SIX JOURNALISTS BANNED
Six journalists have had three-year banning orders served on them in terms of the Internal Security Act. The orders prevent them working as journalists and put them under partial house arrest.
Five of the banned journalists were leading figures in the Media Workers Association (MWASA). MWASA had just ended a protracted strike of journalists, following which the Government suspended the publication of four newspapers before effectively banning two of them.
The banning orders restrict them to their homes between 7pm and 6am on weekdays and for the whole of weekends and public holidays. They may have no visitors at their homes except their parents and parents-in-law and a doctor.
They are prevented by the orders from entering any newspaper office, industrial complex or educational institution and from attending social or political gatherings. They may not be quoted.
John ISSEL, of Mitchell's Plain near Cape Town was served with a banning order on 21 November 1980. The order expires on 31 October 1983 and restricts him to the magisterial district of Wynberg.
He was chairman of the Rocklands Ratepayers Association and permanent organizer of a community newsletter Grassroots. It is a monthly newsletter started by the black community in the Cape, and the W. Cape region of MWASA (then known as Writers' Association of South Africa WASA).
Zwelakhe SISULU, who lives in Orlando, Johannesburg, was served with a banning order on 29 December 1980. He is restricted to the magisterial district of Johannesburg.
He is President of MWASA and was news editor of the Sunday Post, one of the newspapers banned shortly after his banning. Recently he successfully appealed against a nine month prison sentence imposed on him for refusing to answer questions in court about telephone conversations he allegedly had with another journalist who was on trial.
Marimuthu SUBRAMONEY, the vice-president and Natal regional secretary of MWASA was also banned on 29 December 1980, the same day as Zwelakhe Sisulu. He was a reporter on the Daily News and a correspondent for the BBC and several other foreign broadcasting corporations. He was detained in May 1980 during the school boycott.
Mathata TSEDU was banned on 9 January. He was a Post reporter and a Northern Transvaal executive member of MWASA. The order restricts him to the magisterial district of Seshego, near Pietersburg.
Besides being a journalist Mathata Tsedu is a writer of fiction, his short story Forced Landing having been used as a title piece in a recently published anthology. His stories can no longer be published in South Africa.
Phil MTIMKULU was served with banning orders on 28 January. He was a senior journalist on the Post. He was formerly Secretary-General of the Union of Black Journalists (UBJ), the union which preceded MWASA and which was banned during the 1977 crackdown on black organisations.
Joe THLOLOE was served with banning orders on 28 January. A senior Post journalist and a leading figure in MWASA, he was president of the UBJ. He spent nine months in gaol when still a student, after marching as a volunteer with Robert Sobukwe in March 1960 to hand himself over to the police in protest against the pass laws. He has been detained twice and held once for 18 months.
WESTERN CAPE BANS
Three people were banned in the Western Cape during November 1980, one of them being John Issel.
Jamalludin HAMDULAY of Athlone, near Cape Town, was served with a notice on 25 November 1980 in terms of the Internal Security Act prohibiting him from attending gatherings. The five year ban expires on 31 October 1985.
At the time of his banning Jamalludin Hamdulay was acting president of the South African Students Association (SASA) which was active in the Western Cape during the school boycott. The order also involves partial house arrest: he may leave home only between 6am and 7pm on weekdays and is allowed no visitors except a doctor and his parents-in-law.
John FERRUS, Western Cape Regional Chairman of the Labour Party was served with a five-year banning order on 26 November 1980. The order restricts him to the magisterial district of Worcester. However the order was lifted a month later on 24 December.
This was the third time John Ferrus had been banned. He spent three months in detention after being detained on 25 May 1980, during the school boycott. He spent 38 months on Robben Island in 1967.
CONTRAVENTIONS
There have been several cases in which people have been charged with contravening their banning orders, including the following.
- The hearing of a case against Zubeida MAYET on a charge of contravening her banning order has been postponed twice, the second time until 9 March 1981. She is alleged to have attended a meeting on 19 October 1980 commemorating the banning of organisations in October 1977.
- Judy FAVISH, former trade unionist and literacy worker, was convicted of breaking her banning order, in the Wynberg Regional Court on 6 November 1980. She was sentenced to six months imprisonment, conditionally suspended for three years.
She broke the order when she went for a walk in Kirstenbosch Gardens after hearing news of an uncle's death.
- Sadick VARIAWA, who was convicted in August 1979 of breaking his banning order, won his appeal against conviction in January this year. It was set aside in the Rand Supreme Court.
He had been arrested for allegedly attending a social gathering after he received a lift in car carrying three passengers, and was sentenced to three months imprisonment.
TWO NEWSPAPERS CLOSED
Two newspapers written by black journalists and with a black readership, were closed by the government in January. Shortly after the announcement of the plans to ban the Post and the Sunday Post, the Argus company announced that a new daily paper would take the place of the closed ones. However a number of their senior journalists were also banned.
At the time of the closure of the papers, their publication had already been suspended by government action. The strike by the Media Workers Association of South Africa (MWASA) over pay had led to the paper not appearing for several weeks. Under a section of the Internal Security Act any publication registered in terms of the Act which fails to appear for more than 30 days, loses its registration. Four newspapers had their publication suspended in terms of this clause: the daily Post, the Sunday Post, the Saturday Post, and weekly paper the Sowetan. An order prevented them from resuming immediate publication when the strike ended.
The Argus company appealed against the order, but lost the case. On the same day banning orders were served on Zwelakhe SISULU and Marimuthu SUBRAMONEY.
Shortly after this the Minister of Justice and of Internal Affairs warned that if the papers were re-registered they would be banned.
The Post and the Sunday Post, with circulations mainly in the townships of the Southern Transvaal, took the place in 1977 of the banned World and Weekend World. Trying to justify the bans, the Minister of Justice said the papers were creating a "revolutionary climate" in the country.
The British National Union of Journalists sent its general secretary to investigate the banning of the journalists and the government's suspension of the newspapers. On arrival at Jan Smuts airport he was refused admission to South Africa and was told to return to Britain on the next available flight.
The closure of the newspapers, the banning of journalists and the terms of reference of the Steyn Commission, have led to widespread fears that the Government is seeking to enforce still stricter control on the press, and that it will use the Commission as the basis for doing so. The task of the Commission of Inquiry is to "inquire into and report on the question of whether the conduct of, and the handling of matters by, the mass media meet the needs and interests of the South African community, and if not, how they can be improved".
