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3 Mennesker og Rettigheter 30 (1985)
South Africa: The State of Emergency

handle is hein.journals/norjhur3 and id is 156 raw text is: South Africa: The State of Emergency By Graham Dyson In July 1985, the South African government declared a State of Emergency in 36 mainly urban areas of the country. In terms of the regulations published to govern the affected areas, the al- ready vast powers of the South African law enforcement agencies are increased. By 7. September 1985 c. 2 500 people had been ar- rested and some 925 were still in detention. This is the second time the white government has declared a state of emergency. In 1960, using the same law, the oppression carried out under the first state of emergency led to the banning of the most important internal liberation movements, including the African national congress and the Pan African congress, and was effective in still- ing serious and widespread internal opposition until the recent uprisings which, now over a year in progress, have thus far re- sulted in over 700 deaths, mainly of black civilians at the hands of the South African police. In this article, the context of the current State of Emergency is examined, and the regulations put into operation by the declara- tion are detailed. BEFORE THE STATE OF EMERGENCY- THE LEGAL SOURCES OF POWER South African Law has its roots in the Roman Dutch and English Common Law systems, both of which have in- herent respect for basic human rights. Today, however, most of the laws which govern the behaviour of South African law enforcement agencies are codified in statutes passed by the SA Parliament. Until very recently (1984) this body, the land's supreme law ma- ker, comprised only white representati- ves, voted into office by the white elec- torate. Blacks of African descent, of whom there are over 20 million (as op- posed to 4,5 million whites) have never had the vote in South Africa. The pre- sent parliament has separate houses for citizens of Asian and mixed blood de- scent, but these bodies are rejected by the majority of the people whose inter- ests they are meant to represent and, more importantly, cannot, even acting in concert, create or change laws with- out the consent of the white body. The SA Constitution contains no Hu- man Rights provisions. Apart from provisions protecting the two official languages (those of the two main white groups), the constitution enables the Parliament to pass any law presented to it by the Executive. Since coming to po- wer in 1948, the National Party, the political organ of citizens of Dutch and French-Huguenot descent, has held an unassailable majority, and parliament has acted as a rubber stamp for the lea- dership of that party since then. The system is, simply put, a positi- vistic one, i.e. there exists no code against which legislation must be mea- sured when it is presented before parlia- ment or when the courts are called upon to interpret the provisions of any statu- te. Whatever concepts of Human Rights were inherited from the English or Ro- man Dutch systems have been delibera- tely and fundamentally eroded by suc- cessive governments of the white ruling class. THE SOUTH AFRICAN SECURITY LAWS The Internal Security Act and the Riot- ous Assemblies Act contain most of the security laws. These statutes give the Executive and police draconian powers which include: - powers to arrest and detain without recourse to due process, such deten- tion being authorised for an unlimited period; - powers to ban individuals and organi- sations - no reason except «the inter- est of State Security need be given; - powers to prohibit or control gather- ings, of whatever nature, again with- out giving reasons; - powers to prohibit the dissemination of information - these statutes are on- ly two of more than 100 laws which give the authorities powers of censor- ship; The statutes also create a large num- ber of offences for which people may be tried in court. In many of these instan- ces the normal rules of evidence are changed to favour the State, by way of Graham IDlysoin, frodt 1951, liar fil nylig praktisert sor ad- ,okat i Johannesburg. Han bor ngi Trondheim.

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