Faced with the threat of protests and demonstrations on a massive scale, the apartheid regime has virtually outlawed public political activity by banning all meetings of a political nature of more than ten people.
The ban was imposed on 13 June as plans were being made to commemorate the June 1976 uprising. The army was ready to enforce the ban in Soweto. Legal experts described it as 'a blanket ban on politics'. The ban, which followed a request to the Minister of Justice by the Minister of Police, was to be in force for two weeks, covering both 16 June, day of the Soweto commemoration, and 26 June, day of the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter by the Congress of the People. It covered 25 magisterial districts.
But as the date of its expiry drew near, and it appeared that meetings were planned to further the boycott of schools and other protests, and as the venue of meetings appeared to be shifted to districts not covered by the ban, a new ban was imposed, extending the first one for two more months to the end of August, and to 45 magisterial districts.
The wording of the prohibition is wide ranging. It prohibits "any gatherings of a political nature at which any form of state or any principle or policy or action of a government of a state or of a political party or political group is propagated, defended, attacked, criticised or discussed, or at which any protest or boycott or strike is encouraged or discussed or which is held in protest against or in support of or in commemoration of anything" except for such gatherings which the Minister or the magistrate concerned expressly authorises.
During July the Minister of Police stated that the police would rigorously enforce the ban to prevent gatherings of boycotting students on school premises. The ban was also used to arrest more than a hundred workers gathered outside their factory.
The magisterial districts concerned are: Durban, Maritzburg, Pinetown, Inanda, Lower Tugela, Ndewedwe, Port Shepstone, Umzinto, Cape Town, Paarl, Stellenbosch, Somerset West, Strand, Worcester, Wynberg, Belville, Goodwood, Simonstown, Kuil's River, Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, Albany, Cradock, Kirkwood, Graaf-Reinet, Fort Beaufort, East London, King Williams Town, Victoria East, Queenstown, Aliwal North, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark, Roodeport, Springs, Benoni, Brakpan, Germiston, Randfontein, Westonaria, Bloemfontein, Kroonstad.
In a further restriction of meetings, the Grahamstown Chief Magistrate banned weekend funerals at the beginning of August, in order to prevent large numbers of mourners, attending the funerals of two young men killed by the police at a demonstration.
