60 years ago, the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) was declared an illegal organisation according to the 'Suppression of Communism Act, No. 44 of 1950'. This apartheid act was approved on 26 June in parliament and came into force on 17 July 1950.
The Suppression of Communism Act banned the CPSA, and gave the government the power to ban publications that promoted the objectives of communism, and the power to 'name' people who could be barred from holding office, practicing as lawyers or attending meetings.
The Act, later extended through the Internal Security Act, sanctioned the banning/punishment of any group or individual intending to bring about 'any political, industrial, social or economic change in the Union by the promotion of disturbances or disorder, by unlawful acts or omissions or by the threat of such acts and omissions'.
This definition of communism was so broad and crude that its liberal opponents suspected it was seeking also to trap liberals in its net. In 1953, the party was renamed the South African Communist Party (SACP) at a national conference, where it was decided that the organisation would operate underground.
It was no accident that the apartheid regime saw communism as its foremost enemy. The Communist Party had been the first to advocate non-racism, and to open its ranks to people of all races and cultures. It had pioneered progressive trade unionism, and supported rural struggles. It had run night schools, and worked on developing its cadres.
The Act was progressively tightened up in 1951, 1954, and yearly from 1962 to 1968. Between 1948 and 1991, the apartheid government banned more than 1,600 men and women. Banned persons endured severe restrictions on their movement, political activities, and associations intended to silence their opposition to the government’s apartheid policies and stop their political activity.
In addition, the Act facilitated the government’s take down of liberation organizations such as the ANC. The Act forced these groups to go underground with their activism. Ironically, because of this act, groups such as Umkhonto we Sizwe (armed and ‘underground’ wing of the ANC) did seek support from Communist parties for financial aid. Liberation struggle leaders like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki all received life sentences in prison partly because of this Act (Rivonia Trail).
Source: South African History Online
Showing posts with label Suppression of Communism Act. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Suppression of Communism Act. Show all posts
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 1976
South Africa Threatens Restraints on the Press
The South African Government, embittered by local newspaper coverage of the unrest in black townships, has threatened to impose new restraints on the press.
Connie P Mulder, the information Minister, told a congress of the ruling National Party in Durban that the Government attached great importance to press freedom. But he said that society had the right to expect loyalty and partiotism from newspapers. The Minister was critical in particularly of two of Johannesburg's principal newspapers, The Rand Daily Mail and The Sunday Times. He said The Sunday Times was one of the papers that had described apartheid, not black unrest, as the real danger to the country. "In a country where relations between peoples are as loaded as ours, it is irresponsible to say this" he declared.
Mr Mulder said one of the restraints he had in mind was a requirement that all opinion formers be South African citizens competent in both English and Afrikaans, the language of the dominant white group in South Africa. He said this would eliminate foreigners who could take the first plane home if trouble erupted as a result of their writing.
Newspapers already operate under a web of legal restraints affecting security and defense matters, among others. Two weeks ago, four journalists were arrested under the Suppression of Communism Act, which provides for detention without trial.
The minister's warnong came in the aftermath of the arrest of at least 20 black opposition leaders, including Winnie Mandela, wife of Nelson Mandela, the black nationalist leader who was jailed 14 years ago. Some reports put the number arrested by the security police in swoops across the country yesterday as high as 50.
The Government has given no reason for the arrests.
Source: New York Times
Connie P Mulder, the information Minister, told a congress of the ruling National Party in Durban that the Government attached great importance to press freedom. But he said that society had the right to expect loyalty and partiotism from newspapers. The Minister was critical in particularly of two of Johannesburg's principal newspapers, The Rand Daily Mail and The Sunday Times. He said The Sunday Times was one of the papers that had described apartheid, not black unrest, as the real danger to the country. "In a country where relations between peoples are as loaded as ours, it is irresponsible to say this" he declared.
Mr Mulder said one of the restraints he had in mind was a requirement that all opinion formers be South African citizens competent in both English and Afrikaans, the language of the dominant white group in South Africa. He said this would eliminate foreigners who could take the first plane home if trouble erupted as a result of their writing.
Newspapers already operate under a web of legal restraints affecting security and defense matters, among others. Two weeks ago, four journalists were arrested under the Suppression of Communism Act, which provides for detention without trial.
The minister's warnong came in the aftermath of the arrest of at least 20 black opposition leaders, including Winnie Mandela, wife of Nelson Mandela, the black nationalist leader who was jailed 14 years ago. Some reports put the number arrested by the security police in swoops across the country yesterday as high as 50.
The Government has given no reason for the arrests.
Source: New York Times
Thursday, May 8, 1975
Bram Fischer 1908 - 1975
Abraham “Bram” Fischer was born on 23 April 1908 in the Orange Free State. He was born into a prominent Afrikaans family, son of Percy Ulrich Fischer, at the time a member of the Bloemfontein Bar. Percy later became a much-respected Free State judge.
The Fischers were a sixth-generation South African family. Percy's father was Abraham Fischer, a highly regarded politician of conservative outlook. He was the prime minister of the Orange River Colony from 1907 to 1910. Abraham had married a Scotswoman and Percy had married Ella Fichardt, of a family of cosmopolitan descent, who was entirely English speaking. Bram, who was brought up in an Afrikaans- and English-speaking home, regarded himself as an Afrikaner - a proud one.
Bram initially was a vocal Nationalist. His schooling was at Grey College, Bloemfontein; from there he went to Grey University College in his hometown. Bram excelled at tennis and rugby. In 1928 he represented the Free State as scrum half against the All Blacks under Maurice Brownlee.
Bram Fischer proceeded to study law (BA LLB degree) at Grey, then part of the University of South Africa. After completing his studies in South Africa he spent 3 years (1931-1934) at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
Some years earlier Bram had met and begun to court Molly Krige. Distantly related to the wife of Jan Smuts, she had the same sharp intellect as Bram and had strong leadership qualities. Both became attracted to communism. While he was at Oxford, in the long vacation of 1932, Bram visited the Soviet Union, and, like many others, did not dig below the surface, and became a convert to the Stalinist doctrine. His earlier nationalism converted to anathema; he now considered fascism and Nazism "cancerous nationalism".
Bram's results in the Bachelor of Arts honours degree at Oxford were most disappointing, for he attained a pass only in the third class. Bram was shattered, but the third was quite unrepresentative of his ability and knowledge.
On his return to South Africa, Bram was called to the Johannesburg Bar on 10 January 1935. Initially briefs were slow to arrive. When work came, he devoted himself to it. His briefs he knew intimately. Gradually his practice expanded, and, ironically, particularly in the specialised area of mining law for the great mining houses. It was widely believed that Bram was at the beginning of a career that would culminate in great things, very likely the position of chief justice.
In 1937 Bram and Molly were married, and by 1942 Bram and Molly had become members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). They never deviated from their outward devotion to Stalinist communism. This didn’t seem to harm his career as a corporate lawyer and he was widely admired as a brilliant man with the potential to possibly lead the country as Prime Minister, provided his political opinions became less unorthodox.
In 1943 he helped A. B. Xuma revise the African National Congress’ (ANC) constitution and was charged with incitement during the mineworkers’ strike in 1946.
The return of the National Party to power at the general election of May 1948 meant the ultimate banning of communistic views and the CPSA in terms of the Suppression of Communism Act. Communism was condemned as a godless belief aiming at racial suicide and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Later, the CPSA resurrected itself surreptitiously as the South African Communist Party (SACP). As was to be expected, Bram was "named" under the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950. Nevertheless, on 2 November the next year he was appointed a king's counsel (KC).
He was also a member of the Congress of Democrats and in 1952 Bram defended Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and eighteen other ANC leaders for participating in the Defiance Campaign. The year 1953 saw Bram banned under the Suppression of Communism Act from most gatherings and from the Congress of Democrats. For years thereafter there were police raids on his advocate's chambers and his house. None of these happenings affected the flow of briefs coming to Bram, outstanding lawyer and counsel. In court he was the epitome of the ideal English barrister: quiet, unassuming, exquisitely polite and thus often disarming to a hostile witness: and, when necessary, devastating in cross-examination. Except for three years, Bram was elected a member of the Johannesburg Bar Council from 1943 to 1963, being chairman in 1961.
In 1960 the ANC and Pan-Africanist Congress were banned. The Sabotage Act of 1962 allowed for detention without trial. Bram and Molly were subjected to further restrictions by the government under that statute. The creation of the Republic of South Africa in 1961 did not end the withholding of participation in the government of the country from blacks. So Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) was formed, a product of the ANC and the SACP, committed to a violent struggle.
On 11 July 1963 at Lilies leaf farm in Rivonia the police arrested many of the leaders of the liberation movement. At the subsequent trial for sabotage and other charges, one of the accused was Nelson Mandela. Bram, who by a fortunate chance was not on the farm when the police raid took place, led the defence team. In agreeing to appear for the Rivonia accused, Bram courageously took an enormous risk, for he could easily have been correctly pointed out by some of the witnesses for the prosecution as having attended many meetings at Lilies leaf. In the end, eight accused, including Mandela, were found guilty. That they were sentenced not to death but to life imprisonment was partly a result of the dedicated efforts of the defence team.
On 13 June 1964 Molly was killed in a tragic accident in a motorcar driven by Bram, who was overwhelmed by grief.
It was inevitable that his defence of and involvement with anti-Apartheid activists would implicate him in illegal activities and in 23 September 1964 Fischer was arrested for contravening the Suppression of Communism Act. At the start of the trial he was granted bail to argue a case in England, undertaking to return, which he did. The trial commenced on 16 November 1964. On 23 January 1965, however, Bram went underground. In a letter he stated that no one should submit to the barbaric laws and monstrous policy of apartheid.
He was only recaptured in December, disguised as "Douglas Black". Now his trial was on far more serious charges, including sabotage. In a sworn statement from the dock, he said that there was a higher duty to break immoral laws passed by a small minority to deprive the majority, on account of their colour, of their most elementary rights. "At least one Afrikaner should make this protest."
In 1966 he was found guilty of violating the Suppression of Communism Act and conspiring to commit sabotage leading to a conviction of life imprisonment. In 1967 he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.
In 1974 it became known that Fischer was seriously ill with cancer and liberal newspapers and political leaders mounted an intensive campaign for his release. They were successful and he was moved to his brother’s home in Bloemfontein a few weeks before his death.
Source: South African History Online
The Fischers were a sixth-generation South African family. Percy's father was Abraham Fischer, a highly regarded politician of conservative outlook. He was the prime minister of the Orange River Colony from 1907 to 1910. Abraham had married a Scotswoman and Percy had married Ella Fichardt, of a family of cosmopolitan descent, who was entirely English speaking. Bram, who was brought up in an Afrikaans- and English-speaking home, regarded himself as an Afrikaner - a proud one.
Bram initially was a vocal Nationalist. His schooling was at Grey College, Bloemfontein; from there he went to Grey University College in his hometown. Bram excelled at tennis and rugby. In 1928 he represented the Free State as scrum half against the All Blacks under Maurice Brownlee.
Bram Fischer proceeded to study law (BA LLB degree) at Grey, then part of the University of South Africa. After completing his studies in South Africa he spent 3 years (1931-1934) at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
Some years earlier Bram had met and begun to court Molly Krige. Distantly related to the wife of Jan Smuts, she had the same sharp intellect as Bram and had strong leadership qualities. Both became attracted to communism. While he was at Oxford, in the long vacation of 1932, Bram visited the Soviet Union, and, like many others, did not dig below the surface, and became a convert to the Stalinist doctrine. His earlier nationalism converted to anathema; he now considered fascism and Nazism "cancerous nationalism".
Bram's results in the Bachelor of Arts honours degree at Oxford were most disappointing, for he attained a pass only in the third class. Bram was shattered, but the third was quite unrepresentative of his ability and knowledge.
On his return to South Africa, Bram was called to the Johannesburg Bar on 10 January 1935. Initially briefs were slow to arrive. When work came, he devoted himself to it. His briefs he knew intimately. Gradually his practice expanded, and, ironically, particularly in the specialised area of mining law for the great mining houses. It was widely believed that Bram was at the beginning of a career that would culminate in great things, very likely the position of chief justice.
In 1937 Bram and Molly were married, and by 1942 Bram and Molly had become members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). They never deviated from their outward devotion to Stalinist communism. This didn’t seem to harm his career as a corporate lawyer and he was widely admired as a brilliant man with the potential to possibly lead the country as Prime Minister, provided his political opinions became less unorthodox.
In 1943 he helped A. B. Xuma revise the African National Congress’ (ANC) constitution and was charged with incitement during the mineworkers’ strike in 1946.
The return of the National Party to power at the general election of May 1948 meant the ultimate banning of communistic views and the CPSA in terms of the Suppression of Communism Act. Communism was condemned as a godless belief aiming at racial suicide and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Later, the CPSA resurrected itself surreptitiously as the South African Communist Party (SACP). As was to be expected, Bram was "named" under the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950. Nevertheless, on 2 November the next year he was appointed a king's counsel (KC).
He was also a member of the Congress of Democrats and in 1952 Bram defended Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and eighteen other ANC leaders for participating in the Defiance Campaign. The year 1953 saw Bram banned under the Suppression of Communism Act from most gatherings and from the Congress of Democrats. For years thereafter there were police raids on his advocate's chambers and his house. None of these happenings affected the flow of briefs coming to Bram, outstanding lawyer and counsel. In court he was the epitome of the ideal English barrister: quiet, unassuming, exquisitely polite and thus often disarming to a hostile witness: and, when necessary, devastating in cross-examination. Except for three years, Bram was elected a member of the Johannesburg Bar Council from 1943 to 1963, being chairman in 1961.
In 1960 the ANC and Pan-Africanist Congress were banned. The Sabotage Act of 1962 allowed for detention without trial. Bram and Molly were subjected to further restrictions by the government under that statute. The creation of the Republic of South Africa in 1961 did not end the withholding of participation in the government of the country from blacks. So Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) was formed, a product of the ANC and the SACP, committed to a violent struggle.
On 11 July 1963 at Lilies leaf farm in Rivonia the police arrested many of the leaders of the liberation movement. At the subsequent trial for sabotage and other charges, one of the accused was Nelson Mandela. Bram, who by a fortunate chance was not on the farm when the police raid took place, led the defence team. In agreeing to appear for the Rivonia accused, Bram courageously took an enormous risk, for he could easily have been correctly pointed out by some of the witnesses for the prosecution as having attended many meetings at Lilies leaf. In the end, eight accused, including Mandela, were found guilty. That they were sentenced not to death but to life imprisonment was partly a result of the dedicated efforts of the defence team.
On 13 June 1964 Molly was killed in a tragic accident in a motorcar driven by Bram, who was overwhelmed by grief.
It was inevitable that his defence of and involvement with anti-Apartheid activists would implicate him in illegal activities and in 23 September 1964 Fischer was arrested for contravening the Suppression of Communism Act. At the start of the trial he was granted bail to argue a case in England, undertaking to return, which he did. The trial commenced on 16 November 1964. On 23 January 1965, however, Bram went underground. In a letter he stated that no one should submit to the barbaric laws and monstrous policy of apartheid.
He was only recaptured in December, disguised as "Douglas Black". Now his trial was on far more serious charges, including sabotage. In a sworn statement from the dock, he said that there was a higher duty to break immoral laws passed by a small minority to deprive the majority, on account of their colour, of their most elementary rights. "At least one Afrikaner should make this protest."
In 1966 he was found guilty of violating the Suppression of Communism Act and conspiring to commit sabotage leading to a conviction of life imprisonment. In 1967 he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.
In 1974 it became known that Fischer was seriously ill with cancer and liberal newspapers and political leaders mounted an intensive campaign for his release. They were successful and he was moved to his brother’s home in Bloemfontein a few weeks before his death.
Source: South African History Online
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