Road to Tyranny

With increasingly totalitarian methods, the white leaders of South Africa are building a southern redoubt for a last-ditch stand against black nationalism on their bottom tip of the continent. Last week the government of Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd proposed new legislation that will snuff out basic freedoms of all South Africans, black and white.

Prime motive of the bill is to prevent the spread of such incidents as the wave of arson and bombings that broke out last December. In the future, announced Justice Minister Johannes Vorster, death can be the punishment for cases of proven "sabotage." And what is sabotage? It can be a strike by workers in the fuel, food, power or sanitary fields; the painting of political slogans on walls; possession of a firearm or explosives without a license; simple trespass; a speech. Apart from sabotage, the law will give Vorster power to prohibit anyone from "performing any act" whatever, ban gatherings of any type at his own discretion, place any person under perpetual house arrest, and prohibit newspapers from reporting their protests. Gone will be such traditional legal safeguards as the pretrial examination to establish charges or the onus on the state to prove guilt.

Said Author Alan Paton (Cry, the Beloved Country), a vociferous critic of the regime: "What will be next? To make lists of disapproved persons? To confiscate their property and make them wear a yellow star? Why not? It's a logical next step."

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