body was ‘painfully Jerked many, times,'" 3
The conditions under which political prisoners are held in: South Africa's jails resemble those in Nazi Germany... Here is an extract from an eye-witness account of life in Robben Island:
"The greatest complaint is starvation. Not only is the standard of food ridiculously low, but the quantities served are meager » e« e Some of the youth are exposed to. exploitation by criminals for immoral purposes. .. . when coming from work all prisoners are searched. They are, made to strip completely and do the 'tauza dance,! exposing their. sexual parts." [See World. Outlook July 31, 1964.] ,
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Patrick Duncan, son of a former Governor-General of South. Africa, who has been officially classified under the monstrous. laws of the country as a “communist , " writes the following:
"prisoners, but only non-white. prisoners, are made to strip”. naked when they return to jail. . They are.made.to-jump up in the. air, clapping their hands, opening their mouths , then turning around. “This “is. known as the 'tauza't or the Zulu dance.". (South Africats. Rule | of Violence, Patrick Duncan. Methuen. 1964, p. Wor. )
In this way humiliation and indignity are inflicted on pollti~ cal prisoners in an effort to demoralize and degrade them.
Between 1961 and 1964, South Africa's defence expenditures quadrupled, rising to £104,000,000 sterling; i.e., a military expenditure exceeding the combined budgets of the politically independent African states. Vorster planned to have 105,000 men for the army at the-beginning of 1965 as compared to 9,000 in:1960. The force of 15,000 armed white police is being co-ordinated with the army. A police reserve of 50,000 -- partly Coloureds and Indians -- is being. organized.
~ Research _is being conducted in poisen gas, tear gas, chemicalbacteriological weaponry, rockets.and nuclear weapons. The modern poison gases, Tabun, Soman and Sarin -- developed in the closing stages of World War II by IG Farben -- are being produced in large quantities - in a South: African plant near Sasolburg in the Witwatersrand. _
“Tt is within the bounds of our resources to make an atom bomb," a South African scientist was quoted as affirming in the January 12, 1962, Rand Daily Mail. Similarly the Zurich magazine Stidafrika, "No. 1 of 1964, stated: "South Africa is in a position to exploit. atomic energy." How: atomic _ Weapons wild fit in with South Africa's policies’ can be imagined.
The whole present world tendency shows the anachronism of apartheid. . It must end. in a cul de Sac.
|. Already in 1667, John Locke in "a. Letter: ‘Concerning Toleration" wrote: "Just and moderate governments are everywhere quiet, everywhere safe; but oppression raises ferment and makes men struggle to cast off an uneasy and tyrannical yoke. .. . there is ‘only one thing which gathers people into. seditious commot tons , and that. is” oppression."