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TITLE:  SOUTH AFRICA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE:  FEBRUARY 1995



Service Commission (see Section 3).

The relationship between the Constitutional Court and the
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in Bloemfontein (which
was formerly the country's supreme judicial body) remains
unclear, as does the extent to which appellants will be
permitted to seek Constitutional Court review as a right, rather
than at the Court's discretion.

Judges try criminal cases; the jury system was abolished in
1969.  The Supreme Court or in one of its provincial divisions
try serious offenses, including capital crimes.  Magistrates,
who are career civil servants, hear lesser offenses.  The
presiding judge or magistrate determines guilt or innocence.

While initial indications point to good-faith efforts by South
African authorities to ensure fair public trial, delays in
implementation of due process rights are widespread.  In
particular, pretrial delays still plague the criminal justice
system, which sometimes result in the obstruction of justice.
The delays are due to a combination of poor court management and
the growing exercise of the right to counsel, coupled with the
inability of legal aid structures to cope with demand in a
timely fashion.

Critics continued to charge that the judiciary remained a
bastion of de facto apartheid.  White males have always
dominated the bench, as well as the senior members of the bar
from whose ranks judges have been chosen.  As a result, extreme
racial and gender imbalances continue.  President Mandela noted
in September that the country's 94 judges include only 1 black
and 2 women (both white).  In addition, only 37 of 1,088
magistrates, 37 of 172 senior counsel, and 1,180 of 8,300
attorneys are black.  In late December, Durban attorney
Navanthem (Navi) Pillay became the first black woman in South
African history to be appointed a judge; she will serve on the
Natal Supreme Court bench.

President Mandela vowed to act promptly to redress these
imbalances.  The Government adopted policy changes to permit the
appointment of attorneys and law professors as Supreme
Court judges.  This greatly broadened the pool from which judges
can be selected and should help to create a more diverse and
representative bench.

During the year, the Mandela Government also began to address
the controversial issues of both amnesty and punishment for past
human rights abuses.  The Cabinet debated a draft bill which
would create a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission."  This
Commission would investigate political crimes and human rights
abuses committed, inter alia, by members of the apartheid-era
government security apparatus, rightwing extremist groups and
antiapartheid liberation movements.  In addition, the Commission
would authorize reparations and other compensatory measures for
victims and relatives of victims of certain abuses.

In the draft bill, which has been circulated for comment, the
cabinet agreed that the Commission would cover crimes and abuses
committed between March 1, 1960, and December 6, 1993, and that
the approximately 10 members of the Commission would be
independent and would be appointed by the President upon the
recommendation of Parliament.  It was expected that the
commissioners would complete their work within a period of 12 to
18 months.  The Commission would have three committees to handle
amnesty and indemnity, human rights violations, and reparations
to and rehabilitation of victims.  The draft bill instituting
the Commission is expected to be debated in the January 1995
session of Parliament.

The number of political prisoners still held at year's end was
unknown, but was believed to be in the low hundreds.  The
Advisory Committee on Indemnity and Amnesty had by year's end
processed more than 1,200 applications from persons claiming
they were political prisoners or facing political charges.  The
Committee recommended about 250 cases for amnesty.  According to
the HRC, the authorities had granted indemnity to 69 political
prisoners in late November, pursuant to Committee
recommendations, and earlier had released over 90 at the
Committee's behest.

In addition to those mentioned in Section 1.a., there were
several other important cases in which the courts sentenced
offenders for past human rights abuses.  For example, on March
30, the Pretoria Supreme Court convicted 17 hostel-dwellers,
presumed to be IFP supporters, for the massacre on June 17,
l992, of 45 people at the Boipatong Township squatter camp, an
area of ANC support.  Also, on May 11, the Rand Supreme Court
sentenced to death six white rightwing extremists for the murder
of four blacks, including an 11-year-old child, at a roadblock
near Randfontein on December 12, 1993.

     f.  Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence

Police and security forces retained the legal authority to
engage in domestic surveillance activities, including the use of
informers.  However, informed observers believe that under the
country's dramatically changed political environment the use of
this authority has been limited to the pursuit of legitimate law
enforcement and national security objectives.

Before the Interim Constitution came into force, police had
sweeping powers of search and seizure in magisterial districts
that had been declared "unrest areas," under the provisions of
the Public Safety Act.  The provisions of the Act that allowed
for the declaration of "unrest areas" are no longer operative,
and police searches in all of South Africa must now be conducted
in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977.  This Act
requires that a warrant be issued by a magistrate before a
search can be conducted, unless there are reasonable grounds to
suspect that evidence would be destroyed in the time that it
would take to obtain one.  Despite the widespread anticipation
that some provisions of the Criminal Procedures Act will be
challenged as being unreasonable infringements of the right to
privacy, all South Africans now generally enjoy protection from
unreasonable searches and seizures.

The legacy of apartheid has left vast numbers of South Africans
landless; more than 8 million people now live in squatter camps
which often surround settled communities.  The Prevention of
Illegal Squatting Act gives landowners and local governments the
authority to remove informal settlements without reference to
the courts.  Despite widespread preparedness on the part of the
central Government and many local authorities to seek
accommodation with squatters, some municipalities, landowners,
and, in one case, rightwing vigilantes, have demolished shacks
as a means of forcing squatters to move.

Although the problem of forced relocation of residents of
informal settlements was most pronounced prior to the April
election, forced relocations continued throughout the year.  The
most notable of these incidents occurred in early June when the
Johannesburg City Council, without securing a court order
or legal judgment, demolished two squatter settlements on city
land.  Unauthorized land invasions by squatters also continued
sporadically throughout the year, a practice severely decried by
the Government as inimical to the housing strategy it devised as
part of its Reconstruction and Development Program.

Section 2  Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

     a.  Freedom of Speech and Press

The Constitution provides for freedoms of speech and press, and
these rights are respected in practice.  Both the mainstream and
the so-called alternative press kept the public well informed
and criticized both the Government and the opposition.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), once seen as
the Government's mouthpiece, continued to undergo profound
changes under the direction of a new board of directors and a
new group manager.  Parliament established the Independent
Broadcasting Authority (IBA) in 1993 to oversee restructuring
the broadcasting industry and to issue licenses.  At year's end,
the IBA began to issue temporary community radio licenses, but
the process was a slow one.  By early December, the IBA had
issued only one license, for Radio Maritzburg, although more
were expected in January 1995.  Radio and television news
reporting from both the SABC and the privately owned Radio
Station 702 appeared balanced.

Although rarely invoked, considerable legislation remained on
the books that permit the Government to restrict the publication
of information about the SAPS, SANDF, petroleum issues, prisons,
and mental institutions.  In August the Minister of Defense
sought a court order interdicting an alternative weekly
newspaper from publishing articles about the SANDF Directorate
of Covert Collections.  However, the Minister refrained from
proceeding with the action in the face of intense opposition
from the press and the ANC.

While there were no instances of government-or police-
sanctioned harassment of the press, there were cases of
harassment of journalists by supporters of white rightwing
organizations prior to the election.  AWB supporters manhandled
an African-American journalist and two black colleagues at a
rightwing rally; and rightwing supporters harassed and beat two
other American reporters during unrest in Bophuthatswana.
Earlier in the year, rightwingers harassed an African-American
journalist at a Volksfront party rally.  There were no such
incidents since the election in April.

The Internal Security Act still allows the Government to ban
organizations and their publications.  Prohibitions against the
publication of material deemed to be pornographic are also still
in effect, but enforcement of such bannings became less frequent
after the election.

During the year, Parliament repealed the Newspaper Registration
Act of 1971, which required newspapers to register with the
Ministry of Home Affairs and pay a certain fee.  Many observers
considered this Act an impediment to freedom of the press, since
it permitted the Government to withhold registration if it
opposed a particular publication.

There are no official restrictions on academic freedom.

     b.  Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Political parties and organizations exercise broad
constitutional freedoms of assembly and association.  Although
the legal framework governing public meetings and demonstrations
comprises nine different apartheid-era laws, police policy is
now to act in accordance with the Regulation of Gatherings Act
which, at year's end, awaited the signature of the President.
This Act promulgates recommendations on public gatherings that
were made by the Goldstone Commission; it requires local
governments, demonstration organizers, and the police to
cooperate in order to facilitate the exercise of the right to
peaceful assembly.  The authorities may prevent demonstrations
only under extreme circumstances, and, even then, the Act
provides for judicial appeals.

Despite declared police adherence to the Regulation of
Gatherings Act, there were several controversial incidents in
July and August in which the police acted forcibly to prevent an
"illegal gathering," pursuant to a court order issued under
existing laws.  Police used excessive force to disperse these
gatherings and the HRC said the police "appeared to be reverting
to their old habits by breaking up peaceful demonstrations with
dogs, rubber bullets, and tear gas."  Although legal, observers
said the use of force in these instances was inappropriate.

Prior to the April election, there were incidents impeding
political assembly and association.  The police used the
emergency and unrest provisions of the Public Safety Act on
numerous occasions to prohibit political meetings and
demonstrations, usually to reduce violence.  In the former
homeland of Bophuthatswana, local officials banned most
political organizations and prohibited political meetings and in
the KwaZulu homeland officials used their authority to hamper
severely political activity by groups other than the IFP.  The
climate of violence that existed in many parts of KwaZulu and in
some East Rand townships resulted in so-called no-go areas
where, in some cases, leaders of the ANC and, in others, leaders
of the IFP could not organize meetings without risk to their
lives.  The National Party and the Democratic Party also
experienced difficulty in organizing rallies in some areas.  ANC
and IFP sympathizers shared culpability for this situation.

     c.  Freedom of Religion

The Constitution provides for freedom of religion.  There were
no known cases of restrictions being placed on the expression
and practice of religious belief, nor on proselytizing.

     d.  Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel,
Emigration, and Repatriation

The Interim Constitution stipulates freedom of movement,
including travel abroad, choice of residence, and safeguards on
citizenship.  Neither the preelection government nor the new
nonracial, democratically elected Government restricted the
movement of South Africans domestically or their freedom to
travel overseas, emigrate, or repatriate.

Although the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) continued to assist with the repatriation of South
African exiles under its September 1991 mandate, the flow of
these returnees had almost come to an end.  By year's end,
approximately 14,000 exiles had returned, including 7,303 who
returned with UNHCR assistance and an estimated 6,000 who
voluntarily repatriated under other auspices.  An additional
3,500 exiles remained registered with the UNHCR and cleared for
repatriation, but they had chosen not to return.

Illegal immigration became a growing political issue during the
year, and the SANDF increased border control measures.  In
December Minister of Defense Joe Modise told a press conference
that the controversial electrified fence along South Africa's
border with Mozambique had been switched off.  Both the
Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and private monitoring groups
conservatively estimated that 2 million refugees and illegal
immigrants currently reside in South Africa, of whom 70 percent
are from Mozambique and the remaining 30 percent are from other
African countries, Eastern Europe, and the Far East,
particularly China and Pakistan.  Prior to the October 4, 1992,
Peace Accord in Mozambique, civil unrest drove Mozambicans
across the border.  In recent years, they seem increasingly
attracted by better economic opportunities in the Transvaal and
KwaZulu/Natal.

There has been close cooperation between the UNHCR and the
Government to ensure UNHCR protective services to Mozambicans
and others wishing to apply for refugee status.  In agreement
with the Mozambican Government, the UNHCR initiated on January
10, 1994, the organized voluntary repatriation of Mozambican
immigrants.  Under the Aliens Control Act, the DHA may
involuntarily repatriate persons who do not qualify for refugee
status to their countries of origin.  According to the DHA,
between January 1 and December 31, South Africa involuntarily
repatriated a total of 90,692 illegal immigrants.  Of these,
71,279 were Mozambicans.  The only other countries to which the
DHA repatriated significant numbers of illegal immigrants were
Zimbabwe with 12,931 and Lesotho with 4,073.

Although there is widespread recognition of the distinction
between bona fide refugees/asylum seekers and illegal
immigrants, this distinction is not well rooted among front-line
immigration officials.  Any so-called foreigner who is arrested
and found not to possess the proper documents is often
automatically considered to be an illegal immigrant and is
summarily deported.  Asylum seekers, who often have to wait 2
years for their scheduled case-determination interview, are
typically issued a "Section 41" document permitting them to
remain in the country and even seek employment, pending results
of their interview.  However, some police officers fail to
recognize this document and have harassed asylum seekers.

Section 3  Respect for Political Rights:  The Right of Citizens
to Change Their Government

On April 26-29, South Africa for the first time held a nonracial
election in which all citizens were allowed to participate.  The
election was peaceful and was pronounced "substantially free and
fair."  As a result, the TEC, which had been created in 1993, as
well as the old National Party government, gave way to a
Government of National Unity.  At the
national level, 19 parties stood for election, with 7 gaining
enough votes to be represented in the National Assembly.  These,
ranked by number of seats obtained, were:  the ANC, the NP, the
IFP, the Freedom Front (FF), the Democratic Party (DP), the PAC,
and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP).

South Africa will be governed until 1999 by an Interim
Constitution which allows for executive power sharing among
political parties, based on the proportion of the vote they
received in the April election.  It provides for a bicameral
parliament, an executive state president, and an independent
judiciary which, for the first time, includes a Constitutional
Court.

The Parliament comprises the National Assembly and the Senate,
and, when in joint session, serves as the Constitutional
Assembly.  According to the Interim Constitution, the
Constitutional Assembly is required by April 1996 to draft and
approve a new and permanent constitution which is consistent
with 34 constitutional principles.  If it fails to do so, it
will be dissolved, and a new election will be held.  If it
succeeds, it will remain in office until 1999, when a fresh
election under the new permanent constitution will be held.
This permanent constitution will have to be reviewed and
approved by the Constitutional Court (see below).

The National Assembly is made up of 400 members elected by a
system of "list proportional representation."  Each of the 19
parties which appeared on the ballot submitted a rank-ordered
list of candidates.  The voters then cast their ballots for one
party.  Seats in the Assembly were allocated based on the
percentage of votes each party received.  Even though the ANC
gained a majority of 252 seats in the 400-seat Parliament, it is
required to share power at the cabinet level with the NP which
gained 82 seats and with the IFP which gained 43 seats.

The Senate consists of 90 members, 10 from each of the nine
provinces created under the Constitution.  With a few
exceptions, the Senate has coequal legislative powers with the
National Assembly.

In addition to President Mandela, who is the Executive Head of
State, South Africa has two Executive Deputy Presidents, Thabo
Mbeki, representing the ANC, and F.W. de Klerk, the former
president, representing the NP.  A constitutional amendment in
September created an additional 28th cabinet seat beyond the
original maximum of 27 seats provided for in the Interim
Constitution.  Any party holding at least 20 seats in the
Assembly is entitled to a proportionate share of cabinet seats.
According to the Constitution, the Cabinet must in the first
instance seek consensus.

The Interim Constitution provides for a Constitutional Court
whose responsibility is to interpret, defend, and enforce the
Constitution.  The Court will have the power to overturn any law
or executive act that it deems unconstitutional.  Chapter three
of the Constitution delineates over 25 fundamental rights of a
South African citizen which it is the Court's duty to protect.
The Constitutional Court must rule on whether the constitutions
adopted by the Constitutional Assembly or any of the provinces
are consistent with the Interim Constitution's constitutional
principles.  The 11 judges of the Court were named in October,
and they were expected to begin hearing evidence on their first
case, concerning the legality of the death penalty, in January
1995.

The first major test for the government coalition centered on
the Justice Ministry's draft legislation designed to foster
national reconciliation (see Section 1.e.).

There are no legal impediments to women's participation in
government and politics.  In fact, a record 106 women sit in the
new 400-member National Assembly and 16 women in the 90-member
Senate.  A woman, Dr. Frene Ginwala, was elected speaker of the
National Assembly, and women parliamentarians have formed a
caucus in order to press for legislative and other solutions to
problems of sex discrimination.  However, women are less well
represented in the Cabinet where only 3 out of 28 ministers and
3 out of 13 deputy ministers are women.  There are no women
among the 9 provincial premiers.

Section 4  Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
Rights

The new nonracial, democratically elected Government has
continued to pursue the preelection government's practice of
permitting an increasingly broad range of domestic and
international organizations to monitor, investigate, and report
on human rights issues.

On August 22, the Senate passed legislation creating the Human
Rights Commission and the Office of Public Protector, two bodies
for the protection of human rights which the Interim
Constitution mandated.  The Parliament's Standing Committee on
Justice has insisted that the Office of Public Protector, whose
task is to investigate abuse and maladministration by
government, should maintain its independence of the executive
branch.  Accordingly, Parliament will appoint the Public
Protector and determine compensation and conditions of service.

Throughout the first 4 months of 1994, when the most intensive
election campaigning took place, the United Nations, the
European Union, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the
Organization of African Unity stationed observers in South
Africa to monitor campaign activities and any violence related
to them.  These observers attended marches, demonstrations, and
other mass events, monitoring compliance by all participating
organizations with both the principles of the National Peace
Accord and the guidelines of the Goldstone Commission governing
marches and political gatherings.  The observer groups enjoyed
complete freedom of access to all geographic areas,
institutions, and personalities, except in the then homeland of
Bophuthatswana.

The central and most provincial governments also welcomed visits
and suggestions by, and cooperated with, a number of
international nongovernmental human rights organizations
(NGO's).  However, while authorities in the Gauteng (ex-PWV)
region granted complete access to NGO's to detention cells,
those in Northern Natal, under the state of emergency,
restricted NGO access.  This disparity in responsiveness between
the Gauteng and KwaZulu/Natal provincial governments has
persisted since the election.

As noted in Section 1.c., the Government granted the ICRC access
to all prisoners and detainees.  Prior to the April election,
the former Bophuthatswana government resisted ICRC relief
activities but did give the ICRC access to prisons.  However,
after the election, ICRC has had complete access to prisoners
and detainees throughout the country, including during the state
of emergency in KwaZulu/Natal.  The Government's receptivity to
ICRC prison visits is especially noteworthy in view of widely
publicized charges by the South African Prisoners Organization
for Human Rights concerning poor prison conditions (see Section
1.c.).

Section 5  Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
Disability, Language, or Social Status

The Constitution explicitly prohibits discrimination on grounds
of race, gender, ethnic or social origin, color, sexual
orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief,
culture, or language.

     Women

Discrimination against women, particularly against black women,
remains a serious problem despite legal and constitutional
advances in 1994.

There is still a high rate of domestic violence against women.
According to the Department of Justice, between December 1993
and July 1994, magistrates issued some 5,207 restraining orders
in response to complaints of domestic violence.  A Human
Sciences Research Council study indicated that 43 percent of
women questioned said that they had been victims of marital rape
and assault, and more than half also knew of other women who had
been battered.  When contacted for assistance, police and
community services were, in most cases, reluctant to intervene
on a woman's behalf.  Over 50 percent of murdered women died at
the hands of their male partners.

The recent overall increase in violent crime in South Africa has
also been reflected in the level of crimes against women.
According to the latest available statistics from the South
African Police Service, there were 25,298 incidents of rape
reported nationwide during the period January 1 through October
31, 1994, involving women 18 years of age and older.  This
represents a 17 percent increase over the 21,543 incidents of
rape reported for the corresponding period in 1993.  In 1992
there were 23,675 rapes reported but only 6,131 rapists
convicted.  In cases of rape accompanied by extreme violence,
offenders can receive stiff sentences, including life
imprisonment.  In September there were several well publicized
cases of forced prostitution involving South African and foreign
(Asian and other African) women in Johannesburg.  During raids,
police arrested women and establishment operators but not male
patrons.

In late 1993, Parliament passed the Promotion of Equality
Between Men and Women Act and the Prevention of Family Violence
Act.  In August the Department of Justice released a family
violence brochure and a poster explaining the protections
afforded women and children under the new legislation.  Women
who know their rights can apply to a judge or a magistrate for
an injunction prohibiting a partner from acting violently
against them.

Discrimination against women in traditional law remains.  In
September Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi promised
that the KwaZulu/Natal legislature would abolish discriminatory
customary laws under which women are considered and treated as
minors.  Such laws exist among other ethnic groups, too, where
they remain unchallenged.

Women's rights groups continue to press the Government to enact
legislation to protect women in customary marriages, to provide
equal fringe benefits for women in the workplace, and to
legislate equal taxation for women.  In response, the new
Government has repeatedly proclaimed its commitment to women's
rights and to a "nonsexist" South Africa.  Even prior to the
April election, the TEC had created a Subcouncil on the Status
of Women.

     Children

The Interim Constitution stipulates that children have the right
"to security, basic nutrition, and basic health and social
services."  Although the Government is committed to providing
these services and to correcting past race-based imbalances, it
is still developing the mechanisms for delivering the necessary
services.  Best estimates indicate that between 25 and 33
percent of South Africa's children suffer from chronic
malnutrition or stunted growth.

Special programs known as "Presidential Initiatives" (owing to
President Mandela's interest in them) are part of the
Reconstruction and Development Program and offer free health
care to pregnant mothers and children under 6 and provide a
nutritional feeding for primary school children.  These programs
are aimed at correcting imbalances such as those reflected in
the infant mortality rate, which is 6 per thousand among whites
compared with 66 per thousand among blacks.

Violence against children is widespread, including in prisons
(see Section 1.c.).  From January through November 30, the South
African Police Service's child protection unit investigated
20,624 crimes against children, including 6,670 cases of rape,
3,598 cases of indecent assault, and 2,949 cases of common
assault.  Many NGO's, such as the National Children's
Rights Committee, are working to enhance the quality of life of
South Africa's children.  At year's end, the public awaited a
report from the Goldstone Commission on its investigation into
the effects of violence on children.

     National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities

With the adoption of the Interim Constitution and Bill of
Fundamental Rights, and the near-total repeal of the race-based
statutes of the apartheid era, South Africa has theoretically
eliminated all forms of racial discrimination.  Many private
sector companies and institutions have initiated their own
affirmative action programs in an effort to correct workforce
imbalances and avoid government-instituted programs.  However,
de facto discrimination is still widespread, and the white
minority still controls much of the power and wealth.