During the second half of 1983 the government attempted to stifle opposition by using its legal powers to an increasing extent to prohibit meetings. This followed the recent lifting of a number of banning orders on individuals and constitutes an alternative means of control to that of banning on people and organisations.

The pattern of bans on meetings reflects the areas of growing popular resistance to apartheid, and to the government's constitutional proposals in particular. Many of the bans were issued under the Internal Security Act by district magistrates and referred to meetings of particular organisations. Almost all the bans were directed at the United Democratic Front (UDF), the Release Mandela Committee (RMC), or the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO).

During the month before the white referendum on 2 November to vote on the government's constitutional proposals, almost all major UDF meetings were banned. The UDF successfully challenged one of the bans in court. The Release Mandela Committee also said that it would take court action, after two meetings to launch its campaign were banned.

Even where meetings were not banned the government on occasions responded with harassment of organisers or participants, or seizure of literature.

Meetings banned since the last issue of FOCUS are listed below.

UDF MEETINGS

  • The UDF received two notices on 7 October prohibiting it from holding meetings in the Johannesburg and Randburg areas respectively. The first order referred specifically to an administrative meeting of the National Secretariat of the UDF at which only ten people were to be present. The second covered not only a UDF meeting but 'any other gathering for the purpose of discussing, propagating or referring to plans for the organisation or combined action to prevent or undermine government initiatives to hold a referendum on November 2nd'. The UDF held its administrative meeting outside these two areas.
  • The following weekend a ban on all gatherings of the UDF in the King William's Town district hindered a second attempt by the organisation to launch a Border branch. A month earlier a rally it had planned in the area was also banned.
  • A UDF meeting due to take place in the Johannesburg area on 23 October was specifically banned.
  • A meeting planned for Rondebosch in Cape Town on 24 October was banned in terms of a magistrate's order covering the Wynberg area for a two-day period, on the grounds that it could seriously endanger public peace. However, the UDF decided to challenge the ban in court on the basis of two arguments: that all South Africans had the right to debate the new constitution, and that past meetings of the UDF had shown no threat to public safety. An order setting aside the ban was issued by a Supreme Court judge shortly before the meeting was due to take place: about a thousand people finally attended. Legal observers said that although this development set a precedent for the setting aside of other bans issued by magistrates, bans issued by the Minister of Law and Order would be harder to contest.

The following day the UDF sent a letter to the Prime Minister protesting against the banning of its meetings.

  • A further ban was served on a meeting against the proposed constitution planned for the Pretoria area by the Transvaal Indian Congress, which is affiliated to the UDF. It was also reported that the meeting of another UDF affiliate, the Soweto Civic Association, had been banned.
  • The Transvaal Anti-President's Council Committee, set up to oppose the new constitution, was affected by a ban on meetings in the Johannesburg area, when a rally it had organised for 23 October was prevented from taking place.
  • In another development, participants in a motor cavalcade in Cape Town which was part of a UDF event, were detained and charged under the Internal Security Act with attending an illegal gathering. The event was part of a series of nationwide rallies and other activities organised by the UDF on the weekend preceding the white referendum.

RELEASE MANDELA CAMPAIGN

  • Following the previous banning of a rally to launch the new campaign for the release of Nelson Mandela, another meeting, to be held at the University of the North, was prevented from taking place by a weekend ban on all gatherings except church gatherings in the Thabamoopoo district.
  • A RMC meeting to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the mass bannings of black organisations on 19 October 1977 was also banned.
  • On the weekend of 22 October a ban was imposed on all meetings of the RMC in the Johannesburg area and any meeting referring to, discussing or propagating the campaign. The ban stopped a second rally planned for Soweto to launch the campaign. The publicity secretary of the RMC, Aubrey Mokoena, later said that the Committee would challenge the validity of any further bans in the Supreme Court. (On two occasions during this period Mokoena was held briefly for questioning by the police.)

AZAPO MEETINGS

  • Over the weekend following the anniversary of the mass bannings of black organisations in October 1977, a ban was served on all meetings in the Johannesburg district commemorating the bannings and any gatherings at which 'black consciousness' organisations were referred to, propagated or discussed. The order specifically referred to a meeting organised by AZAPO to take place in Soweto. AZAPO made alternative arrangements, however, and the rally finally took place in Sharpeville.

Meetings of 'black power' organisations were also banned in the Krugersdorp and Randfontein districts over the weekend. Elsewhere, it was reported that police stopped a commemoration meeting in Durban.

The bans followed a similar prohibition on meetings of black organisations the previous month when 'black consciousness week' was commemorated.

MEMORIAL MEETINGS

  • Memorial meetings for Dr Yusuf Dadoo, former chairman of the banned South African Communist Party, were prohibited in four areas of Natal on two occasions in September. The first ban, covering the weekend following Dr Dadoo's death, was immediately followed by a second, which also covered memorials for Rev Michael Scott, a British-born anti-apartheid activist who died in London in September. The ban prevented a memorial meeting for Dadoo and Scott from taking place in Durban.
  • Security police removed posters publicising a memorial service in Benoni, on the East Rand, for a former ANC member, Mary Moodley, who died in 1979. The service was nevertheless attended by over 400 people.

OTHER MEETINGS

Earlier in the year police warned mineworkers not to contravene the Riotous Assemblies Act by holding outdoor meetings, while employers refused to allow mineworkers to hold open-air meetings on mine property without permission from a magistrate.

LAWS RESTRICTING MEETINGS

  • Internal Security Act, 1982 (Section 46) A magistrate can prohibit any gathering in his district, any particular gathering, or any particular kind of gathering, at a particular place in his district, for as long as 48 hours, if he 'has reason to apprehend that the public peace would be seriously endangered'. He may also place conditions on gatherings: in the case of a procession a route may be prescribed.

The Minister of Law and Order's powers are much wider. He can ban any gathering in any area or any specific gathering or any particular kind of gathering at a particular place during any period, on a variety of grounds: if he deems it necessary for maintaining the security of the State or the public peace, or to prevent the fomenting of feelings of hostility between different population groups.

The Internal Security Act of 1982 incorporated the relevant passages of the Riotous Assemblies Act, 1956, previously used to ban meetings.

  • The annual ban on outdoor gatherings imposed after the 1976 uprising, and covering all outdoor meetings except sports gatherings, has been renewed annually, originally under the Riotous Assemblies Act and later under the present Internal Security Act. Only those gatherings for which permission has been given by a minister or magistrate are legal. The ban was last renewed in March 1983.
  • The Demonstrations in or near Court Buildings Prohibition Act, 1982 prohibits all demonstrations and gatherings in court buildings except on weekends and public holidays, or where permission has been granted by a magistrate. Even a one-person demonstration, if it concerns any court proceeding, can be banned.

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