From: scott@concave.cs.wits.ac.za (Scott Hazelhurst)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Re: Conscription of Whites into the SADF
Keywords: Apartheid is over? fools day ?
Date: 26 Jul 92 09:41:53 GMT
Article-I.D.: concave.scott.712143713
Organization: Wits University Electrical Engineering

In <1992Jul25.183236.281@hippo.ru.ac.za> ccml@hippo.ru.ac.za (Mike Lawrie) writes:
>With race classification repealed, how is "white" defined such that the
>courts could uphold this type of definition? I'm really curious indeed,
>it is like having a _legal_ definition of "Afro-American" - does such a
>definition exist?

I posted this before, but it didnt seem to reach the net, so
here's the definition again.

(This is the definition in the amendment to the Defence Act
pushed through Parliament just before the end of the parliamentary
session)

"1. 'White person' means a person who (a) in appearance obviously
is a white person and who is not generally accepted as a
coloured person; or (b) is generally accepted as a white person
and is not in appearance obviously not a white person,
but does not include any person who for the purpose of the
repealed Population Registration Act freely and voluntarily
that he is by descent a Black or coloured person unless it is
proved that the admission is not based on fact.
"2. The above definition of a 'white person' must be read with
the following definitions: (a) 'coloured person' means a person
who is not a white person or a Black; (b) 'Black' means
a person who is, or is generally accepted as, a member of any
aboriginal race or tribe of Africa"

I hope that clears up any confusion you have Mike. 


>> Since 
>>no legislation yet exists that forbid discrimination on the basis of colour, 
>>this law still stands firm.  Attempts are being made at this moment to 
>>challenge the validity of the call-up system in court.
>I hope that this newsgroup will be kept informed as to the progress of
>such a challenge. Did not the SADF simply back down about a year ago
>when a large percentage of conscripts simply failed to turn up? Looks to
>me as if the SADF were not willing to risk having a court rule against
>this continued racial discrimination, because of the precedent that this
>would create.

As far as I understand, there are some laws which do forbid 
discrimination, for example the new Labour Relations Act. Also,
(here I am a bit shaky) in exercise of executive or delegated
legislative powers, government and other authorities are not
allowed to discriminate. I remember reading of a number of court
cases in the first half of the century where discriminatory 
municipal ordinances were set
aside by the courts on the basis of being discriminatory. 
When the Nats introduced all their apartheid legislation,
many of the acts (like the Separate Amenities Act) had specific
clauses preventing the setting aside of ordinances etc
implementing segregation, even if the regulations were
discriminatory. (I think before this time some courts had
upheld "separate but equal" but not separate but unequal).
In other words, _in theory_ the law says that all people are
equal before the law unless there is an Act of Parliament
which says otherwise. How things work out in practice is
of course something else.

Conscription is authorised by the Defence Act which empowers
the Minister of Defence to create regulations governing
conscription (who, for how long etc. etc.). Unlike acts
of parliament which cannot be reviewed by the courts, the 
Minister's regulations can. ECC launched a court case
attacking the regulations on the ground that they are 
discriminatory.

The point of the recent changes to the Defence Act was to allow
the Minsiter to be discriminatory. As parliament is sovereign, 
courts cannot inquire into the Act. ECC's case is still to
be heard, but it contests the old not the new regulations.

--

----Scott Hazelhurst-------------------------scott@concave.cs.wits.ac.za---
Department of Computer Science, University of the Witwatersrand
2050 Wits, South Africa         phone 27(11)716-3309 fax 27(11)403-1926