Under the South African security legislation there are several legal ways in which persons may be held in detention without charges being preferred against them.
The most common is Section Six of the 1967 Terrorism Act which allows for indefinite interrogative detention. In May 1979 a total of 65 persons were held under this statute, 13 of them having been detained in 1978.
At the same date 23 persons were held in terms of Section 12b of the 1976 Internal Security Act as potential witnesses in security trials. The same Act also provides for preventive (non-solitary) internment, a form of punishment which has been commonly imposed on community leaders prior to banning orders.
A fourth form of detention is Section 22 of the General Law Amendment Act which allows for 14-day detention. This is often used initially with detainees being transferred to other statutes as deemed appropriate. On 25 May four people were held under the GLA, with a further six persons being detained as potential witnesses in non-security cases under Section 215 of the Criminal Procedure Act.
In addition, persons may be detained under Section 13 of the anti-drug law Abuse of Dependence Producing Substances Act.
In practice it is often difficult to ascertain under which piece of legislation a detainee is technically being held, and to detainees the distinctions can be academic.
