THE TWO FACES OF TERROR
EVER since the Nationalists seized p o w e r In 1948, South Africa has been in a state of suspended t e r r o r . T h e mechanism of tyranny has been developed with patience and care-—in t h e self- p e r p e t u a t i o n of Nationalist rule t h r o u g h electoral delimitation and disfranchisement, in t h e punishments with which the law is loaded against any effective forms of opposition, in the functions and p o w e r s w i t h which an obsequious parliament has dressed officialdom and, particularly, the police. Political o p p o n e n t s are banned and banished w i t h o u t t r i a l ; the security police pry e v e r y w h e r e , listening and scribbling, pursuing and interrogating, w i t h all t h e bland insolence of their inviolable dossiers; passports and p e r m i t s are seized o r refused w i t h o u t reason o r appeal. Yet t h e engine has r e m a i n e d , for all that, securely locked in second gear.
O n t h e c r u d e s t c o m p a r i s o n w i t h c o n s u m m a t e t e r r o r s , like Nazi G e r m a n y o r c o n t e m p o r a r y Portugal, t h e courts in South Africa have p r o t e c t e d t h e law from persistent o u t r a g e . Political antagonists have n o t j u s t disappeared, w h i l e t h e i r families e n d u r e d e x e m p l a r y v i c t i m i z a t i o n ; trial in public c o u r t has remained t h e p r e r e q u i s i t e of i m p r i s o n m e n t and e x e c u t i o n . T h e law may have been defaced b e y o n d r e c o g n i t i o n , b u t it is still standing. W h a t e v e r o n e ' s j u d g m e n t of the treason trial, its i n t e r m i n a b l e p r o c e e d i n g s and the vagrancy of the p r o s e c u t i o n , the accused w e r e n o t simply r o u n d e d up and shot, o r shovelled secretly into c o n c e n t r a t i o n camps. Q u i t e the reverse. T h e i r trial has been c o n d u c t e d w i t h a blare of publicity, and the C r o w n is a t t e m p t i n g to p r o v e its c o n t e n t i o n s before an increasingly restive b e n c h at h o m e and overseas.
Above all, t h e press has been left fundamentally free. Though vulnerable to p e r s e c u t i o n u n d e r a n u m b e r of ' p u b l i c safety' laws and consequently c o m p e l l e d to m i n c e fine m u c h of its c o m m e n t , it remains in p r a c t i c e secure from seizure and censorship. It is a precarious freedom, of c o u r s e , and o n e t h a t may be enjoyed only at constant editorial risk. T h e Minister of j u s t i c e , pressed to give reasons for his five-year ban on t h e Editor of 'Africa South', cited for t h e most part various quotations from articles that have appeared in t h e magazine. Yet it has been, all t h e same, by t h e measure of t h e press u n d e r absolute t e r r o r s , free- d o m of a very precious s o r t , capable, for all its limitations, of having kept reason alive in a race-deranged society.
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A F R I C A S O U T HIt is inevitable, of course, that press and judiciary t o g e t h e r should be suffocated by t h e sack-cloth of w h i t e supremacy.
T h e Nationalists have only needed t i m e , to c o n d i t i o n the c o u n t r y to its ultimate submission. D e m o c r a c y is never destroyed in a day; it is u n d e r m i n e d , gradually, carefully, till it is ready at last to cave in w i t h one sure cut of the spade. For eleven years the Nationalists have been tuning up the engine. And n o w t h e t i m e has c o m e to push the pedal d o w n flat to t h e floor.
Some of the r e c e n t appointments to b o t h t h e provincial and appellate divisions of the judiciary are explicable only in t e r m s of political packaging. P r o m o t i o n s have ridden roughshod over reputation and s e n i o r i t y ; and lurking in the shadows of Govern- m e n t policy, legislation stirs to ease the r e t i r e m e n t of recalcitrant judges. T h e South African judiciary has long enjoyed a reputa- tion for administering t h e law u n c o r r u p t e d by promises of p o w e r o r fear of place. T h a t it has deserved this r e p u t a t i o n so well must be p r o v o c a t i o n enough to a g o v e r n m e n t whose pursuit of p o w e r increasingly collides w i t h t h e rule of law. N o c o u n t r y can contain a free judiciary and t h e political and e c o n o m i c violence of apartheid peacefully t o g e t h e r ; the o n e m u s t by its very n a t u r e c o n s u m e t h e o t h e r in the course of its c a r e e r . And so t h e Nationalists m u s t serve n o t i c e on South Africa that i n d e p e n d e n c e of j u d g m e n t is to be as tolerable on t h e b e n c h as it is in parliament. Trial by political o p i n i o n stands ready to tie on t h e blind-fold.
H o w should t h e press escape? T h e D e p u t y - M i n i s t e r of t h e Interior has already announced that a bill to provide for internal censorship is being framed in accordance w i t h the R e p o r t of t h e Commission of Enquiry into Undesirable P u b l i c a t i o n s * and is to be i n t r o d u c e d by t h e G o v e r n m e n t at t h e c o m i n g parliamentary session. It is n o t yet certain w h e t h e r newspapers will be c o v e r e d ; b u t that is n o t of m u c h m o m e n t . If they escape, it will only be for separate e x e c u t i o n straight afterwards. It is upon t h e w h o l e w o r l d of free c o m m e n t that t h e guns of t h e G o v e r n m e n t are n o w trained.
It is n o t easy to b e serious a b o u t t h e r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s in t h e 19^7 R e p o r t . W h e r e it is n o t almost pathological, as in its thick- lensed strictures on u n d e r w e a r advertisements, it is g r o t e s q u e in its bigotry, defining t h e politically undesirable w i t h so obvious and profound a c o n t e m p t for t h e right of m e n to h o l d any conflicting opinions at all that editors will b e serving five years
*For a detailed analysis of the Report, see 'Africa South', Vol II No. 2—'The Final Stroke'.
T H E T W O F A C E S O F T E R R O R
