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The Suppression of Communism Act The Suppression of Communism Act http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.nuun1972_07 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org The Suppression of Communism Act Alternative title Notes and Documents - United Nations Centre Against ApartheidNo. 7/72 Author/Creator United Nations Centre against Apartheid; Yengwa, Massabalala B. Publisher Department of Political and Security Council Affairs Date 1972-03-00 Resource type Reports Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa Coverage (temporal) 1972 Source Northwestern University Libraries Description INTRODUCTION. Criticism of Bill in Parliament and by the Bar. The real purpose of the Act. African Opposition. Use of the Act. Legislative overkill. PROVISIONS OF THE ACT. Punishment without Trial. More Severe Conditions of Banning Orders. "House Arrest Orders." Periodical Reporting to the Police. Imposition of Banning Orders after Completion of Prison Sentences. Banning of the Free Press. Restriction of Persons Administratively Without Trial After Serving Sentence. The banning of exiles. Creation of Harsh and Mandatory Penalties. Presumption of Attendance at Meetings of an Unlawful Organization and Presumptionof Membership. Format extent 16 page(s) (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.nuun1972_07 http://www.aluka.org NOTES AND DOCUMENTS* NOTES AND DOCUMENTS* March 1972 THE SUPPRESSION OF COMJNISM ACT by Massabalala B. Yengwa Northwestern Univers"4 Library IAPR 24 1912 m/ Af ricana [Note: Mr. Massabalala Bonnie ca.aye hoprisdncSouth [Note: practised in South Africa and Swaziland, is now Director of the Lutuli Memorial Foundation in London. A member of the African National Congress since 1945, he was Secretary of the Natal ANC Youth League from 1948 to 1952. In 1952, he became Secretary of the Natal African National Congress, and member of the National Executive of the ANC. He was also Volunteerin-Chief for Natal in the "Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws" launched by the ANC that year. He was one of the accused in the abortive Treason Trial of 1956-1961. Mr. Yengwa has himself been persecuted under the Suppression of Communism Act for his opposition to apartheid. He has been thrice banned and banished and thrice gaoled for his political activities. The last prison sentence was for two years, from 1963 to 1965, for the violation of section 3 (1) (a) read with section 11 of the Suppression of Cemunism Act (membership of an unlawful organisation). On his release from gaol, he was served with a 24-hour "house arrest" order confining him to a remqte country .district of Mapumulo near Zululand. He fled to Swaziland soon after, and moved to the United Kingdom in 1969. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author.] *Allmaterial in these notes and documents may be freely reprinted. Acknowledgement, together with a copy of the publication containing the reprint, would be appreciated. No 7/72 INTRODUCTION Few laws have had such a dramatic and pervading effect on the political scene in South Africa as the Suppressi^n of Communism Act of 1950. The Act has been used as a dreadful weap^n of suppression, intimidation and terror against the opponents of white supremacy and apartheid. There is scarcely a leader in the struggle of the Black people for liberation who has escaped the merciless and all- embracing provisions of the Act. In the Suppression of Communism Act the Nationalist Government placed itself above the law, to be judges of what should be the permitted political activities of the people of South Africa. It placed those who opposed the policy of white supremacy and apartheid outside the pale of the law. Its opponents could be punished without trial and be deprived many rights, including freedom of movement, freedom of association and even the freedom to earn a living The Nationalist Party won its election in 1948 on its policy of white baaskap (domination) and apartheid.( It claimed, perhaps with justification, that this had been the traditional policy of white South Africa. It then set about to protect and reinforce this policy by arming the Government with powers to crush oppositior. The Nationalist Government excels in its use of euphemisms as legislative titles to its most drastic legislation. It is hardly surprising therefore that when the law was drafted to outlaw opposition against the status quo. it was called the Suppression of Communism Act. When the bill to "suppress communism" was first introduced, it was entitled the "Unlawful Organizations Bill". The Minister of Justice assured the Parliament when piloting the bill that "this Bill was only intended to fight communism". 1/ In fact, perhaps to demonstrate his "good faith", he even agreed to change the title of the bill from the Unlawful Organizations Bill to the Suppression of Communism Bill. He, however, refused to change the provisions of the bill. Criticism of Bill in Parliament and by the Bar The Inister's solemn assurance that he was only fighting communism did not satisfy the critics of the Bill. Mrs. Margaret Ballinger, a Member of Parliament representing African voters, said : "It is a staggering measure ... it is a terrifying measure ... nobody whose views differ from the Government's will have any security whatever. We are not drifting but rushing towards the Police State at a tempo which is absolutely breathtaking." 1/ House of Assembly Debates (Hansard), Junel4, 1950, col. 8923 72-07735 - 2 Speaking for the United Party, hr. Harry Lawrence said: "The bill will require the closest scrutiny and in the interests of the liberty of the individual, the opposition will have to undertake this task in spite of being named communist ..... Certain clauses of the bill are sufficiently wide to enable Mr. Swart (the Minister of Justice) to prevent a citizen from being a member of a football Club, a Debating Society and a Church. It virtually confers on him the power to excommunicate a citizen from society." The Johannesburg Bar Council also issued a statement condemning the bill because, "it seriously and in a far reaching manner tempered with the principle upon which all freedom was founded, namely that no man whould be punished or ortherwise made to suffer by the State except for a distinct breach of the law, proved in the ordinary manner before the Courts of the Land". The real purpose of the Act Despite the strenuous objections to the provisions of the bill, the Government went ahead in getting the legislation passed by Parliament. The task of the Government was made easier by the fact that the majority of the whites had become apprehensive about the increasing militancy of the Blacks. Militancy of the Black people had been demonstrated in various ways during the post-war period. In 1946, the African hine Workers' Union, led by Mr. J.B. Marks, called a strike in support of a demand for higher wages. The strike, which was supported by over 60,000 African miners, was ruthlessly suppressed on the fourth day, when police opened fire on the miners. Nine miners are reported to have died and 1,248 injured. The Native Representative Council, which was in session during the strike, decided to adjourn indefinitely, when its Government-appointed white Chairman refused to allow it to debate the strike. 1,hembers of the Council complained that the Government had been treating it as a "toy telephone". During the same year the Indian community was in a militant mood opposing the Asiatic Land Tenure and Representation Act of 1945, which restricted their rights to own and occupy land. The South African Indian Congress led its members in a Passive Resistance Campaign in 19B,6: thousands of Indians participated and went to jail for occupying land reserved for European occupation. The African National Congress had in 1949 adopted a programme of political action which included the staging of national strikes and other forms of direct action. In projecting itself to the world during the period of the "cold war" as the guardian of Western Christian civilization against communism, the Government hoped to get favourable responses from some influential section of the Western - 3 - world. In a pamphlet written in 1943, r. Eric Louw, who later became hinister of Foreign Affairs in the Nationalist Government, had preferred, as the main charge against communism, that it "recognizes no distinction of colour or race ... At meetings of the Communist Party, White, Black and Brown persons sit together... The effect of such (communist) inflamatory propaganda was quickly visible in the impertinent and even challenging attitudes of natives towards Europeans." During the debate on the bill in 1950, the Minister of Justice painted a horrifying picture of the dangerous situation facing the country if communism was not suppressed. He warded the House of Assembly: "We are living on a volcano in our beautiful land.
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