leverkusen exposes the mythsdisa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/pdf_files/dedec88.pdf · kusen,...

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THE OFFICIAL HEWS BULlETIN OF T HE INSTITUTE FOR A DEMOCRATIC ALTERNATIVE FOR SOUTHAFRIC A DE CEMB ER 1986 ly captured the hearh and minds of the people, On e co uld not he lp feel ing e nv e- at their reformist zeal and re- discovery of nati ona lp ri de. Even the <I geing Solodov nikov seemed rejuvpnated by the new era of re- con slruction and dem oc r ansa no n of So vi et socie tv. Foremost. the v said, is the need to energise the co untry's para lySt'd <-'Co nomy. Not that 70 years of So vi el com - munist theory an d practice were i ll-no red. Mu ch of il remains en - tren ched . A car ef ul and as"'5sment oft he na ture ao d ex teo t of the reform measures no t gIven . One co u ld co ncl ude that t he impo rtance of doctr ine and a strong ele ment of id eo- logy remain inta ct . Reconst ruct i on s hou ld not be int er pret ed as a mov e to wards capi- talism, the Sovi ets said. Gorb ac hev and followers are committ ed to socialism. They are merely in the process of r edi!>Cov erin gan ew. I l - . The thr ee fuJI delega rion5 10 th e co n fNe nce , Th e Sov;et5, rhe AN( and t he South IIfr;c afl5 ANC, fo und val ue in neitherIheory and iI final scen ario based On class aoatvsts. Ihrs was in tu rn rejt'Cted by South Afri ca n ac ad emics, who found support in Sovi et lor their argument that ethn o-c onscteus ness ha d very little in commo n with econo mic The above is iI brief and inc om- plete summary01 the SOU I-sedf ching de bat e. But the cameo was c ho se n to high li ghl t he probing and inten- aive nature of the discussi on s. On t he South African side t here obvious interest in the affairs of the Sovi et Unio n. i100 the Sovi ets were eager to ob lige with inf orma - ti on . Gorba-mania had undoub ted- ElSABE WESSElS Leverkusen exposes the myths IDASA group meet Soviet Africanists and ANC .. AT IDASA's initia tive live white South Afric an s met 22 S ov iet Alrj. cenists from t he Soviet Union ilOd seven exiled me mbers of the Af ,;- (, 10 N"ti on al Congre ss in l "ve r- kusen, west Germany, lrom 24 to 2 70 ctobel'. for South Afr icans. leverkusen addressed two critical a' t'as _ South Africa's relationsh ip wi th a e hi lO ging su pe rpower an d the grow- inK net ional crisis at home , F" a' ofcommunism and trepida- tion ill the "Red 's aeo- pctnrca t hunger " were boldly addressed by the party o f Soviet academics , who, with the exception of on e, were member s of the Communist Party. They. in turn, li stened int en tly to ,1O "lytic<l 1ac counts ot th ec om p le x' ity of t he South Alrie..n si tu ,,!i,, ". At on e slillWindi vidual deleg ates from th e two even shar ed the the role of et hmcttv wh('n I'rof H\'rmiln Gilio- rree of the Un iver.; ity of Cape Town, and for mer Soviet ambassador in Zambia and Afro Solida rity Co mmil!ee vice-ehilirman v astll Soludovnikov, found so lidarity in the ir two-n ati on th esis in S ou th Africa's battling national - However, their conclusi on s differ ed dr amat ically. Giliom.'(' argued for ac ontinued post-apart- he id struggle betw ee n Afrik aner natiunalism and Black nationalism. Soludovnikovpr edic ted unity in the lo ng term, arguing that the exist- en ceof c ap i ta lism not c nlv c ree ted a single industrial and agricultural market, but also laid the foundal iun for the formatio n of a single nation. l oe Slovo. almost od d man out ,yet t he o ne delegate who shared com- mona lity with all three gro up s in being whi te.a co mmitt ed commu- n iSI and e"''Cutive membe r of tho

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Page 1: Leverkusen exposes the mythsdisa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/pdf_files/dedec88.pdf · kusen, west Germany, lrom 24 to 270ctobel'. for South Afr icans. leverkusen addressed two

THE OFFICIAL HEWSBULlETIN OF THE INSTITUTE FOR ADEMOCRATIC ALTERNATIVE FOR SOUTHAFRICADECEMB ER 1986

ly captured the hearh and minds ofthe people,

One could not he lp feel ing e nve­ou~ at thei r re formist zeal a nd re­discove ry of national pri de . Eventhe <Igeing Solodovnikov seemedrejuvpnated by the new era of re­conslru ction a nd democransanonof So viet societv. Fore most. thevsaid , is the need to energise theco untry's para lySt'd <-'Co nomy.

Not that 70 years of Soviel com­munist theory and prac t ice wereill-no red . Much o f il rema ins en­trenched.

A careful a nd compreh " n ~ i ve

as"'5sment of the nature aod exteoto f the refo rm measures wa~ no tgIven. One cou ld co ncl ude that theimportance of doctrine and a st rongelement o f Mar~ist- len inist id eo­lo gy rema in intact.

Reconst ruction should not beinterpreted as a move towards capi­tal ism, the Soviets said. Gorbachevand h i~ fol lowers are committed tosocia lism. They are mere ly in theprocess of redi!>Covering a new.

Il- .

The three fuJI delega rion5 10 the co nfNence, The Sov;et5, rhe AN( and theSouth IIfr;cafl5

ANC, fo und value in ne ither Iheorya nd p re~en t e d iI final sce nariobased On class aoatvsts. I hrs wasin turn rejt'Cted by South Africanacade mics, who fo und support inSoviet quarter~ lo r their argumentthat ethno-conscteusness had verylittle in common with economicfoundation~_

The above is iI brief and incom­plete summary01the SOUI-sedfchingdebate . But the ca meo was chose nto high li ghl the p robing and inten­aive nature of th e discussions.

On the South African side thereWil~ o bvious interest in the affairso f the Soviet Unio n. i100 the Sovietswere eager to oblige with informa­tion. Gorba-mania had undoubted-

ElSABE WESSElS

Leverkusen exposes the mythsIDASA group meet Soviet Africanists and ANC

..AT IDASA's in itia tive l ive whiteSouth Africans met 22 Soviet Alrj.ce nists from the Soviet Union ilOdseven exiled members of the Af,;­(,10 N"tiona l Congress in l "ver­kusen, west Germany, lrom 24 to270ctobel' .

fo r South Afr icans. l everkusena dd resse d two c ritica l a ' t'as _South Africa's relati onship wi th ae hilOging superpower and the grow­inK net ional crisis at home,

F" a' of communism and trep ida­t io n ill the "Red 's aeo-pctnrca thunger" were bold ly add ressed bythe party o f Soviet academics, who,with the exception o f one, weremembers of t he Communist Party .They. in turn, listened intently to,1O"lytic<l1accounts ot the comp lex'ity of the South Alrie..n situ,,!i,,".

At one slillWindi vidual delegatesfrom th e two camp~ even sharedthe ~ame per~pt'Ct iveon the role o fethmcttv wh('n I'rof H\'rmiln Gilio­rree o f the Univer.; ity of Cape Town,an d former Soviet ambassado r inZambia and Afro A~ i an Solida rityCommil! ee vice-e hilirma n v astllSoludov nikov, fo und solidarity inthe ir two-nation th esis in a~~essing

South Africa 's battling national ­i~m~_ However, thei r co nclusionsdiffered dramat ically. Gilio m.'('argued for a continued post-apart­he id st ruggle be tween Afrikanernatiunalism and Black nationalism.Soludovnikov predicted unity in thelong term, arguing that the exist­enceof capitalism not c nlv c reeteda single indust rial and agriculturalmarket , but also laid the foundal iunfor the formation of a single na tion.loe Slovo. almost odd man out , yetthe o ne delegate who shared co m­monality with a ll three groups inbeing whi te. a committed commu­niSI and e"''Cutive me mber of tho

Page 2: Leverkusen exposes the mythsdisa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/pdf_files/dedec88.pdf · kusen, west Germany, lrom 24 to 270ctobel'. for South Afr icans. leverkusen addressed two

The Soviet Alricanim , the ANC de/"gafion and the lWO IDASA di.eclO.s.

Left to r;ght : Dr F. van Zyl 5/ilbbe. t (I DASA), Mr J. Makhiltin i (A NC). DrAL Bmiline (IDASAl Mr V. So/ido.vnikov (So vie t UniOll).

,I' "'!II

expressed the ir understanding ofthe historical inevi tabili tyof resort ­lnll to a policy of a rmed re-sistance,Howdid Pretoria fea tu re in the fivedays ~ South Africans could no tspeak with the same e nthu siasm asthe Soviets when it c..me to re lo.mand c hanlle.

Wha t they co uld .eport was anint..rna l poli tic al sta le ma te, in·creased repre-ssion, " rapid ly ~1iding

eco nomy, debilitating sanClions,and growing international isolation.

An inevitab le co mpa riso n be­tween Leverkusen a nd Dakar mustfollow: I q uote Ce rhard Erasmus.whu was p.esent a t both : "I he gen­.....1tone o f the di scussron this l imewas more .elaxed and it reac hedgreater depths, C...tain co nce p tshave been worked o ul moredea rlyby the AN(. I thougb t t ba t thegeneral result was a much mo.eprec ise and even acceptable pictureof a post-apartheid South Africa ."

in 1955, sho uld not be viewed a~ aconstitutional blue-print . but a ~ af ramework for d iscussion, the AN(delegation said.

Described as a "constitutionalframework for a democrat ic SouthAfrica", the 25-point document ad ­dresses : the sta te . fra nc hise, n..­non..1ide ntity, a bi ll o f rights a nda ffirmetive aetion, the economy,land, worke.s, wo men, the f..milyand interna tional relations .

Several Sou th African dele gates_re incl ined to view the ANCd raftco nst itut io n, p ut fo rward for dis­c ussion, as t iltinll the AN( towardsce ntrist politic s . .. po~ition con­sidered as e ruc ta 1for a negotiatedsett lement.

The ANC's commitme nt to anarmed st.vAAle a 10;0 fea tured p romi·nently . Se ve ...1 membe.s 01 thed..l..gation from ins ide the countryraised poignant qu,, ~t ions a boutthis strategy, bu t in the e nd most

w{)rk.lble fo.m of scctabsm to deve­lop tbe co untry and it ~ almost 290­million p<-'Ople .

The entire Sov iet team ildd.eswdSo viet .elilt ion~ with So uth Af.ica .O n foreign .elation~ wit h SouthAf.ica they p.e~ented a unite dfmnt: Mo~cow i~ not abou t todrawthe South African government toi t~ bosom Although it recogn isesSouth Africa'~ posruon <IS a regionalpower in So uthern Africa, ns a bso­lute .ejection of South Africa·~ homepo licies remilin~ a prohibition inthe formilt io n of diplomatic t ies.

Soviet Afro A~iiln Solidary ( o m­mitt t>e consultant. Siava Tetekln.alo ng with hi~ compamots. alsodis­posed of recent rumoun of a riftbetwe<-°n the Soviet Union and theANC by boldly proclaiming co nt i­n ued support fo r the liberationmovement. There were i110;0 no ~igrn;

01cove rt drssennoos.A oo nctus tc n could be drilwn,

ho weve r, thilt the milin shift inSovi.,t polky towilrds SA ilppearsto bt' ilWilY lrom the idea that thestate ~ hou l d beowrthrown by r<-'\lo­lution ilnd t'>Wilrd ~ the ildvocacy 01iI ""Kotiiltt..:l ...." tlt>ffient.

Delegates were also treated to amo st descriptive ilccount of ana lmos t forgotten history by Mos­cow historian D. I.inil Haltova, whoilluminated a time "whe n the wordSouth Atnca was associated wit hthe st rul:l:!e o f Alri kilnen againstth,' Blitish·' _ the Anglo Boer WiI' .

In mode rn Russia, Sovie t .eild.'rs" <I n "-'ild the translated work s o fma nv South Afncan writers a ndI)o.. ts, The Afrikaans writer bestknown in the Soviet Union is And.eP Brink.

How"ve., as e XP't'ct t'<l , ampleti m" wa s devo ted to th" "SouthAfrican problem". SI.a t" gies fo rcha nll" were hillh o n the age nda .Wh ll., several Soulh Af.icans triedto ba rte r the bona fides of a systemwhi ch would secure group o. min o­.ity . igh ts, it was clear that anyracia llydesjgnated a.gument wouldwin very litt le fa vour.

( It'a r consensus could ultimate lynut b!' reach.>d between hardcoresUp!X>rte rs 01 "mino . ity .ights" andcampaigne rs fo r i1n " ind.'pende nt,unitary . democratic "rnl nu n-.ac ia lstate". But the e xch'II' ge 0/ viewswa s inlo.miltive and fruitful.

The AN( p ut fo rwe rd a full textof its c()fl~t i t ut ion..1guidelines pub­li ~hPd in August . The guidelines, aco ml).e h" nsive review o f the free­dom Charter accepted at Kl iptown

2

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THE 1<I~t two months have been ex­tremely hect ic as far as IDASA'sprogramme is concerned. Elsewherein th is issut' the~ are reportson theconference held in Germany involv­ing Soviet Africanists, Executiveme mbers of the ANC and <I numberof prominen t South Africans. Therewere also two very significant co n­ferences inside South Africa, one inNatal entitled "The Right to SpeakN

and <I conference in Johan nesb urgunder the tit le , "Stra tegies forChange".

A veryencour.lging feature whichemerged du ring the Str<l tegies fo rChange confe rence was the acknow­ledgement that there is a distinctdifference bctween priociple andstrategy and that the latter shouldneve r be elevated to the fo rmer.This obviously a llows for differentstrategies to be em ployed by diffe­rent group s and indi viduals whoo ppose apartheid and are wo rkingtowards the com mon goal of a non­raci al, de mocrat ic South Af rica . Italso mea ns there is co nside rab leroom for co-ooeratton between dif­fenng opposmon groupswho sharethe same goal but have adopteddiffe rent stra tegies. One of the Iac ­to rs which have bedevilled andthe refore weakened opposi tion inSouth Afri ca is the time devoted toa'Ruing and bickering over strate­giesrathe r than foc usingon the keyareas of agreement. It was my im­pression that there is a new r..... l i ~m

t>merging against the backgroundof extreme reoeesslon from the statewhich should make possible greaterunity and greater co-operation be­tw('{'n the forces of opposition.

Because of the polarisation, sus­pic ion arK! anger present in thebod y poli tic in South Africa, it isnot easy to be optimistic aboutformal co-opera tion . Nt>verthele~s.

I am hopeful that we are nearernow than we have been lor a verylong time to the esta bhshrnent of,for the want of <I better title, "aCoalition of Democrats". Certain lythere was an expressed desi re at theStrategies for Change conferencetha t key reoresentenvesand leadersof the wider democratic movementshould come togethe r to a t leastexplore the posstbilttv of suc h acoal ition . Obvfou slv it will not beenough to talk only about strategy:tht>re is a lso a need for an in-depthsrudv of what we reatlv mean bynon-racial ism and democracv. Ifthis is not attempted , these con­cepts will become empty slogan s

From theExecutive Director

A coalition ofdemocrats?

DR ALEXBDRAINE

used by a variety of d ifferent groupsbut me<l ning many different things.

IDASAwillbe giving attention tofurthe r workshops and conferenceson the co ntent of the goals so tha tgreater cla ri ty may eme'Re.

Adisturbing feature flowing fromthe state of emergency, the recalci­trance of the state and the stub­bornness of many whites to acceptfundamental change is the growingimpatit'nce amongst younger Blackswho wonder if there is any pointwhatsoever in co-opera ting evenwi th those Whites who a re com ­mi tted to this change. It is encou­raging the refore toread the movingwords which were wrinen from pri­son by Mosiuoa lekota, who wasrecently conv ic ted of treason andis now awaiting sentence. Here aresome extracts from that document,which has not been pu blished inSouth Africa but reached the NewYork Times ,

"The struggle against racism mustnot and should no longer be look­ed at from the side of blackpeople alone . It mus t be lookedat, and fough t, f rom both sidesof the colour line. That does notmean that the present set of c ir­cumstances sho uld be ignored .A necessary ba lance must bestruck to give sufficient leverageto those woe fight the immediateevil of white rac: i~m ,

But those of os who shoulde rthe burden of struggle sbould notbe swungaround completely. Weshould nOI move oVt' r to the ex­treme of e mploying practicestha t may prove d isastrous on thedawn of a new day.

II i ~ my genuine destre thaiwhen freedom da y comes, itshould not find reconciliationtoo fa r to attain . Ihts immedi ate­ly raises the question of the meth­ods of struggle . The more ja rringand ~ha ltering the methods, thedeeper th e a lienation of ourpeople and co nseq uently the

more d iff icult the processof heal­ing the wounds and reconcilingthe people . It is important tokeep in mind what we mean byreconci liation. It does not meanpampering and pandering to theoppressor. Certa inly it does notmean tinkering with an evil sys­tem . But it would be self-defeat­ing to resort to patterns andgrounds of action that trampleon principle even though theytake us forward faster .

Non-racialism as a method em­bodies the process of pullingblacks and whites together sotha t they jointlyd ismant le apart­heid. ln the process, artificial sus­picions, nurtured by year~ ofapartheid myths and propaganda.a re demolished".This ad mi rably sums up the phi­

losophyand practice of IDASA andone can only express heartfelt ad­miration end apprectatfon tha t sucha message should come from thepen and from the heart of one whois ce rta in to be inca rce rated fo rmany years to co me. It must surelychallenge all of us to renew oure fforts in workillil towards that non­raci al, democratic ideal for whichMr Lekota has made so great <I seen­fict> .

Cape Town28 November 1988

IDASArepresentatives

in the USA

WAYNE MITCHELL

DURING the mont h of NovemberIDASA representanves toured theUnited Sta tes for the purpose offund-raising and the briefing ofAmerican opinion leadersabout thesituation in South Africa.

Dr Van Zyl Slabbert. Dr NthatoMotlana, and IDASA's National Co­o rd ina to r Mr Wa yne Mi tche lltackled th e first lell of the visitwh ich included Boston, Chicagoand New York. Tbe grccp addressedseveral ed itorial boards of majornewspaper groups, the Counci I onForeign Relations of Chicago, theWorld Peace Foundation and Iacol-

C"", l'" '''''''' "'" Pll .

3

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Wayne Mitchel/. Max Mamase, Mayor 0 1Atlanta Mr Andrew Young, andDr Alex Boraine.

tv and studen tsat Harvard and TuftsUn i ve~i t ies.

In New York the group addressedthe Overseas Development Cou n­ci l, representatives o f the African­American Institute and the Councilon Fo reign Relat ion s be/ore DrsSiabbert and Motlana returned toSouth Atrica, Dr Ale~ Boraine andIDASA Regional Director Mr Ma~

Mamase icmed Mr Mitchell in NewYork for the second leila/the trip.

During the last few davs in NewYork the IDASA rep resentat ive sconcentrated Ofl meeting with keyfoundations.

The group travelled o n to Atlantawhere they met the Mayor, Mr An­drew YOUi'l l/,. and addressed severalgroups wh ich included semina rsat the Southern Cen tre for Inter·national Stud ies and the Carte rCentre.

In Washinllton DC numerou smeetings and fun ctions were ad­dressed. Included were the Carne­we Endowment fo r Internat ionalPeace, the In tercultural Centre atCeorgetown Unive rsity, the Centrelor Strategic and International Stu­dies and the Jo int Centre for Polit i­cal Stud i~ .

The San trarctsco 1,,& of the trip

included talks at the facult y Clubof the University of Cali/ornia atBerke ley , and th e Wo rld AffairsCounci l. Severa l other meetingswere held with key ind ividua ls andopinion leaders in t he Bay area,

The trip proved to be most suc­cessful, p roving that a keen inter~t

is still beinR maintained in theUnited States concerning the prob­lems fac ing South Alricd and itsneighboces.

,

IDASA has just published the book

The FreedomCharter andthe Future

It contains the proceedings ofthe Freedom Charter Conferenceheld in Cape Town in July 1988,

comprisi ng 20 lecture presentations,the Freedom Charter itself and

some photographs,

The book can be ordered from :THE MEDIA CONSULTANT, IDASA,

1 PENZANCE ROAD, MOWBRAY 7700ENQUIRIES (021) 47-31 27

The book sells at R8,00 per copy(postage included ) and cheques/postal

orders must be made out to IDASAwhen orderi ng .

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Janet Cherry released: wins intemationalHuman Rights Award

KEITH J WAITRUSJanet's colleagues in the EasternCape office of IDASA were-ecstaticwhen she WdS released from deten ­t ion on WednesdilY, 16 November1988. She had been detain~..:l with­o ut trial since 13 Septe mber 1988, atotal of S4 d a~, Theireuphoria WilS,

however, tempered by the severerestrk tions which hilve been placedu pon janet,Thew restnctroos are :a) She sha ll not ta ke p.lrt in any

manner whatsoever in any of theacti vities or acts of the follow­ing orlolanisat io ns, viz _• End Conscript ion Campaign• Port Elizabeth Crisis Centre• East c..p" Adult Learn ing Pro­

ject• Crisis in Ed uca tion Commit­

tee;b ) Slit' shaH not be outs ide the

boundaries o f the maglste rta ld istrict of Po rt El ililbeth ill <l oytime;

c ) She shall nOI be o utside theboundaries o f the premi5es oftiel' residentia l add ress betweenthe hours of 18hoo and OShOO;

d ) She shalt not artend or stav p....­-ent at an y meeting conarstin go f len or more p~n~ (incl ud·ing herself], convened o. other­wiS{' brought abou l for the pur·pose of di \.Cu ~~ing some o. OIh.. rma tt....;

e) She ~ha ll not cont ribute. p"".P<'re, compi le or transrmt in anymanner whatsoever a ny matterfor pu blica tion in any publica­t ion a~ def ined in the MediaElTlt'fllency R~1lulation ~, 1988, asamended, o. a>s i ~t in an y ma n­n.... whatSOt'ver in the p.epara­t ioo , compilation or transm i>siono f any matter for publicat ion ;

I) She shalt not ta ke part in an yinterview with any journalist .news reporter, n~",,~ commenta­tor or news correspondent:

gl She ~h a ll not atte nd any gather­ing wh ich ha~ been conve ned,ad ve rtised o r Is othe rwisebrought about _• to attack , crmclse o. protest

agai n~t a ny act~ or policie~ orpropo!offi acts or oonoes ofthe Go vemm..nt of the Re­pub lic of South Africa ,

• to a!tack, c nuctse or prote staRainst the ~y~tem of loca lgovernment as applied in theRepublic 01 South Africa, oragainst some o r other locala uthOfity helong ing to someo r other cat esc rv o f loc a lauthori ti~ ;

h1 Sht' shall repelrt da iIy to the offi­cee in c berge of the Charge Officeat the tocrs te Gra nge PoliceSta tio n. betwt' e n ObhOO andteroo.

Altho ullh IDASA is rl'lieVl'd thatlanet will be able to resume he r re­sponsi bil i t ie~ at IDASA's Port Eliza­beth office, tile restriction s imposedo n !lerwill severe ly hamper the veryeffective role lanet wa~ playing infacili tating peace-promot ing com­m unicati on between Sou th Afri­ca ns 01 all rae..s. The r~tricti on s

appear pun ltlve an d vmdlctlve a ndwill prove a senous in tru ~ion intoJanet' s privatt' lift' , e ven preventingher from travell ing to see her famil ywho all reside t' 1s<-""h.. re in SouthAfric a .

No information was <>Ver given toIDASA 'a~ to the reason for he r de­te nt ion and lanet herself wa~ neverq uest io ned while in detentio n, so

wh y, we m ust a sk. was he, d.. ten ·tio n in the first instance nece>sary /

We are plu lfll to report lhalJ",net' l uown'ering commitnwnl inlhe fixhl ;ag"" nsl",p",rtheid hilli bemrew", rded by Ihe decision of gee­bok Inlem",lio nal 10 ",ward lhei.first Human Rights Aw",rd for 'toungAl;;1'visll 10 !>ft. This prize oonourse l<Cl'ptional individuals in the worldunder the ege of 30, wtlohave mademajor contribu tion ~ to the advance­ment of human rights. Her restric·t i on ~ will , howe ver. p re vent herfrom persona lly accept ing theaward in New 'tork Ci ty on 7 0<-..:em·ber 198/1 An applicat ion by herlawyers lor permission to make thet rip was refused. It i~ now like lythat her moth.. r will go o n her be·half.

We co ngratula te Janet o n heingawa rded this pril" , which sh.. richlydese rves. We also wish her st rengthin facing up to the Draconian re­strict ions whic h have bee" imposedo n her . In the words of Jos<-oph LaBonte, worldwide President of Ret'·bok Internat iona l, lanet 's ca ndidacywas "o utstand ing, warran linll re­co gmnon. a nd de~rvinll o f e mula·tion by yoUnll people around thewo rld ,"

;

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IDASA launches explorationof Strategies for Change

~. ,.,. ,

, .J ¥••~

Mr Andr..w Boriline 01 VCT, Mr F' ilnk Meim iies (ln form" ' i" ,, aliKe, orC05ATU j and Prof Cerrv Coovadia (Viee'P,esidl'n/ "f rh,>N..ta llndianCon,ll,e5S).

by Sh.lun Johnson..nd Th..mi Mkhwanu;

of the W e",kly Mail

LAST week 's "Strate gies for Chilnge "confe rence did not _ as the wi ldersort o f speculator m ifolht have hopedafter sCilnning th e list of par t ici­pants _ yie ld il new political pa rty .Nor did it produce a new strategicblueprint for ant i-aparthe id ani­vtsrn.

But from IOASA's Johannesburggathering there did e merge a sin!!Ie.u nify ing oi de ( ()('{/T - one so im­passioned it could have the effectof regalvanis ing the myri ad forcesof opposi tion.

The cry wu enCilpsul,.ted right. , the oul~t of the tw<>-day con­fer<!nce . In ~t iluh' dhecte r F~eri "

van Zyl S1abbHl $.lid of Ihe ( u,",nlSouth Afnun situ.tion: "Thosewho govern ."' poor in vision . ndrich in IIr. tegy, . nd those whooppose . rt' rich in vision . nd poorin Ilr. tegy_~

This was clearly iden tified as thecrux o f the impilsse. ilnd acknow­ledged by de lej«lte after de legate,More than ever be fore. it wasagreed. the vast miljor ilv of Sout hAfricans are passionate lv co mmit­ted to a democratic ilnd non-racialfuture. And less than e ver is there ac0fown t. directed and dvnilmic setof strategif's ;n pu rsua nce of thatgo al.

The desi re _ eve n desperat io n- lor new tact ics was palpa ble onthe co nfere nce flour throug houtthe two days of pron,<--di ngs, andw oo ll v overshadowed the differ­ences a mong delegates . To the ob­server it seemed cleil r that if IDASAwas ilsked for its rili"," d-€'tre. itm..-d onlv point to the Seil o f con­c!'med delegates. escht'Wing pol it i­c al posturing because the hung!'rfor new di rt'l;tion is so acute ,

That future tilt-tics did no! emergein blueprint fo rm should not haveCOme ilS a su rprise . M(lfe import"anrlv . the m''t'h ng may well COmeto bt- hailed as the progeni tor of an

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important nl_ phase o f "broadiront" anti-aparlht>id pol ilic§.

The conf('f('llu' , wh ich broughttogethe r -ecresemenves in t hespheres o f politics, la lx>ur, busi­ness. rt"ligion, t'duCdtion and com­munity dt-vt'lopm.... l, locu~ onfi"e key dft'd§ in which new strate­gie!. for c"""llt>couldbe~.

The C..' poKlt lOO of the lint wpof i­t ica l ~ p.1IIlt"I t"lC, tt'd much interPst,bringing tOllf'lher t~ I<Pddo.'n o f t heProgre»i ..... federal PartY, the Na­t ional INmocratic Movement andthe Independent Party in the imme­diate wake of a mt"l'ting ccoveoedby industrialist and lughv adminis­trator Louis Luyt.

Those- who expected a dr.....ancannounct'ffil.'l'lt of unity were d irappoieted. But there was tell ingagret'ffil.'l1t on the neood for I'e§h«tees. and an inkling of opoon r1el.~

to th..m which hal. long been lack­ing in white parlia mt""tdfY pol it ics,Thus the tbreed, to run unbrokenthrough the conference. was imme­diately spun by filture§ from di lfer­ing backltrounds ,

Oth... .I,e.ls focused upon weretho roles of the c hurch, local 1tO""ernmen e inilial iv l"S, tht' l'COOOmy,and the int l''I"Il alio nal arena - andin each whi le there was intensivedebate and d i§dltrt'l'ffient, it Wil!'teeepeeed by the §hared belief inthe need for nt,'W approachl"S.

SeYeral l<Pading South Africanspanicip.u t'd, induding tbe Con­It'l'SS of South Afric¥l Trade Unions'Informat ion OOic..... frank Meintjil"S,Natal Indian CooKren'Vice-Pres;'dent Professor Gerrv Coovadia. Jo.hannesburl Consolidated Inv~­

tnl'nlS' Chief EconomlCSConwltantROIlnie Ik1 hleht-m, and the Direc­tor of Wits Univt'l'Sity 's Centre forPolicy Studie§, Professor LawrenceSch lf'l"l'llnt'l

The clol.t.st the conteeece ca rneto a d istillation of a'eil!' of dCcordwas t he cond ud inKaddress _ I~wa rm. a non..-acia l dt-mtx;1a<:y" bylDAS A ht'Cutive Director AI" fk>.rame . He said "considerable con­5('n§U§ had bt-er1i1ch il'Vlod", ilnd eo­leted thH"l' bro ild ar"a~ of ilgree­ml'nt whi ch ~ l'rv"d to u nify th esomt_holt hl'll'f"d"x co tl l'Ct io n 0 1d"I"Il"I ..~,

Theee w.l~ acceptance. he Solid,of "In.. need to dist inlCui ~h betweenprinc iple a nd §l rollt '1ty" in dt-'vi§ingnl_ tor,ls for d i~mantlinK apolrt­he id. "Str,U"ltY. ~ h"§did. "must notbe t"It'Vatt'd to the 1t'Vl'1 of pr in­ciple : '

/Ms M elody Emmt'tI (COII\--enor), M rs Po>ddy G iI'i . M , J.Jn.. Doherry .Jnd MsLis.l SelreJ (lDA S..... srilll who .J!>Sisred wilh lhe CUfl fl"ft'flcf' J, MI Nanc ywW/.J W.J' un.Jvail"ble ,If Ihf' lime. <.i' W<.iS rhe r<1lion<.i1 direc tOl M , Sten'Fou' ;e, who w<.i . ''''lJOIlsibl.. 101 rhf> orll'.mis.lrion 0/ rhf' conlerence.

,

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e

Thu s debates about the destr­ability of "part icipat io n", be it innational. local or regional struc­ture5, should be co nducted withinthe framework of tactical advances,not absolu te goal s. In addition , hesaid this should allow the latitudefor "genuine st rateglc difference5between differe<1 t groups engagedin the struggle for a d...mocraticfuture."

The parliam...ntary/extra-parlia·me ota rv co nundrum, h... added,could best be broached by turn ingth ... tradi tional di chotomy o n ihhead: ''The real quest ion is notwhe­ther parliame ntary parties can ec­commod ate th... extra-parliament­ary democratic movement. but theother way around - and by re­mt.'mbering that wha t happens inthe wider democratic movement ismore r...pr"'5entative of the majorityof Soulh African s than tha t in thehallowed halls of parl iament.

"There are different conditionsin th... townships and the suburbs- for some, strateg ies are for verysurviva l. not just c ha n!(e."

Boraine also hilthlighted a "Ilene­tal commitm...nt" among delegalesto the princip le of non-racia l demo­c racy. but said people understcodthe term in different ways _ a n·o ther gathe rinlt was needed to "re­d iscover the cont...nt of the goal it·self".

Expanding o n Stebberrs o ce mn gcaveat thaI "we are going to workmuch harder and Iong...r (for ther...al isat iOll of non-racia ldemocracy )than we had imagined. " Borainesa id the t ime had come "for a ll o fus to be a littl ... more modest aboutour claims, mare reali st ic" . Thismeant "actually inventing new su a­tf-<gies, new ways. if we are not goingto cont inue fo llowing slavishlythose which llOt us nowhere in th...past, W... must abandon tbose thatdo not work."

There was noquestion, however.that the government could be in·d uced to chan lte by " nice, intell ec­tual and acad...mic" imprecat ions." It is futile to thin k a willingness ofth... o ther sfde to change will occurwithout pressure being brought tobear on them," said Boraine. Thiswou ld be o ne of the tash o f an ynew "coalition of democrats" whichcould be brought into being

The viabili ty o f such a coalitionco uld best be explored by the ca ll­inlt of "a smaller meeting o f repre­sen tatives o f those Involved in thean ti-aparthe id st rullltle," he sa id .

" If it just meilns meenegs. march­es and outbursts o f emotionill fe r­vour. the state will iustclampdownagain . I argue that we must com­bine all our pressures (to make themost of) someone who enjoys thesuppoet and admiration of the vastma fority of South Africans . .. Thegovernment mus t be co nvinc edthat in Nelson Mandela they havesorneon... who ca n be the catalys tfor negotiation."

IDA5A research consu lta nt LisaS...ftel else isolated new st rategicopportuni ties c re ated by changedco nd it io ns. There seemed to be ageneral acceptance. she !>aid, "thatparliamentary and extra-parliamen­tary forces for change need to re­cognilol.' e ac h o the r. The re is anurgent need for greater co-ordina­tiOll between the two, and betterorganisation within the ""tra-par­Iiame ntary sphere,

"The nL't-od for the edUCiition ofwhites is more c rit ical than ever. asis the urgency of bringing whitesa nd blacks together, especia lly theyou th." . Sefte l turther st ressed th...

i c ha lle nge of focusing on "beead

;' and butt...r issues _ t he GroupAreas Act for exampl..... as a ccnsu­

~ tuent part o fanti-apartheid i1ctivity.Th... conference was lengthv. in·

tenstve and drai ninlt , It took iI ratherspecia l intervention to ensure thatit ended on a note i1S hilth as wasnecessary to provid... the impetusfor the initiat ive-s which must ofnL'eds fo ll ow .

The words were provided by Pat­ri ck "Terror" Lekota , now convict­ed of High Treason and awaltinghis se ntence. Borame called o n thedelega tes to h....d the United Demo­crat ic fron t lead er's message. te­kota wrote : " It is my genuine desiret ~at when freedom comes. it shouldnot find reconci lia tion too far toattain . . . Non-racialism as a mL<thode mbodies the process of pullingblac ks and whites tog"th.... so thatthey join tly dismantle apartheid . Inthe process artificial susp ic io ns,nurtured by years of apartheidmyths and propaganda are demo­lished.

Mr Ma rk Orkin. Director 01 theCom m unity A,l:enc y for Social I n­QU irY

trrespecnve of t brs. howl"Ver. Bo­raine held up "one key factor withthe potential to break the (sta te/reststance ) deadl ock.

" Is th...re o n... cata lyst to breakthe cycle of despair and violence: 'he as ked, "and not just anoth...rst rike, or school boycott , or uni tedpolitical party of the white leftl..His answer, rinlting ly affirma t ive.was that the re lease o f African Na­tional Co ngress leader Nelson Man­d ela was poten tiall y just such a pol i­t ical accelerator.

" All the o the r d evelopmentsmight have to take plac...... h... said,"but we ha ve with in our grasp oneth inll capable of br...aking the dead­lock . • . a nd on wh ich we- ca n unilewhile still in OU r d ispa rate move­ments and groups,

" I ..m nol SoIying Mandel.. will bethe cat.. lysl if releilRd on compU­sion ..te grounds, Or inlo .. l..rgerpri$Ofllike Go..... n Mbeki. I ..m SoIy·inglh..1 if he is ..ble 10 be releilRdas .. m..jor st.. lesm..n we can beginto edge towws the pre-negoti..­tion period whieh we ..re nol in yet .

"And wh en freedom comes, itwill not be the victo ry of blackso ver whites but that of the peopleo f Sout~ Africa over an evil systemthat has forsolong set them aga in~t

o ne another. The non-viole nt pathis the o ne that creates the greatestpossi b ility o f brinltinlt blac k andwhi te South Africans tOIt"th....."

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AZimbabwean Perspective on South Africa(presented at the Strategies for Change conference).

WE all know the hidden hand be­hind progress towards Namibianindependence and peace in Angolabelongs to United States AssistantSecretary of State for African Af·fa irs. Ches ter Crocker.

But we're all dead wrong ,In the view of Zimbabwean Eddie

Cross, managing director o f theBeira Corridor Group, the trueshaper of our sub-continental deytiny is none other than Soviet Pre·mier Mikhail Gorbachev _ and hisinterventions in the coming yearwi ll profoundly in fluence develop­ment within Sou th Africa itself,

Fa' from being a harbinger ofdoom, sald Cross. this fac t allowedfor "mure o pt imism about South­ern Africa than at <I llY time since1948" .

Cross. a Rhodesian who Win de­tained under the Smith reg ime andis now a confidante of Zimba bwe'sPresident Ro bert Mugabe, made theintriguing clai m in an address tothe Inst itu te for a Democrat ic Alter­native for South Africa's "St rategie sfor Change" co nference in johan­nesburg la st wL'ekend,

In tbo sp'-,,<-och , a remorseless in­dictment of whi te South Africans,Cross attacked thoSt! who dismisstbe role of the intNnationa l com­mun ity in the process o f change,"There have been dramatic c hangesin the West ilnd Eilst" heS<lid , "andp art ic ula rly in the Soviet Union .Moscow's foreign policy has altered,make no mistake.

"The rea l power plilyer overAnjolola/Namibia has oc'en Gorba­chev. not Crocker. Gorbac hev hasmo ved the Soviet view away fromsupport for violent change towardsnegot iatio n, a nd he has been indirect communication with Preto­ria ."

As a resu lt, Cross I"edicts, "weare about to see the Gor!><lchev­Bush-ThatchN shuffl., on SouthAfrica .

"There will be a bijol pOWN sum­mit in the nLOW yt'arwi th Sou th Afri­ca hijolh un the iljolt'nda. Then, fo rthe first time, Pretoria will f...,1 thecomb ined weight of the WL'St andEast to make a deal. Pretoria isgo; ngto be driven to a solution."

SHAU N JOHNSON[Weekly Mall)

The interve ntion would fa r out­weigh all other fac tors in the I""gthystruAAle between Slate a nd resist ­ance in Sou th Africa, said Cross,And he compared South Africa'ssituation to the Zimba bwea n expe­rience - "from which you (SouthAfricans) are not lea rning a ny les­sons.

"What c ha nged Zimbabwe wasthe simple fact that (US Secretaryo f State ) He nry Kissinger, with thehe lp of SA Prime Minister Jo h nvorsrer. pu t a Magnum to Smith'she ad . Now the Sovil:'ts have justdone the same to the Anllolans.

"The ir softer policy on SouthAfrica - a tentative accl:'ptant;e ofthe need fo r the p roeecnon of mino­rity interests, for example _ will infac t give Pretoria a breathing spacea nd, if used properly, will o pen awi ndow uf opportuni ty which mustnot be squandered"

Cressclaimed Mosco w s attitude­shift was undelXored rece nt ly bythe "e xtraord inary fact that the S0­viet foreign ministry felt the needto reassure the ANC that they werenot a bandoning them."

According to Cross's scenario,the agendas o f the suoerpowers aswell as Britain a nd he r Europeanallies are in harmony fo r the firsttime - and could translate into anirresistible force.

From Pretoria's poin t o f view, hesaid, a response rL'q uired swift eco-

Mr Eddie Cross

nomic restruc tu ring towards an"open market with crash manpowt'rtraining programmes", significant"social and poli tical change" a nd,c ritically, a spt'l t"""u t "vision of thefuture" ,

Cross said profound c ha nges inthe world economy, primarily "amove away from the commodi typroducers", meant that "South Af­rica's prospenw is as thi n as a wafer.

"Yo u're always saying South Af­rica is Africa's one success story _in fac t you're just one of Africa 'sdisasters. You_ as a country, areheading nowhere."

Describing South Africa'secono­my as "inefficient and unproduc­tive" and the recent local surchargeon imported goods as a "testamentto fa ilure" , Cross said the only solu­t ion was the intensive developmento f hu man resources , This was a fcn­damt'ntal world tre nd and wouldaffec t the South African politica lstru l«le more than any other dyna­mics. he argued.

The South African governme nthad no choice to respond toecono­mic forces and to intensifying inter­na tional outrage, said Cross . Thismeant a shif t away from relia nceon the "to ta lonslaught" theory, a ndthe "ho rre ndo us, sys tema tic de­struction of neighbouring econo­mies, desta bilrseucn which reacheda peak in the period 1981 to 1984" .

Ast'vid t'flce o f this shi ft, he ci ted"cruc ia l growth in t rade betwli'enSouth Africa and t he frontlinestates, which will approach USSJOO­million by the end of the year , Pre­toria has the prospect of enjoyingregional hegemony" if it plays itscards correctly, said Cross, "Thismay not be very comforting to us inZim!><lhwe but it is acceptab le toboth the East and the West . and itwill allow us a t least some econo­mic lift'."

He bt>lit'Ved i"ternal battles be­tween South Africa's "military" and"externa l affairs" approaches had

i now been won by the latter. "Theret:: are still military hilwks, " he cla imed,~ "but we think the !><Ittlt' ha s b...,nr woo, This will yield substantial pol i­~ tical and economicaldevelopments

for South Africa ."

9

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REPORTSBYPAUL GRAHAM

IDASA Conference InNatal calls for basicdemocratic rights

THE RIGHPROTECTION 01hu man rights, andin particular the right to speak, do.!snot lie in a document but "in thec it izensof a count ry m Ull&ling andfilolh1inll fo r human rights from thebottom up ", acco rd ing to NDM MPPeter Gastrow spe" king recently atth e IDASA conference on " The rightto spea k",

Speaking ,11the culm inil t ion of aday and a half confe rence held a tthe University of Nil!a1in Durban.he was explaining and interp re tingthe KwaZulu Nata l lnda ba b ill ofrights in a session dealing withdemocratic fril meworks for protect­jog freedom of expression.

"A bill of rights needs to reflectthe rights and freedom for whichpeople have worked and towardswhich they have aspired ," he COIl­eluded. o ffering the historic jointdeclaration Ix.>tween COSA TU a ndln ka tha as a ste p towards se<:urinllthe right to spea k.

This dt'< lara t ion reads in part" tha t a ll politi cal o rganisationshave-the right to exist and the demo­crane right to espouse thei r o wnviewpoint."

The use 01 specific examples inwhich the issue of freedom of e x­pression was being st ruggled forwas a hall mark of the conference ,which drew a wide spread o f peopletogether (see other stOfy ). Case stu ­dies confirmed and extended thethL'Oretical papers give n and pro­vided participants with informationo fte n not available in the media.

One such case came movinglyalive lor participants as Mr J N Singh,an attorney restric ted from 196 3until August thi s year , spoke o f theeffect this restr iction had had onhis life a nd tha t of those aroundhim .

Unable to live or work o utsidethe Durban magisterial district, evenfamily ho lidays or the building of ahouse had been occasions tor at­te mp ting to get min isterial permis­sion.

Forall these years a person whosename appeared o n a hst of thesewno ca nnot be quoted in terms ofthe Inte rna l Security Act, he, to-

10

gether with Mr Nelson Mandela,wasomiued from the list publishedin August thi s ye a r.

Spea king during the same sess ionas Mr Singh , Gilbert Ma rc us of theWits Unive'Sity Centre for Appliedlega l Stud ies led par ticipa ntsthrough the male of laws and regu­lations affecting people 's right tospeak. This bac kdrop set the under­lying theme 01the confe rence : theattempt (lIthe government to screenSouth Africans from both the realityof the situa tio n and the reality ofthe resistance to government o p­preSSIon .

"Censcrsh tp o pe rates to shie lda nd pro tect white South Africansfrom reality - the rea lity tha t themajority o f the population are liv­inll in squalor a nd poverty and thatyea rs 01oppressio n are giving ven tto violent anger o n an unprecedent­ed scale: ' he said , potnrtng o ut tha tcensorship must be seen not onlyin the more obvious laws b ut a lsoin the co ntrol o f school c urric ula,the selection 01 news and va riouso ther controls ov er the population.

Fra nk Meintjies o f COSATU andSefako Nyaka 01 the New Nationnewspaper spelled out the mannerin which the riilht to speak 01 theirorgamsenons was being controlledand restricted .

The Eme rge nc y continues to af­fec t COSATU members in var iouswa ys,~ sa ys Mr Meint jies . "The reare co ntinued detentions of sho p­stewards, impromp tu deten tions a troadblocks, visits a nd threats 01deten tion . In small towns in pa rti­cu la r, security police behave as ifCO SATU is a lread y an illegal o rga­n isa t io n, a nd the ha rassmen t suf­fered b y organisers and workerscrea tes imme nse pola risation andange""

The c o nfe re nce wa s the firstmajor public e ve nt in the Nata lregion of IDASA and d...._ signifi­ca nt press attention . This was in­creased both by the press parnc tpa ­non in the conference a nd by theti ming of the event . It was held inthe same week that the Weekly Mailwas banned Ic ro ne month and tha t

the furore over aut hor Salman Rush­die e rupted.

It wa s Weekly Mail editor, AntonHa rber, d osing the conference ,who drew these two events togL>thL" .

nMo st crucia l o f all." he sa id "isth e need to p ut the issue of censor­ship On the agenda of the democra ­tic mo veme nt ."

The co ntrove rsyov.... the Rushdiee vent , in whi ch the a utho r's latestbook wa s banned and his invita tio nto speakat a I><XJio:. week withd rawn.was "the d earest indicat ion yet thatthe democratic movement in thi scou n try ha s not g iven ser io usthought a nd commitme nt to thenotion o f fr-do m of e xpression. IIwe a re going to succeed in our fightaRainst ce nso rsh ip , and put free­dom o f expression On tlte polit ica lagenda, weare going to ha ve to getorgan isations to deal with it, ta ke asta nd o n it , and join the fill:ht forit," he said.

HThe governme nt controls info r.mation in order to control people;if they lo se that contro l. t henpeople will be a ble to th ink fo r

Justin' lohn Didcortcha irs a sl'ssion onthe law .Jnd theright tospeak. withFrankMeint;i£!sand Gil­be"Marcus

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TO SPEAKthemselves a nd booll i" p lanningthp;. own future. The f ilthl a~in~1

cenWf'lhi p i~ a fi llhl for people total l' coot rot of their situ.ll ion ; it isan ...""nlia l figh t for a ditt.-...n! ,lndtx·tt.-r South Africa."

Ideologicaldllferences debated

THf R;Khl lo~akconfl!'<f"ACepro­

vidPd an oppoo lunity for a wide,anlll"o f pecole a od inU·,."Mgrou~

to mt.'O:"t .A t ..a.( ;mf' deb<!te~ sup­

POl'tt."rS of t"katha and mt"mben ofstudent i1nd community OfJlolni~·

tion. drew .ts own aud iencein o ne o f the extended

breaks planf>l'd for con-tere nce p,lrt ic;p,ants.

The debate. healed ill1;mE"S, endt-d in frifondlydiwgr~l. with 00­

Iook..n and do.-bittPn

_ !lina boKk

--

into In.:- pl....ary ha ll for a ~ion inwhich the kwaZulu Nata l Indabaand AN( p<op()S.alson human tillhhp rol<"Ctions wert' to IX' d i!oCuswd.

Journalists call lorconference on the pressand, democratic future

A coefeeence 01 joyrn.lish aodpre-loS Pf"OPle is e-lowoli .1 to la lkthlQUllh issups of n....dom of 1hE,p...... concludPd journal ists pn."St'Ot• 1 the Right to Speak conlf"re1!C@.

Aft.... a loPSsion c h.irf'd by CliveEmdon 01 the Natal Tt"<:hni kon de­p.rtme nt 0 1 jo ..rnali sm and ad­d r~...d by 5.-la ko Nyaka , RichardSt.....n of the Naral Wilne" andRick ie Naidoo of th.. ..Save theP'e»·· campa ign. d isc: ussionon t llPro1.. of tilt! prl"!iS provided one o fI~ hi ll:hliXhb o f the conlerence.

Oifl..,e1!Cl"!i ow••nponsibili tvand ooif'c li ...ity. mark"-s a nd ec­count<dlilitv. COl ' N' '''Cial .-.d "altee­nati.....• newsp.apt'fS ~t spt"Ci.lhshk....n 10 pul'Wt' t hpj. crafl in moredl"tl il.

This ca ll .....a. sou nded .R3in byAnton Ha rbo>t in h i~ c losi nllspt'eCh .

·'O n.. ca n no longer be sensuedwrth 1hE, . imple d ichotomy between·ob it'C l i...e ' jo urnalism and 'ad vo­caCV ' journa lism . W.. nt"t'Cl to beth in king and d .." .. lo p inx thesenoIions 10 ","Wr.. thai ...... are deve­loping a proll"!ision Ihal is goinllto bP .....1..I.nd "[email protected] aft.., pofiliClIIch. nllt'.-

Earlier, Richard StpYO of tbeN<lI<l1 Wi!,,", had sounded

his waminll aKain" tbecali for lilt> prt'Ss10 1.11<..

sides , "Wilhout r....po<1inll that 0Wt'S

no "llt' lIi,lnee to .my ' iI "''''',th.. ordi ­nary citizen cannot he propt."fly in­fol'fl>l."d and rbeee can IX' no prcoeedPb.Jt.. on democ:,.,tic altKft<lliws_~T~ do>b.1t@ ......~ conlinuf'd in

other ,,"Won~ wilh O....id NieldriE'.• fl't'O:"l.Jnc@jounwlisl . '4":"lhn ll: outI~ commitml'flt of t~ ANC to de­(...,tr.li... nlOl"di.l rontrol.-.d 10 pro­...KI .. lor si gnihunl in t...e-lou inlOCie1y. i ndudinll l~ . r.ilk- unions .to hoi ve access to th.,;. own nwdi.

II wou ld be "....k inll tho. .....ide!.1possible deba te. and itCwrdi nll lONidd.i... beli..wd th..1"dictatorshipknoW1 no better br,"t'dinll llroundthan a sycopha nt ic p.... s ,..

The underside ofhuman rights: corruptionIi tnrth and enfon:edsilence

.TWO pr........ntalions c ..t nKhl itClOS•I~ issues of censonhip and tbe"Khl 10 ~Pl"a k, prov idi nll partic i­panls with co mplt"lt"lvd illl"fl"f1t per­sp' .'C live-; .

Tht" f i r~t of these tackled th.. cor·ruption of Iruth in a pft'Wnlalion ,bv tbe Contemporary Cu ltural Stu­d ies Unit o l Nala l Unive~i lv. of IIIPd isinlorrnation camp.li lln .....agedag.J i nSlI~nowOPSlriclt'd End Con­sc n plion C. mpaixn, .nd a "";e-lo ofIi..... I,,"" on corruption 01 tMhby- Or J.fT>l"!i Cochr....... a m..olo­lli.ln ,

"'W1>t"n the tru th is corrupted,th.1 is. madt' 10 be wha t............iuIhe powers and a Ulhor il ies w hocontrol the rTlt"a n ~ of public dls ­COUOW. t ben a common lanllua Kt",sha red ~ymbol s a nd id"als, mutual ·1'0' accepted ways o f undN stand ingeitCho the-r are also dPmofisht-d : t hisin turn mt'\iInS tbat tbe found..t ion.01 human 'IO(ial int..rcoerse. andthus 01 th.. polilical possibi lity 01ah...~ K>Ciety, . re t"mdt>d and ulli­ma l..ly . uplu ll'd .- ~ concludt-od<lftl"f living <l dl"!i<;.i ption oI lht'cor­ruption of tMh du. inlt 1hE, Hillerft'l!irT"lf' in Gt"rm.any .

Ot"fininll corrupted truth . s d is­Iincl from d istorted trul h _ d ,s­toned ·'wht'rewr pt"Ople 's bialoPS ,material interests and K>C ialisationlimi t th eir oersoecuws" and cap­abl.. of manegem..nt b y educa tio n,e>,posure and debate - by the n..­t..re of Ih...ystem.. l ic c una ilmenland dest. uc lion o f I.... public's rightto lopl"ak and be h....rd. OrCochra.....Quott'd lewis Carroll in a" """Pling

11

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10 d. 'Suibe wh"l w,,~ h"pp.min~ inSouth Ai rk'"

"The quesnon Is." ~ai d Alice,"wh..lh... you c" n "",ke wo.d ~

......an so m"nyd iiferent th ings.""Tbe q~lion i~," ~id Hurnptv

Dumply, "which i~ to he master_ tha t's " II ."The ether p..r~p<-'Clive w,, ~ ~i v..n

hI' <'ducalor and video producerCo,>la~ C.ilk", in a speech illus­nan-d Wilh carlOons "nd m<'di"im"Il('~ and conct-nlralinll on th.."nal io n of ...i UIleeS" which SouthAfr;ca h",> b<'Com...

# Ap,m h.. id h", >tri pp. 'Cl" na t ionof its c it il t-m hip - >0 lh" l themaimi ly oi South Ai .i c"n~ are re­fug.... -s in Ih.. ir uwn cuuntry. Thedpnialof pohncalexpr..ssion.•odu­ca tion, housing "nd h.." lth ,, 'e parIoi lhe un iv...~1 " xp" ri..nc.. o i re­i"g,~', , "

H.· ,poh ' o f pmvidinll medianreracv and .ICC,"', to medi" pro­ducuon as collec tlv.. righls "mmeproiound th"n the individual ,i ghtto , p..ak" and o i Ihe u....of video topn"hl t- pe-ople- 10 di alollue wilhtheir own silu"tion .

D.:suibinl< lh.. uw o i vid.,o inp "",.mtin g conteasung imal<es luth... official media in ,\ta rcos's Phi ·Iippin,'s, ht- po inted "ul lhal lh.. ", .vo lUl ioo bad ht~'n c all"d th,' "!i" l,, ·mil ' revotunon " h,·cau.... o f th"wid" di' lribution of Ihis form ofdll"rnaliv.' m' odia

Co -Edito r u l th .. W ....kl y Ma il.Amon lIarber, closes rhe conf"r­..nc.. .m The Righ t to SlJ('ak.

Mr Selaka Nya ka 0 1 New Naliun with Prof..swr Keyan To maSl,/Ii o f theUni versity of Natal

David Niddr i.. (c..,," e) talks with con fer..nce PdrUcipants altt" providinginlorma rion on th ,' AN( con,titutional gu id,>/i",'.,

Po..t Chris M,m n (riRIl t). wllo "'dd his own p',,'m, a t th"ctmfe,ence rl'C"P'rion, ralks wi th David Mark>. cha ir,,, ·r.,on 01 rll., Mu' ic ian' AI'>I>cialiun 0 1Natal, and IDA.SA "'gion,,1 dir<'Clur_ P"ul Grall"", (cunv,'n", of rll.. n m ­I",..n<:..)

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DR St wo rt s.unders , Principal andVice-Ch...nc"lIor of 1M Uni~rsit.,.

of Cape Tow" and .. me mb<M of d leIDASA Bo ard 01 Trust~, gave iI

wide-rangingkeynote ~d~ at theRighi 10 Speak conference.

Adcl rnsing q uestions on the right10 speotk in Sout h Afrin , and m e..ring to l<!$$Ons IeAm t inle mOl tion­..Ily and within tl'M! unj~ilift. heprovided II deKriplion of the ",,tysin which C4:"nsonhip operates within.. society. An flI it..d "HSiao of hisqleKh follows.

Article 1901the Universal Decla ­rati on of Hu man Righ t s read s:"Ew ryone has the rillhl lO freedomof opin ion and exp~ion; th is . ightincludes freedo m to hold o pinionsw ithout interference. to seek. re­ce ive ,md imp" rt i llforma tion andide as through any m<-odia and re­gardless of frontie rs." This right ismo re often o bserved in the breacht han in its fulf i lment. but it is animportan t state ment because thenght to speak and tile freedom ofexpression are of vita l importancefo r tile well-being of ma nkind ,

On Ja nua ry b, 1941 durinll tileda rk days of tile Second WOfld Wa rf ra n klin Delano Roosevelt llavepride of p lace to freedo m of speechend expression when he sa id "Int ile futu~ days whi cll we seek toma ke secure we look forward to aworld founded by fo ur esse ntialfreedo ms, 1111" first is freedom o fspeecll a nd expressio n evervwherein tile world . The second is free­dom of everv person to wo~llip

God in his own way evervwbe re inthe world . The third is freedom fromwant, tile fourth is fr~oedom fromfear" ,

Censorship in its various forms istile most direc t assault o n the rightto speak and on the rillhl lo know,a nd tllerefore erodes democracy .Profe ssor O'Hi llllins of Trinity Co l­lege . Dubl in , has identi fied sixfo rms of censo~h i p :

Autonomous Of self-censorship.'the process whe re by suc ll fac torsa s greed. fear . a mbition, sel l-i nte­rest and other consc ious o r un­co nscious motives lead to an indi ­vidual's refra ininll from expressionof opinions or ideas';

Social censor.;hip, 'WilYS bywhicllgroups or society as a whole d is- !courillle the expression of particu-lar opinions and «teas': !

Le gal censorship, a special form 1of social censorship 'wllere in tilerulesdeterminin ll what may or maynot be Ireely e xpressed Me em-

Democracyand the right

to speakDRSTUART SAUNDERS

bodied in rules enforced by police­men. courts and DIller similar insti ­tut ions';

Extra-legal censorship, 'a largenumber of practices not e xpresslya uthonsed by the law used to affectcensorship. These incl ude suc hiI'peets as the , y, te m of bluff andblusterwllereby pr5sure is exertedby tile police a nd o the rs in ilutbo­rity to discoueege the disseminationo f certain material by threilteninllto ta ke legal action ilililinst the dis­semina tion ';

Voluntary censorsblp. wherebytile individual 'without any legalauthontv to do ' 0 imposes upono the rs re,trict ions a' to whilt ideilso r information tlle y may e xpresswithout , ufferinll disadvan tage':

f inally, there i, 'subterraneancensorship', ' the situat ion wlle reo pen intervention by Governmentor o tlle rpublic authoritv isavoided,b ut either a public a uthority orsometimes eve n a private personuses its powers to a ffect censorshipinstead .

IDr Stuart Silunders. Yicl?-Chancel­lor. University 0# CalX' Town,

O'Hillgins co ncl udes: "Ce nsor­sh ip thu s o pera tes in a context fa ,broader than tile mass banning o fbooks . It is etten unseen and suhtle;foreXilmple, the education syste m.press ilnd mecliil have e fundamen ­tal bearing upon the moulding ofbelie fs and perceptions. Tile mani ­pulation of these tnsututrons is anins id io us form of rest ricl inll andinbiblttng tile exchange of informa­non and the acqutsinon of know­ledge ."

Our Governme"t 's attitude toce nsorship can be gleaned fromploUllhin ll through Hansard. f ore xample , th e MiniSler 01 the In­terior in t ile House of Assem blydebate in 1%3. vols. column 400:"Let us realise that weare the guard-ians of tile peop le ;we must llivethem protection ... p.1rticularly, _. (1111') weak . You and Ica n judllefor ourselves whether we shouldread this rubbish , .. and that is o urillfilir, bUI we-must protect the wea kf ro m tllemselves",

Or, the Minister o f t ile Interior .House o f Assembly Debate AUlo\ust15, 1974, co lumn 778: "One dis­covers very qu icklywtoo the peopleare who se works One should eXilm­lne and w ho is not and whilt public­euons are accept ab le an d whatnol"',

In 1983 Andre Bri"k writ inll oncensorship a nd lite ra ture descriht-odcensorship in South Africa as fol­lows: "Ce nsorsh ip represent s theproteclive mechiln isms, an d pro­cesses o t tile soc ial orllanism in tilesla te of e xcessive cancerous deve­lopme nt , Hence in South Africa itis onlyone Pi'rt of an overall strategywllich also expresses itself in suc hforms as deten tion without trial.iI <b it rary ba nn inllS . . _the web oflegislation con trollinll tile press andall tile awesome secret activiti es ofthe Secuntv Po lice. State securitywhic h in the hea ltlly sooetv is ameil ns to an end has become ana bsolute end in itself _ and thevast fiction o f a 'tota l o nslaugllt'has been devised by the aetbceltlesto serve tlle ir own purpose, whicll isthe w talitarian control of iI Iletero­genecus multi-cul tural society by asma ll power-drunk elite ".

Denying 1111" righ t to have accessto Communist literature means thatthe danlle~of Co mmunism Cilnnotbe more clearly understood bySoulh Africans_Denying tree quota­t ions from tile members of the Afri­can National Co ngress results inmost South Africans being in illnor-

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ca n be sure that the t ruth eme rgesis byallowing freedom 01 commun­Icatlon.Inthe absence of suc h free­dom rumour and speculation arerife .

Recent mu nlingof the press hasbeen one of the m05t flagrant en­c roachm'm ts o n the right to com­municate . It is a n o minous andserious state of affa irs whe n a Min­iste r can ban the Weekly Mail witha state me nt that it had publishedmaterial which in hi~ opinion "hasor is calc ula ted to have the effectof causing a th reat to the safety 01the public or the maintenance ofpublic order, or is ca using a delayin the termination of the sta te ofe mergency."

Milto n's Art'opagit ica, publishedin No vember 1644. ls a masterpiece,an In-depth refutation 01the notio nthat speech and co mmunica t io nbe tween human beings should 00c urta iled in a ny way. Milton writes:"Givt' me the liberty to know, toutter, and to argue freely according10 conscience, above all liber t ies".

II a sooetv is denied tree accessto information and attitudes aremoulded in a particular direction itis very d ifficult to change attitudeswhe n it becomes clea r to thosemanipu lat ing the media that this lsnecessary. Beliefs ma y be terevees­ibly entrenched - a result muchle ss likely to occur if the media a reunfette red a nd c redible .

It was J S Mills who said : "Nogrea t improvemen ts in the lot 01mankind are possible until a grea tc ha nge ta kes place in the fund a­me nta l const itut ion of thei r modeso f thought" , Witho ut the freedomof speech the re can be no de mo ­c racy, no great improvements andno secure futu re fo r a ny of us.

o f a n u nlawful organlsanon. a nd todiSloeminate any speech, utteranceor writing o f a listed member of anunlawfu l orgarnsanon or a personwho has been banned or sile nced.Legislation suc h as th e Protectiono f Information Ac t fu rther limitsthe right o l expression, a s of co ursedo the Public Safety Act a nd theEmergency Regulat ions.

The thousands of South Africanswho are and who have been de­ta ined without t ria l are not onlydenied their persona l freedom butinevitably the r ight to speak towhom they would wish when theywould wish and in the way in whichthey would wish . Bann ing may re­sult in an ind ivid ual's being deniedthe right to spea k 10 more than alimited numberof people at a time,to address a public meeting. toenter ce rtain properties where d ia­logue can take place or to publi ~h .

It seems to me that nowadaysc it ize ns who would previously havebeen banned are restricted and tha tthe re st rict ions can be as severe asa banning. Again this represents asenous e nc roachme nt o n the rightto communicate . The word restric­tion i ~ a sot ter word if suc h a thi nllIs possible and can indeed beguilethe u nwary into th inking tha t ba n­nin g rs a thing of the past . This is ofcourse part o f the tendency 10 a b­use words in a society where free­d om of exp ressio n is seriously cur­tailed .

Whe n the freedo m of speech issuppressed in society, t ruth a nd cer­tainty go o ut the window. How in­deed can o ne e nsure that what onehears or reads Is true if in fact themethods whic h have to be used toc heck those truths are not avail­a b le! The only way in which o ne

')

I-., e-- . ,

• :; :; "- ~ j -'

~ 7 I' \- ' . .

Ronnie Ca vender, director 0 1the Asoka Tht'alrt', and Nise Malange, poetand trade unionist, who participatf'd in a pane l on cu lture and censor­ship.

ance of what the Africa n Nat iona lCo ngress savs, except lor these quo­rations wh ich a re per mitted. Be­ca use the quotat ions are selectiveand not pa rt 01 a flow 01 free info r­mation there is no ce rta inty thatthe select ivity is producing an ac­curate reflection o f the view o fthe ANC or whether it is not a veryd istorted impression that is beinggiven. The average citizen has nowa y of knowing. A general uncer­tainty about info rmation extendsthroughout the media in South Af­ric a _ Television. Radio and thePress _ and the result, by virtue ofthe Iact o f information Withheld. isIgnorance. often fear, misinfonna­tton and rumo ur as I have said .Society pays a price for freedom .there is no doubt about tha t. Thefull freedom of expressi on do esexact a price from soci ety. bu t so ­c iety pays a much greater pricew hen freedom of e xpre~~;on isdenied a nd ignorance, suspiciona nd fear re ign.

Nothinge xcept c ourage.decency,publ i c~piritedness a nd other simi­lar qualities will preven t au tooo­mousor sett-censonhip. In a consn­tutional democracy like the UnitedStates the co nstitu tion helps to pro­tect society fro m the second varie­ty, social censorship. a s well as fromthe third or legal censorship. I mUSIpo int out that e ven with that pro ­tection the freedom of expressionis not secure fro m the second form01ce nsorship .

II is in legal censormip that SouthAfrica faces its greatest encroach­me nt on the freedom 01 speech.The Publicat io ns Act o f 1974 (andits predecessor) allows for the ban­n ing of p ubli cat ions, o bjec ts, IiIm ~

and public entertainments . It isrecorded that the Publications Con­trol Board had been responsible fo rt he ba nning of over 2& 0Xl works,many of which were books of ac­ce pted lite ra ry quality . The Boo rdhas been 'le ss vigorous in recentyears bu t censorship con tinues 10e xist under the aegis of that ACI.

Secondly. the Internal Secu rityAct o f 1982 contains sweeping pro­visions wh ic h di rectly or indi rectlyinhibit the freedom o f expressio nin as much as it is an offence, andan offeocewhich i ~ subject to severepenalties, to p roduce o r distributepublication~ prohibited under theAct, to present the c biectso t an un ­lawful organisat ion o r communismin a posi tive light. to possess pro­h ibited p ublication~ or pubbcanons

14

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Legal specialists confer on democracyand the judiciary

MARION SHAERANDSHARDN SDRDURTHE value of a conte-erce IIddr~­

inll the role of the judiciary and 1m­legal profpssion in;lln uniusl loOCifl¥is e5'1efltial in heightf'ning people 'sawareness of their role in . chang­iog South Africa . As Advocate Ar­th ur Chaskalson pointed out, t .....time could~ when their paMcould become futilf' . The problt'fTlis that people bKome numb 10 thl­situa t io n . Throull: h <JP"' deba te.academic input and media COVl:"f­

aKe of the extent that this confer­ence h<td . people .~ ll"fTlil'ldll'd of~ importal'l«' of lhe Rule of Llw .The Conteeeece, which was held althe Ce11 lury Hol:ef in Sfoa Poin t on1. & 15 Octobef. wa s altt"l'ded by1..5 de~u."S in total.

DEIo.tClCRACY ANDTHEIU04C1ARY

ThE- judi<:iafY in a n ;~t.

democrat ic wuntry ~ to 1Idhe1?and conform to do:! 'lOCfilt ic prin­c ip les. Nilmibi. n Advocate Antonlu~i told ttl .. conteeece.

"The L.- itwtf it nol .. MVt rillbody of rulHbul;lI poocIuct of pc.Hi.tic" struale, .. npiluign of lheexislOna politOuI ....lily: .... uid.I he politica l reelities thai im.pi rl"dthe apartheid i1nd emefRfllCV laW!'bear wi~ to th is.

Adv lubowW.i noted that judX':"l>made ( hoic" inflU!'nU'd by t~i,

personal background a nd eape­rience. llJdKel. and maW'Itlates k........little . if anylh ing. about the fl'anand l'Xj)e(:tation'l of black peocte.Yl'1~ o f crim inal U'It"S involvl'd

blacks 'ier'lt ((I privm by while j ud~

and magim ates. NSuprelTlf' CourtjudlC" It"nd 10 be an isolated el ite ,andare of a particula, race. K'_andsoctal clan. N ~ w id . HMagi'lt ' a tesha..... a built -;n bia'l , being d,awnfrom tIM:- ranh of public pI'O'IeCu­tOI"\ ; and t~ public should haveaccess 10 Ihf' If'gal sV!>tem. N Advlu~i w id , No penon '1houldbe 'ier'lt'-"'Ced without lexal I'f.'P".""wntation; cases should be...portedlhoroughly in thf' Jo.w.t court5 ; ajudiciary ""-""<Is a frf'f' press and allrTIl'fTlbf'n. 01 loOCif'fv should ha..... thf'opponunity 10 know a nd un<k-r­stand ttw laws that effect lhem;df'tt"nlion wi thout tr ial should notf''';'1I.

"The "'.11 1l'S1 of a dem ocrat icjud ic iary i'l....nether thf' people per­c~ il as ~nll fa i,and jun.- Advluboo,W,i wid. The judiciary 'Ihould_ IMdemoc,atic intl"rests of a lltM inhabitants. and '1hould notfollow Ihl" path o f tbe NationalPa rtv.

THE RECORD Of THE JUDICIARY

A cont rovt"f'Sial choice of J,pl'ak....-s,nsu~ conlt"ndi ng opinions . Thecceteeoce was add ressed by ProfAdrienne van Blf'fk from UNISA,a uthor o f 1M book, ludgl" and beludgro. "'+'ich dl"ft"nd'l t hf' role ofjud lC" in tbe SA '1ituation; a nd ProfHugh Cordf'f of the UCT contendedt ha i jud ge s are do ubl ll"'1sl y in­f1 Ut"nced by their ' ;>cial and cia'll.back ll;round ..dueation a nd I' a in-

ing. He funhe' "lq)Iaint'd the l''''''' .....tive-mindf"df"ll"'l'\ of thl' judiciary ,

Prof van BIl'l"k repeatedly ad­m itted that tbe SA '1itua lion a llows" little or no PIf"I'l frl'f.'dom" buti'l given a d i'llinct nexal ive bias inCOVf'fage; and '\he w id thai m i'llead­ing and incont"Ct ....port i"ll div~dits jud ges .

Prof Cordeo" skf'tchl"d IhI' historicroIeof iudxes· f'os,i li..... mroIion wasmade of the influ_ conlrol and in­dustrial law df'"o,>lopml"n~ . Sft:u rityIria~.~, haW'Sl"f'fl nodf'w-.Iopmenl from thf' mentality of t .....6Os.lnd 70!0,Thebalancf' ha'l'\WU"l(back to tM hands-off approach1"VicIt"n1 in thl' c~ Statf' Presidf'nlV U[)f and Statl'P~ v Rf'Iea'le'Mandela c.mpai ll.n .

Prof Cordl'r mentioned the myIh­seal nature of I..... indf.'pendence o fanv lega l sV!>lem. TM judicia,.,. ispan of the dominanl KrouP of so­c if't v and ca n only be of valUl'w hl",e Ihf'r e i'l a 'l"pr~ta l iW'

democ,.cy. Thi'\ has been provt'dby thf' Hoe>;tf'f Commission"s find­inK thaI thf' judIciary halo no If'llil­imacv in the black society ,

THE ROLE Of LAWYERS INSOUTH AFRICA

Soulh African judges who foundthf' law morallv indeff'fl'liblf' shouldnot resign. Prof John DuKart! o fWit~Uni....-rsi lV said ,

In a ll loOC ieties judg~ are facedwith mora l d ilt>mmas and d ,fficult

".(

l to R: Prol Hugh Corow o f UCT, Mr Th.l.lbil ~Ibt-rtus (con Vt"nor o f theConfert"nceJ .lnd Mr M il<" Robf-m on,

A.dv Jule'\ Browd.· (SCI (l aWVt"r~ forHum.ln RiRhts).

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Prof Adrienne van BINd( UN/SA)

Adv ATfhur Chaskalson (SC).

decisions. 'W here the laws are un­just , immoral o r abnormal , the d i­lemma was greater for 'mo ra l'judges," he said .

Prof Dugard referred to Prof vanBlerk's book which argues that thelegal system in SA is not grossly ab­normal. Partic ipation of judges whoperceived the legal system as ab­normal and grossly unjust shouldbe considered from an ideologicaland jurispruden tial perspective."Certa in ideologies saw the judgesimply as an apartheid tool," ProfDugard said .

"Our law requires judges to inter­pret and apply the law in a construe­tive and idealistic manner," he said.It was difficul t to ca ll for the resig­nation of "moral" judges becauseour law still allows - or requires ­the judge to advance justice in theaaos. the interstices of the law.

Mr Issa Moosa, civil rights law­yer, said, "l awyers in a future demo­cratic system have a vital role toplay if we are to become respons­ible members of a new soc iety".

Apartheid is a c rime against hu­ma nity and lawyers should contri­bute to dismantlin g apa rtheid lawsand inst itutions.

l awyers would need to establisha new legal order, draft a constitu­tion and bill of rights and devise a

Prol Gerhard Erasmus( Un iversi ty of Stellenbosch )

1b

The Honourable lust icelohn Trengove

lega l system consis tent with thenew democratic order.

"The role of lawyers in a futuredemocratic system would be toapply and interpret the new legalsystem," he said.

Lawyers would have 10 assesspunishment and its purposes. "Ourpenal code should be to rehabi li­tate transgressors through an edu­ca tional process," M r Moosa said.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUDICIALREVIEW IN AN EMERGENCY­ORIENTATED SOCIETY

"The principles now under attackhave survived for far longer thanhas the present membership of thecourt, and they have a great deal ofres ilience left in them yet," was th epositive concl usion Prof Etienn eMu reini k delivered after twospeeches which placed humanrights in pe rspec t ive within a stateof emergency.

Prof Laurie Ackennann from Stel­lenbosch Universi ty explained thathuman rights were aimed at pre­venting a state from abusing itspower against the individual . It wasemphasised that both the right ofaccess 10 lega l advice and the rightof access to the courts are funda­mental rights. The fact that the Ap­peal Court has failed 10 protect

Mr fs sa Moosa (NADEL l

Prol Laude Ackermann(Un iversi ty 01Sfellenbo~h )

these rights "was therefore a be­trayal of principles" and demon­strated that "the concern for funda­mental rights nms shallow in Bloem­fontein," Prof Mure inik stated.

States do, however,derogate fromhuman rillhts in times of emerg­ency. The first principle that mustbe adhered to , according to inter­na tional standards, is that the mag­nitude of public emergency mustthreaten the life of th e nation as awhole.

Prof Ackermann sta ted that theSA security legislation isoutof stepwith Western human rights stan­dards .

His plea was tha t the judiciary begiven the widest possible powers ofreview. Martial law, or a state ofemergency, should be regarded as"a t the best a lamentable necessi ty"and conditions should be thorough­ly embodied in a statute.

THE ROLEOF JUOC ES IN ADEEPLY DIVIDED SOCIETY

ludges have not been able to resistthe advance of discriminato ry lawsin o rder to uphold basic humanrights and fundamenta l principlesof justice, the Honourable JusticeJohn Trengove to ld the confe rence.

He stated two reasons for th is:acceptance of parliamentary sove-

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ProI Et~'"' M Urffll i l,(Un i "'-"Oi fy 01 Witwatt"f~andJ

reignty and the- ab!.t-ncll' at a Bill o fIl:ighh.

SA was -partia lly democrat ic"a nd parl iamenla ry )()~llnty wnout o f place in a p lura l MX: ie ly-where the It''gislalUre a nd I!'1<eCU­

Ii..... flO'M"f are vested in a minori ly,"he )<lid.

"A joolte must adm;n i)ter jlllOliceto a ll persons alib witho ut le ar,favour o r p rejud ice , in accordancewith the law and customs of thecou nt rv." Accord inll to loolte Tren­1I0ve , the iud ge's d ile mma a rosewhen he had to admin i ~ter just icein a ccordance with laws inhe rentlyun just.

1001111' TrenltOW' ..mphaseed thatall mll'm~,s o f a plueal MX:ill'lyshould haw confidence in tbe judi­c iary, in tndeoeedeece and it ~ im­partia lily .

Prof Gll'mard EraWlus of Slel len­bosch Un~ily)<lid tha i SA ......,15heading lOlabl~l . -

"'hO'rE' is no middlll' I'OUnd orwl'll'd intt'f1l'SU a nd idII'als in ou,counlry,- hi!' )<lid . Thi!' law and lhe­courts had become in5truml"f1IS loropprPSslon and the- S(alf' Presidentwas ""-'lotPd with powl'f'S of sese­""; ltnty.

-The courts~ not a bastion ofjUSl icll', a nd ""PlacinK parts of IhI!'syslem would not be sufficient -

II'VII'f'yIh inlt must be reoleced." hi!')<lid ,

THE ADMINISTRATION OFIUSTlO IN A CHANGINGSOUTH AFRICA

Thll' sugllil'stions Adv Lu bowskimade at the bt-ginni ng 01 the con­ference were echoed by Dr Sand raBerman and Mr Wilfl'll'd Scharf in apresentation on people 's court s.

Peoplf" s co urts can be de fined a~

non-state o r informa l courts, This isnot a new phe norT'lt' non in SA and,c ont rary to popula r belief, thev a renot a react ion to the current iII l'1tit­imac y o f lhf' courts . The y deve­loped whe n colonial a Ulhor itif'smade laws which the y could notII'nforCll' and hdd 10 aooroach thelribal ch""fs lor assistance .

The townships ha ve a nelworlr. ofinformal courh. T......y are not offi_c ial or rt"ltula lt"d a lthoouKh theywork on a st l'\"'eC commiltl"f! b.»is .Given the ~lalion~tt'dby lhe informal courts a nd lhe num­ber o f CU PS thll'y dl"Cide on. it canbe a"llUll'd thai tM "-lIe judicial~~em is peripht-ral.

Thf' informal co u rts a rf' con­siderftl problenH.ol\'t'fS and are notiKOlatt'd from 1M community . ThecaloPS thll'y hN, a rf' o f a~tic

nature and incl udf' clllOlody. ma in.

Ad.. Anron Lullooo-ski(N.lmibiaj

lenancll' .Ind houw applications .Thei r major e .e1usion is blood calol"!iwhich inc lude _ ,t' fiKhU and~.......

This particular wu ion dfl'W rnuctlrote-est because lew oecoie 1r.nl'Wthe facts ;nw/vt'd in people 's courtsas the media hn so discreditedthese courts,

Mr Scha rf e"Plained the access­ibility of pecore's co urts . The timewhen the y opera te is convenient,the proceedings are conducted inthe mo ther tongue, people do notneed rec-esenrauon, the process isc heap a nd no d istinclion Is madll'between ceses. whic h are simplyp roblems thai need wlvinll,

The emphasis it on achieving re­concilialion rather Ihan aht'Oatingpeople. The courts also M"fW as ass te o f informa tion exchange andeducation on desil'll'd moralilY.

M r Sch.lirf t'''Plained lhe Courbasa hislor ical manifll'Stal;on wtlichshould 1M' t.llr.t'fl :lenously_ Ibesecourts promoIt' a legal culture lhatSt.lrts al Itrusroou leW'! and con­veys f'I<)rfTI) and valups of a .-­Ir. ind. ThII'y conSl,1ute the marriilgl'01 CU5Iornarv Law and gent"fililaw.

Mv ChaskalMlfl clol.t'd the con­teeoce with a brit'f summary a ndpoi nted deleaalello lhe- reeds of anew democratiC South Amca.

•..Adv L. A, Rost""lnnps

(Cha irperso n IMr Wilfred Sch.irf

ucr - Crimina",,"y Dept

17

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Dr BeyI''' Naud~ - een van die sprekers.

Wat kom na apartheid?uovs verdedig vryheid van spraak

HENNIE SERFONTEINCEDURENOE die naweek van 141'015 Oklobe-r is betangeike polltiekegeskiede nis in meer as een opsiggemeek in Bloemfontein op diekampus van die Universlteit vanOrante Vrysta<lt (UO VS).

Eerstens is daa r ' 0 werkswinkelgereel deur Ordes , oardie vrvbeids­manifes V,1I1 die verbode AfricanNation,,1 Congress (A Ne) met dietema "Wa t kom na a pa rtheid ?"Ordes is '0 besprekings- en stud te­g roep Ileaffilieerd met die studente­raed van UOV5 wat d ie werbwinke lin samewerktng met IDASA aan­Ilebied 1'11'1 .

Tweeodenswas dit '0 heel belang­rike oorwinning vir die beainsel vanvrvheld van sprailk en opegespreks­voenng oor belangrike en se nsi­tiewe pol itieke sake.In die verbandalle 101 aan die universiteits ower­tiedI'. en veral die ulttredeode rek­tor Prof. wvnand Mouton en dieaangewewe rektor Prof, F.P, Reti ef ,wet heel moedig 'n besltste begin­selstandpunt irlllerleem het.

Nieteenstaande geweldige regsedruk en 'n poging van 40AWB stu­dente am die werbwinkel fi~ies teo ntwrig, het hulle onwrikbaar voetby stuk Ileho u, en geweier am diewer kswinkel ter elfde ure te verbied .Oil' ncdige veiligheidsmaatreels Isgetref am dit te laat vocrtgaan on­der beskerrn tng va n umveesuettswagteen d ie polisie.

Oil' wer hwink e l is bygewoondeur byna 200 ~tudente en dosente .Oil' feit dat ~ 'n ommede onder­werp OOf d ie om~trede ANC _ sleg~

die naam daarvan laat die regering~e bloeddruk gevaarlik d ie hoogtei n~kiet _ in Bloemfontein gehouis, is nil' sonder ~imboliek nil', Warltnil' aileen is Bloemfonte in die hoof­~tad van die Oranje Vrystaat wa tdie beeld het asdie mees ko nserwa,t ie we en verkrampte pmvinsie. 'nbast ion van Afrikaner nasionalisme.Dit is ook die plek waar in Desem­ber 1912 die ANC gestig is. die o ud­~te modeme politieke organisasiein Afrika, en waa r die Na ~ionale

Party, vandag in 'n bittere ko nflikmet die ANC gewikke l. self Iweeja ar late r gestig i ~,

Be kende UOVS ~tudenteleie rs

wa s saam met Andre Zaa ima n, d ie

ska ke lpersoon van IDASA met un t­versiteite, betrol< ke by d ie o rgant­saue van die werkswinkel. A~ spre­kers. het opgetree me nse SOO~ d r.Van Zyl Slabbert. d r. Bevers Naude ,wat die o peningsrede geh ou het ,p rof. l a urens du Plessis, prof, Sam­p ie Terreblanche, prof . Elwil Be u­kes en mnr, s..ki Ma<:ozoma , vand ie Suid-Afrikaanse Raad van Kerke.Aspekte wat han teer is en lewendiggedebateer is , is onder andereblanke vrede, menseregte. indivi­duele regte e n groepregte en die"Afrika ne r e n die vrvheidsmani­fes N

,

Dr. Naude het !lese dat die Afri­ka ne r 'n besondere veraotwoorde­likheid het in 'n po~t-apartheid be­ste! om mee te werk am 'n nil'­rassige demokrasie te help vestig ."Oil' Afrikaner he t beslis 'n bvdraete fewer. e n as o ns bereid is a m nad ie kritiek van swartes te lui~ter, salhulle ons aanvaar." En oar blankevrese het mm . Ma<:ozama gese :"Ons ka n onderl inge wan troue be­sweer as o ns valse mites kan a/­breek."

Die Vrydagoggend IIOOr die kon­terensje begi n bet, was daar kon­stemaste e n beroennae op die kam­pus . Twee naamlose smeerparntlet­tewat dL Naode en Andre Zaalmanbelaste r het is a p die kampu~ ver­spret. Dr. Naode isvoargestel asdieversinnebeelding van die "kommu­nisme en antioChrist", en die werks­winkel is skerp veroordeel as 'norldermyning van die Afrikaner,

Oak het 'n a lVaardigirlg van be­swaarde konserwat iewe Ouers prof.Mouton gaa n ~preek in 'n DOging

a m die werkswinkel en spesif ie k dieNa ude toesoeaak te verb-ed . Prof.Mouton se standpunt was heel dui­deli k. Hvselt hou nil' van d ie le manil', hy sou se lf d it nil' grorganiseerhet n il' en ste m nil' d aa rmee seamnil' . Maar hy het daarcp gewvs datvroeer va njaar AWB le ie r mm. Eu­gene Terre-blanche ook 'n vergade­ring toegespreek het . Bail' studentee n dosente was bitter d aarteen ge­kant . Ma ar hy he t d it toegelaat te r­wille va n 'n ope debar oor die hell'poli t ieke soektrurn, e n daarom weierhy a m d ie werhw inkel te verbied.

Maa r d ie aand her 'n groep van40 AWB studente. d ie meeste metkakie uniforms aan, die seal beset'n uur voordar dr. Naude diewerks­winkel sou open . Pogings van d ieorgeniseerdets dar bulle die saalmoet ve-laa r aangesien slegs per­sone wat \IQOraf ge regrstreer bet,tcegelaat sou word, het mtshrk.

Oaarop bet prof. Retief namesp rof. Mouton - omdat hy by 'na nd er vergadenng besig was _ dieAWB belhame ls gekonfmnteer.Prof. Retief her vreesloos prof.Mouton se ste ndpunt SODS hie rbogestel. u iteengesit .

Hy het gese UOVS sat nie toelaatd at e nige vergadering ap ~y kampuso ntwrig word nil' , sam wat die at­gelope twee jaar op liberale Engels­sprekende kampu ~se gebeur het0 e .

Oil' AWB het !'gter geweier envcortgegaan am die seal van bvnatwee uur te beset, Maar sooder dath ulle daarvan bewus wa~, is bhts~rlel ander reehngs getref en ka nd ie werkswinkelonge hinderd IIOOrt ­gaan in 'n sealopdie oederstevloer,onder strenge veiugheids reelings .

So is in die hart van die Vrystaat'n oorwinning beOaal vir die bell.in­sels van vryheid v,m ~praak en poli ­t ieke verdraags.a<lmheid , !wee be­g i n ~e ls W<lt die Nasionale Party re­gering alr('('(h vir de kades wrkrag .

18

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Recent IDASA Occasional Papers

A t tAVAILABtE AT R2.00 EA CH {POSTAGE INCLUDEDI FROM

IDASA,1 PENZANCE flDAD,MOWBRAY noo

7, n4E DYNAMICS OF REFOfIIM "REVOLT IN CURRENT SOUTH AFRICAOr f . ....n Z\ll SlIIbbertA Th_ PlIrt Talk..Tanner Leclul1Ir. B,. ... noae Col lelle. Oldol<! . Octob&rlNoveni)e r 1981.~.. 1: From "-1hMI1O ReJonn: The ldotologlcel ,,",_Uon tor u..To ... On"'"""I.

I . THE DYNAMICS Of' REFOfIIM" REVOLT IN CURRENT 8OUTHAFRICA ·Or F ....n Z\II SlIIbbflrt~.. Z: The 0,...... 01 F1e1orm: Co.()pll.. DomInation - llIwrInv~ ""'-'I Loalng An,

• • n4E DTNAMICS OF REFORM" REVOLT IN CURRENT SOUTHAFRICAOr F. ....n Z\II SlIIbbartLKeu,. 3: Th. o,namIcs of 1'1........ : ""II..... 01A..-and Revolt.

10. DAKAR REPOfIT BACKOr A lex Bo,.ine. Exec:uti.... Oil1lC lor. 101< $0\. C&oe Town (4 68n

11. THE DAKAR REPORTS: RESPONSES FROM SIXTEEN DELEGATES

12. A VIEWOf' THE ECONOMY BEYOND APARTHEIDF..... Persoectiwl lrom lto8 Se....narhe ld on 22.4.88 in C80e Town.

13. BEYONP THE BEND: SOUTH AFRICA, SOUTHERN AFRICA ANDNAMIBIAN INDEPENDENCEPeter Vale. 1'1" ....."'" Pro/" u or &. Director. Inl litute for Soc.1 andEconomic Re_'l:tl .Gntllam.IownIOctob&r 1968).

Media Werkswinkelin Wes-Kaap

'N STREEKSGEBO NDEwerkswinkelrondom d ie kwessie van die vry­heid van d ie pen het op Saterdag 8Oklobef 1988 in Stellenbosch pleas­gevind . Die werkswinkel was 'n ge­same ntlike prnjek van die Stellen­bosche Aktuele Aangeleentberds­kring (SAAK) en d ie Inslituut vir 'nDemokratiese Alternalief vir Suid­Afrika (IDASA).

Dieoollmerk van diewerkswinkelwas om te Iok us op persvrvheid inSuid-Afrika . Daar is ook gekyk nadie regsimpllkasies van persbeheer­meat reels en moontli ke verderesteppe wal teen d ie pers ge neemkiln word deur d ie hujdlge r('ge ring.'n Verdere doel va n d ie~kswinkel

was om media-mense in die sneekbymekailr Ie bring en geleemheldte gee o m inligt ing e n ervanngs tedeel.

Die werkswinkel is bygewoonde ur)2 afgevaardigdes va n vers kil­lende publikasies en media-p ro ­je kle. Hterd te medta-prolekte enpuhlikasie-s het ingesl uil Oil" Suid­Afrikaan, South, Crassroots, NewEra, Saamstaan, Democracy in Ac ­tio n en Molo Songololo . verskeleverteenwcordlgers va n stud ente ­pubhkasies. waaro nder Oil" Ma tie(p uhlikasie van d ie studenre-enieva n die Universite it van Ste ffen­bosc h), /(ampuskruis CnCh risle likep ub hkasie o p Ste lle nbosch ) e nAnderkrant (d ie puh lika s;e vanNUSAS-Slellenoosch ) he t ook diewerkswin kel bygewoon. Ledc vand ie Save The Pre ss-komitee was ookteenwoordig.

Oil" werkswinkel het efgeskcpmel 'n bree inleid ing deur ChrisHeymans (Rhodes) waa r;n hy aan­getoon he t dat staalsmag in Suid­Afrika toenemen d gesenlral iseerword. Parallelle strukture soos d ieNasionale Veillgheldsbestuu rstelse lspeel hier in 'n groot rol. Mnr. Hey­mans se re feraat is opgevolg de ur·n re fe raa l oor die omvatte nd ebeperkinge waarooder d ie pen inSuid -Afri ka gebuk gaan. Hugh Cor­der (Universile il van Kaa pstad ) hetdaarop Ilewvs dal daa r 'n doe lbe ­wuste pogi ng is o m wettige ga pingsrondom pubJi kas ie-s toe re stop. Diegevolg is loenemende d rilkoniese

maatreels e n minder geleenthetdlot haodhawing va n 'n relanef-vrvee n onafhanklike pers in Suid-Afrika.

Oil" rete-ate is opgevolg d eur 'npanlX'lbespre king. Tydens d ie be­sprekin g bet venkeie publikilsiesgewys op stappe wat teen hu lle ge­neern is va naf owerheidswet' ombulle te mui lband o f om publikasieva n gegewcns te bemoetlik. Oil"gehoor kon OJ' d ie manie r eersee­hands vemeerTl va n d iedruk wat opd ie media in Suid-Affika uttgeoetenword.

Hie ma het Eric LOlIWvand ie Kon­te rnporere Kulturele Stodie-Een­heid van die Unive rsiteit van Nata ld ie hu idige o ntwi kke linge in d iemedtawereld to t bescrektng ge­bring.

Oemokratiese e n deelnemendemedia .,slrUktu re, bree gemeenskaps­bet ro kkenhetd en die prod ukliewebe nutt ing van mediallapings is be­sc reek.

Daar is aangetoon dat inisialie fen volhardende deelneme nde me­dta-reg nteke publikasie moont lik­hede ka n vergroot _ sel fs te middevan die besraande o nderdru kkendewelgewing . Mnr. l ouw se referaatwas 'n vccrbeeld van 'n hocovonee n kreat icwe uilkyk op die toeko ms

van die med ia . 'n Ind ringendearcecs- en vloerbesprektng het ge­vo lg.

Oil" """,rkswinkel het daenn ge­slaagom Afrikailns, Engelsen Xhosa­tal ige gemeenskaps- en stode r ue­p ublikasies bvmekaar te bring. oi thet gele! tot d ie u itrui l van inligt inge n erva ring . Dit het ook d ie deel­nemers se vasberaden heid versteekom te werk vir 'n vrve. nte- rasstgedemokratiese Suid-Afrika : 'n Suid­Afri ka vry Viln aP'lrtheid en d ie rested aarvan. Die terugvoer wiltdeurge­skrewe en mondeltnge evaluasteveekrv is, hel daa rop gedui dat dit'n funk sionele en geslaagde werks­winkel was. Die deelnemees se vcoe­stelle dar verdere werkswinkel s vandie aard gedurende 1969 behoortplaas te vind, verd ien tans aandag.

SUMMARY:Th i§ regional media works ho pbrought together 32 people from 12publications for a n intensive one­dilY workshop o n press freedo m.Partic ipants ca me fro m Afrikaansand English commumtv and studentmedia . In a written evaluation thece-nctoeots gave the worlc.shop a7)% averilge filting a nd suggestedfu rther suc h workshops.

19

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Update en steps being taken towardsMDnde Mtanga's release

NOll-Racialism vsMulti-Racialism

IDASA public debatein Port Elizabeth

MAXWEll MAMASE

ROB Midgley of the Law fac ulty atRhodes University addressed thisgathertng o n tg Oceobe 1988 al theIDASA offices in Port El i zabeth . HenOlli'd that mu lti-racialism , by whichapar theid can be disguised . ha sbeen e ntrenc hed by the tn-camera lco nstitut ion . The Nationali st P,u ty,en joying a majority status in theHouse of Assembly, d omi nates thevenous houses of Parl iament eventhoullh these a ppear 10 have equalpower. The Presiden t's Council is afu rther built-in safeguard for theinterest of the Nationalist Party ,control "n.d milnip ulil tion o f wh ichis "polic Y"iuilrded" by entrt'nc hedmulti-rac ialism.

Multi-facialism embodies cosrre­tic concessions on the one handwhile bl-ing a manifestation of arro­ga nce o n the other . This is also trueof government at the third-tier levelwhere the empha!>i ~ ts ajotain onjotroup~ d ivid ed on the basis of"Re ne tic-enRi"",erioa-.

How,u d Varney. a Port Eli zabethlawyer, p rovided a "progressive 'cr itiq ue of multi-racia lism. He saidthat divide-end....ule was the obiec t.co ntrol o f power e nsu ring that the"h a ves" are not challenged by the·'ha ve.....ou". 13 ycareful desi gn con­trol falls into the ha nds of a few.whi le ma inta ining a facad e of mu­tua l co-ooeranon and co-existence.Inherently deceitful. multi ....aclal­ism has to try to hoodwink thegenera l pop ulation; those who at ­tempt to ex[>O~ the system a remade to feel the heavy ha nd o fre pre ssion . The key purpose 01mu lti-racia lism rs thus obviouslvcont rol of power,

Or Ian Phillips ol Nata l Unive~i ty

spoke 01 non-racial ism a nd demo­cracy as polit ica l terms which, likesocie t ies in general, don 't rema instat ic but develop over time . Demo­CraCy is a double-sided phenome­no n concerned on the o ne handwith the change of sta te power and

o n the other with the restructuring01 c ivil society . Democracy canonly be co nstruc ted through theefforts a nd parncipanon 01 indivi­duals and commu nities at the grass­roots level. This, co up led with uni­versal idea s of human rights a nddigni ty. will suffice to rect ily thesoc ial and poli tical injustices inSouth Africa . Apartheid, racial dis­c rimination and inequality willha"", to ma ke Wa y for a non ....actaldemocratic South Africa which it­sell must of necessity be fash ioned

KEITH J WATTRUS

SINCE the last issue of Democracyin Action, IOASA's attorne ys havesoccesstc uv lodged an applica tio nfo r leave to a ppeal aRai n~t thejudRe ment handed down on 26 Sep­tember 1988 in the Port ElizabethSupreme Court . In the prior judjote­ment pelmi~sion to a llow Mandl' .along with the X>curity Policeme nwho had fi led o pposi njot affidavi ts.to lead oral evidence was refused .

Leave to appeal aga inst tbts decl­~ion now having been gran ted .urgent a pplica tion has been madeto have thl' appeal heard before theend o f 1988. This appeal will be to alu ll bench of Ihe Eastern Cape Divi­sion of the Supreme Court. which!>l'nch sits in Graham~town.

X m as

9 r ee lin'ls

The directo rs a nd staff01 IDASA extend

complimenh of theseason to a ll the

readers o fDemocracy in Action,

with the wish that19t\9 may brinR about

the dawn 01a truedemocracy inSouth Alrica

now a nd not afte r some magicaltransference of power o raccordingto some conference-produced blue ­pr int .

The non....aclal no tion ma kes nodistinction in terms o f race , colouro r c reed , all people being trea ted ash uman beingsand equal in the evesof the law. The process o f c reati nga democratic South Africa ls alreedvbecomi ng a reality in the town­ships, factories a nd schools but canonly proceed with the participationof millions of Soulh Africans .

Shou ld we be successful in theAppeal then the Court of Appea lwill d irect the Port El izabeth courtto refer the matter for ora levidenceto !>l' led so that Ihe Court mighthea r the evidence o f the par tiesprior to making a decision withrega rd to the applkat ion lo r Mon­de 's release, We do not ant ic ipatethat the oral evide nce will be givenunt il Fe bruary 1969. eve n il theAppea l is heard du nng the course01this year.

Mandl' Mtanga , a reRional co­o rd ina tor in the East..,-n Ca pe officeof IDASA, has been detained with ­o ut t rial s incl' 10 Decem!>l'r 1967.AI we e nter the Christm.as seillSOflwe remember Monde and the manywho, like him, a re being held indetention without trial , and praylor thei, spH'CIy release.

Mr M andl' Mtanga _ in de/eOlianfor iI YI'a, .