Court Voids 2 Key Sections on Detentions in S. Africa

A South African provincial court on Monday declared invalid two key sections of the country’s emergency regulations under which the police have detained an estimated 12,000 people without charge in the last two months.

The Natal Supreme Court ruled in Durban that President Pieter W. Botha exceeded his authority in granting the police virtually unlimited powers to arrest people without charge and hold them indefinitely under the state of emergency declared June 12. The government said it will appeal the decision.

The three-judge ruling was the most serious legal setback the government has suffered in a series of challenges to the emergency regulations and could lead to the release of thousands of political detainees nationwide if it is upheld.

The court also ordered the release of Lechesa Tsenoli, a jailed anti-apartheid activist in whose name the case was brought. Lawyers for other political detainees said they will now seek court orders releasing their clients, beginning with 500 held in Natal.

At least 4,500 people are known to be held under the emergency regulations, according to civil rights groups, and the total nationwide may be nearly 10,000. The number is uncertain because the government has refused to provide names and numbers of those held.

The detainees include civil rights workers, trade union officials, community leaders, clergymen, lawyers, journalists and students,

Several civil rights lawyers speculated that the government, in addition to appealing the Durban decision, might rewrite the emergency regulations to keep them within the limitations of the ruling.

Speaking for the court, Justice David Friedman held that, while Parliament gave the president broad authority during a state of emergency, that authority is not unlimited and that Botha went beyond it in allowing police to detain anyone without charge and prolong the detention indefinitely by order of the minister of law and order.

The government had attempted to justify Tsenoli’s detention on the strength of charges that his home in a black township outside Durban was used to train people to use guns and hand grenades. Tsenoli, Natal publicity secretary for the United Democratic Front, a coalition of anti-apartheid groups, strongly denied the allegations.

“If they had the least bit of evidence, the police would have charged me with terrorism or treason,” Tsenoli said on his release Monday, after 60 days in jail.

Civil rights lawyers and anti-apartheid activists hailed the Durban decision as a precedent for court review of other emergency regulations and for the judicial reassertion of the rule of law.

‘A Most Important Judgment’

Peter Reynolds, a civil rights lawyer, said in Johannesburg, “This is a most important judgment, and it is hoped the authorities will respect it, not only in Natal but throughout the whole country, by releasing all detainees without delay.”

Government officials said they had no comment beyond their decision to appeal.

Although the legality of the state of emergency and of Botha’s authority to make regulations enforcing it have been upheld by the courts, judges have ruled invalid sections of the regulations prohibiting “subversive statements” and held that Botha illegally delegated his powers to make regulations.

They have also ordered the release of more than 20 other detainees on grounds that the police could not have truly believed them threats to public security and said that detainees are entitled to see their lawyers.

On Monday, the editors and publishers of most of the major English-language newspapers went to court in Pietermaritzburg, the Natal provincial capital, seeking an order to end severe restrictions placed on the news media under the state of emergency.

Tertius Myburgh, editor of the Sunday Times, the country’s largest newspaper, said that “the effect of the emergency regulations on the press is quite simply to stifle news and comment which, in these times, the public in South Africa ought to hear.”

Restrictions on Media

Under the emergency regulations, domestic and foreign news media are barred from first-hand reporting of any political violence and any actions by the police or army, unless the information is officially disclosed. They are also barred from giving the names of detainees and from quoting “subversive statements.”

The government Information Bureau on Monday defended the state of emergency, saying the crackdown has substantially reduced civil unrest and returned many areas of the country to a degree of stability not known for the last two years.

Incidents of unrest dropped from a previous average of more than 65 a day to fewer than 20 in the past week, according to the bureau’s figures. The bureau, however, refuses to provide precise figures of unrest incidents, making it difficult to evaluate its assertions.

The number of deaths was down by a third in July--a total of 65--compared with the average of previous months, the bureau said, and the number of injuries was reduced by three-fourths.

Most of the deaths and injuries resulted from what the government calls “black-on-black violence,” largely attacks by militants on police informers, local officials and other blacks seen as “collaborating” with the apartheid.

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