Tangled web
ROBERT BIRLEY
Apartheid: A Documentary Study of Modern South Africa Edgar H. Brookes (Routledge and Kegan Paul 28s hardback, 14s paper) Stephanie on Trial Albie Sachs (Harvill Press 35s) There is certainly room for a book of docu- ments illustrating the system of apartheid in South Africa. This one is edited by Dr Edgar Brookes, a sometime Senator in the South African Parliament, Principal of Adams Col- lege, one of the leading schools for Africans until it was closed by the Government in 1956, and a stalwart opponent of apartheid. There is a short historical introduction, very moderate in tone, and there are some explanatory notes. Fortunately, the supporters of apartheid are given scope. It is good that one should have available long extracts from Dr Verwoerd's almost interminable speech of 3 September 1948, on which the policy of apartheid has been largely based. Anyone wanting to know what apartheid means in practice could learn much from the speeches from both sides of the house on the Group Areas Act of 1950.
Some of the extracts make pretty difficult reading. Anyone, for instance, studying the labour regulations for Africans of December 1965 and groping for a wet towel to put round his head, might consider what it must be like for an African who has to obey them. Some documents give evidence of the almost un- believable dottiness (there is no other word for it) which apartheid makes inevitable, such Is the Government's decision to ban a per- formance of the Messiah because it would never do for a black choir to sing with a white orchestra; or the immortal statement of Dr Diinges, Minister of the Interior, that the 1950 amendment to the Immorality Act was in- tended 'to try to preserve some sort of apartheid In what one may call prostitution'; or Mrs Helen Suzman's relentless pressure on the Minister for Community Development to say whether it was legal to have a private party after a wedding in a public place of enter- tainment, until the minister was forced to say that he could only advise those contemplating such a party to consult 'the regional office.' One serious criticism must be levelled. No attempt at all is made to show what apartheid looks like from the African side. The state- ment of Nelson Mandela at the Rivonia trial would have taught readers much about the African point of view. There is nothing from Chief Luthuli. Extracts are given to show the attitudes of the 'white' churches: there is not a word on the African Separatist Churches, to which over three million Africans belong. Something might have been learnt from a parable popular among these churches in Zulu- land, quoted in Dr Sundker's Bantu Prophets of South Africa, which ends with five white
virgins coming to the gates of Heaven and being refused admission with the words, `No, nobody can rule twice.' But perhaps it is hoped to sell the book in South Africa. To have done what is suggested here would certainly lead to its being banned.
Two other omissions may be noted. When giving the usual provisions of a 'banning order,' no reference is made to one that is now very common, prohibiting the banned person from attending any 'social gathering.' This is generally defined as a meeting of more than two persons, of whom the banned person is one. The South African law reports would have provided some telling examples, people under a banning order being prosecuted, for instance, for playing snooker with one other person or for going out for a picnic. The other is the omission of documents on the intimida- tion practised by the security police. These were left out deliberately, because it was felt that their publication 'might lead to further measures against the informants.'
However, this gap is well covered by the second work under review : Stephanie on Trial is a very remarkable book indeed. In fact, I can think of none other quite like it. Albie Sachs was a young South African lawyer who was detained in 1963 for 168 days in solitary confinement, and, on reaching this country in 1966, wrote The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, a most convincing story, notable for its restraint and generosity. His second book is a kind of sequel, though it stands on its own. Mr Sachs tells the story of the trial for subversive activities in opposition to apartheid of a South • African student, Stephanie Kemp, in which he was junior counsel for the defence, his meet- ings with her before and during the trial, the period of her year in prison, with an inter- polated account of her prison experiences by Stephanie Kemp herself, their meetings after her release, and then an account of his own subsequent detention for the second time and of how he was subjected to an uninterrupted interrogation of forty hours without sleep. The two young people fall in love with one another and there is throughout the narrative an account of their very unusual courtship. At the end they get married in London.
One feels that it must have been almost im- possible to do, but it is brilliantly successful. It is extremely readable. The love story is told with the utmost tact, so that it takes its place as an inevitable strand in the narrative, and without a trace of coyness. The courage, the stamina, the idealism and the faith of these two young people are depicted without over- emphasis, self-consciousness or conceit.
It should become something of a political classic, of a very strange kind. But at the moment one question is of paramount impor- tance. According to the book, both were sub- jected to the most shocking ill-treatment while under detention. Can it be relied upon? One
fact is strongly in its favour. Stephanie Kemp, on her release from prison, sued the Minister of Justice, Mr Vorster, for £1,000 damages for her ill-treatment under detention. He resisted the claim, but a week before the trial of the case gave in and settled out of court for £500 and costs. Albie Sachs was not so successful. The book tells why he had to drop the idea of a similar claim. His case, and his wife's account of her life as a prisoner, can never be tested in this way. All one can say is that the complete lack of hysteria in the narrative, the modesty and the generosity, make it singu- larly convincing.
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