On 12 May, the South African Minister of Justice, Mr. J. Kruger, served notice in the House of Assembly that he was preparing for major restrictions and changes to the country's legal processes. This warning was immediately followed by the banning of five lawyers from visiting prisons.
Mr. Kruger said the country's legal system was being undermined by people using "certain practices" in security court cases. He said he would investigate these during the parliamentary recess to determine what could be done about them.
He listed "recurrent practices" as: delaying tactics in security cases, demonstrations in and near courts of law, the intimidation of witnesses, and the "frequent appearance" of certain lawyers and advocates in security proceedings and the enormous amounts of money which were readily available to defendants in these cases. Mr. Kruger continued: "I want to state quite clearly that I am not referring to all advocates and lawyers generally. I am referring to those individuals who associate themselves with the case of the underminers." (DD 13.5.78)
Mr. Kruger's warnings come at a time when an unprecedented number of trials under security laws are taking place throughout South Africa. An equally unprecedented number are also due to take place in the near future according to police statements.*
*What is also clear is that many young people are being sentenced to jail terms for sabotage in extremely quick trials that take place under the Criminal Procedure Act in "special courts" — and that these are largely unreported. (see later in this article)
Deputy Chief of the Security Police Brigadier J. Coetzee said at the end of May that 300 people were to appear shortly in a total of 67 security trials throughout the country. He said that most of those appearing were linked to the African National Congress, but were not members of a national network. (DN 30.5.78)
Mr. Kruger also hinted that curbs might be introduced to prevent foreign money being used to finance legal costs in political trials. (See LEGAL FUNDS THREATENED) He said 66 cases involving "terrorism" were currently being heard in court. Last year there had been 31 cases of sabotage, in which 6 people had died and 41 had been injured. He said 91 "trained terrorists" had been arrested, as had another 594 "untrained terrorists". He continued that he could not be expected to listen to "essays on human rights" while bombs were exploding in South African cities. (FT 13.5.78)
LAWYERS BANNED
The following day five lawyers, well-known for their defence roles in political trials, were banned from visiting convicted prisoners. The five include 3 advocates — George Bizos and David Soggot of Johannesburg and Christopher Nicholson of Durban — and two attorneys, Shun Chetty and Ismael Ayob of Johannesburg. Notification of the bans was made in letters to the lawyers from the Prisons Department after the promulgation of an amendment to the Prisons Regulations. The new regulation empowers the Commissioner of Police to refuse a lawyer access to a prisoner if, in his opinion, "it is not in the interests of the safety of the State or the good order and administration of a prison".
The origin of the new regulation and the ensuing bans is believed to have been a visit by Mr. Soggot, Mr. Chetty and another attorney, Mr. Ramesh Vassen, paid to clients among the convicted SASO prisoners on Robben Island in February 1977. (S.Ex. 14.5.78)
In parliament, Mr. Kruger said: "In the first place, it became clear over the years that delaying tactics were being used frequently in security cases. Our democratic court procedures can easily be abused for this purpose". (RDM 13.5.78)
