TIE I.LeO-5 LOOKS AT SOUTH AFRICAN LAWS from a Leicester correspondent 4 ° eVe
New Society (3/9/64) had an item on the T<50.*8 Ags eg ate elimination of Apartheid in Labour Matters in South Africa’. bag aie South African laws affecting the fundamental rights of ta _ aaa damaging to the South African Governnent because it is based roa 4 on the laws and regulations of the republic, and official statemen . pee * government reportse The section on the right to freedom from nn z ot the most striking. The power of the Minister of Bantu 5 4 — an urban authority to remove redundant ‘natives', and the power of a 14a i bureau official to commit an unemployed 'native' worker to a work one or three years,are among the laws recorded. Penal sentences can be ae ; against 'natives' for being absent from their place of work, or for re using to obey en employer's lewful command; sentences of forced labour may be impose on ‘natives! for various offences against segregation laws.
The freedom to associate and to form trade unions is similarly found wanting by citation of South African laws. ‘'Natives' are prohibited from membership of a registered trade union, and any trade union fomed by ‘native! workers is automatically unrecognisable by the law. Any strike by ‘native! workers is a statutory crime, punishable by up to 3 years imprisonment. The third basic right, freedom to seek employment and vocational training, is found to be undermined by the educational system and by job registration on a racial basis.
The New Society then makes a pointed criticism. It says although I.L.0. lists the necessary changes in the laws, nowhere "does it suggest the political moves necessary to make such changes possible...eThe study has an inevitable air of remoteness and its impact on political events is bound to be nil."