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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume. 34, Number 12. June 16, 1971

Banning order

Banning order.

There is some slight variation in the 'banning' orders served on different individuals, but the standard banning notice has clauses which:

Confine the banned person to a restricted area (this area is generally the magisterial district in which he lives, but may be smaller than that)

Compel him to report to a certain specified police station regularly (generally every day, or on a certain day each week)

Forbid him to attend any gathering social or otherwise

Forbid him to communicate with any other banned person

Forbid the publication of anything he writes or says

Forbid him to set foot in any premises used for the purpose of publication

Forbid him to teach or give any kind of instruction to anyone except his own children

Forbid him to set foot on the premises of any educational institution

Exclude him from areas set aside for people of races other than his own

Forbid him to set foot on any factory premises

The 'house arrest' clause, if imposed can confine him to his house or flat for anything from 1 2 to 24 hours of the day.

The 'banning' orders are valid for five years. They may then be re-imposed, and generally are. The minimum penalty for a first offence against them is a year's imprisonment, of which all but four days may be suspended.

Photo of Billy Nair

Billy Nair was charged in 1964 with conspiring to overthrow the State together with 17 other people, all from Natal. He was convicted and sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment which he is serving on Robben Island.

He joined the Natal Indian Congress and became Secretary of the Chemical Workers Union. He was also General Secretary of the Durban local committee of the multi-racial South African Congress of Trade Unions until he was banned in 1963.

Photo of Toivo Hermann Ja Toivo

Toivo Hermann Ja Toivo is one of the 37 Namibians who were convicted in Pretoria Supreme Court in 1967. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and is now on Robben Island.

In the Second World War he served in the Native Military Corps, guarding military installations since, being black, he was not allowed to carry arms. His parents could not send him to school when he was a child and he started school at the age of 23.

In his speech to the Court at his trial he said he was proud that his people had taken up arms to liberate their country.