Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-10-21
N WORLD SPOTLIGHT
IN WORLD SPOTLIGHT
Womon's Home Is Her Jail
Under South African Law
BY RICHARD KASISCHKE
Associated Press Staff Writer

Associated Press Staff Writer
JOHANNESBURG, South
Africa, Oct. 20.-If Mrs. Helen
Joseph gets in a traffic jam
driving home from her down.
town office she steps on the
gas to get out of 1t fast.
Otherwise she may be in
trouble with the South African
government, because for the
next five years she has to be
home every day at $50 pm.
Mrs. Joseph, a grazing white
woman, is under house arrest
the first such under new po-
litical control laws exercised by
Minister of Justice Balthazar
Vorster.
This means among other
things she is confined to her
home from $50 pm. to $50
am. She is forbidden to have
visitors there except a doctor
who must be considered nom
subversive. She cannot leave
her home on public holidays or
week ends, cannot attend any
political or social gatherings
and must report to the police
every day except Sundays and
holidays. Furthermore she is
silenced here and cannot be
quoted by word or writing.
Could Be Jailed
II she breaks any Of the re-
strictions she could be jailed
for up to three years.
The johannesburg English
language Rand Daily Mail has
headlined: Mrs. Joseph's home
is her jail"
It's going to be q lonely
Christmas.
However she has her Siamese
cat Siti and she gets newspa-
pers and still has a telephone
that rings constantly. Well
wishers' calls mix with anony- t
nous messages. J
She works in downtown c
medical aid society doing well
fare work for the African peo- il
pie. c
Mrs. Joseph has been inter b
viewed frequently since Mr.. S
Vorster arrested her but the e
interviews cannot be quoted t
here or cabled abroad because
she has been silenced as an i!
alleged Red subversive. a
"a brief interview with Mrs. e
Joseph that has become avail h
able outside South Africa t
quotes her as saying Of her ar h
rest: "It doesn't feel very nice. Fl
But I try to keep busy at my v
welfare work, and cheerful.~
Concentrates on Work
Friends say Mrs. Joseph, who
Is q childless divorcee, is de-
termined to carry on her well
fare work, packing as much
work in her daytime freedom
hours as possible.
She spent four months in
prison as one of the defendants
in South Africa's m arathonI
treason trial. All the defend
ants were acquitted because the
court ruled the government had l
not proved they were guilty of r
Communist conspiracy. She is r
represented as a great admirer A
of Zulu ex-chief Albert Lu- n
thuli, South Africa's only No i,
bel Peace Prize winner, who has
also been politically banned v
and silenced. She also knows ii
other outlawed African political A
leaders, among them Nelson
Mandela and walter Sisulu, 81
who have been charged with Il
Indictment. Al
Mrs. Joseph was born in Eng c;
land, and likes gardening. On Sc
the first Sunday of her house tt
arrest, neighbors came by to 7
chat over her garden gate. Eve W
nings she works on a new book
that will describe South n
Africa's political laws. Her first O.
book titled IF This Be Trea- liz
son" is expected to be published d
next year but will not be for u
sale here. O.
Author Alan Patton told the
Johannesburg Sunday Express fl