History of Censorship in South Africa

• DESCRIPTION: Independent republic occupying most of the southern portion of Africa

SIGNIFICANCE: Government censorship pervaded South African life through the late twentieth century until the dissolution of apartheid and the ensuing advent of universal democracy in the 1990s brought about a significant reversal

To understand the repressive government that ruled South Africa from 1948, when apartheid was officially enacted to keep the races separate, until the early 1990s, one must understand the racial composition of the country. Black Africans representing over a dozen language groups constituted 75.2 percent of a population that numbered about thirty-nine million by 1991. White individuals accounted for 13.6 percent, slightly more than five million residents, with 8.6 percent being of mixed race. Asians comprised the remaining 2.6 percent.

While apartheid was in effect, the largest portion of the White population lived near the centers of large urban areas, whereas Black individuals were restricted by law to ten Black homelands and to specified urban neighborhoods, forcing them to live great distances from their work. Educational facilities for Black individuals were far inferior to those for White individuals.

Despite their numbers, Black individuals were permitted to own only 13 percent of the land under legislation passed in 1936 to replace the already restrictive Native Lands Acts of 1913. The official establishment of the ten Black homelands in 1970 further restricted the freedom of the Black populace.

Imprisonment of Nelson Mandela

Black attorney Nelson Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944 and was active in the organization until 1962 when he was arrested and sentenced to a five-year prison term. In 1964, while serving this initial sentence, he was tried and convicted of treason and sabotage, which carried a life sentence. Mandela served twenty-nine years in prison before South Africa’s President F. W. de Klerk, bowing to worldwide protests about Mandela’s persecution, ordered him released in 1991. Immediately upon his release, Mandela resumed his political activity and became a highly visible international person. He shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with de Klerk and was elected South Africa’s first Black president in 1994.

Under de Klerk, South Africa enacted one of the most liberal constitutions in the world, protecting not only freedom of speech and assembly but also outlawing racial discrimination and discrimination based on sexual orientation. These laws made South Africa the only developed nation at the time to specifically protect the civil rights of the LGBTIA+ community.

Book Banning and Thought Control

By the time South Africa banned apartheid, more than a hundred of its laws suppressed freedom of the press. The country had enacted a Suppression of Communism Act prohibiting the publication or other distribution of material produced by members of the Communist Party or of any other organization designated subversive by the central government. Such people were banned from public gatherings as well.

This legislation was racist because it effectively muzzled anyone who advocated the liberation of the African majority in the country, including most notable African writers. Members of the ANC were, under such laws, prevented from working publicly for the changes that would eventually outlaw apartheid.

Under South Africa’s Customs and Excise Act, the importation of indecent, obscene materials or those otherwise objectionable in the eyes of the government was illegal. The Publications and Entertainments Act of 1963 banned the production and publication of objectionable materials within South Africa, while the amended Publications Act of 1986 extended the ban beyond publications to film, art, sculpture, and all forms of entertainment.

Banning was based on five essential criteria, any one of which was considered grounds for listing a given work in the Government Gazette, which was tantamount to banning. Works were prohibited if they were considered obscene, indecent, or harmful to public morals (as defined by those who did the banning) if they were considered blasphemous or offensive to any religious group, if they aimed any ridicule at White South Africa, if they impaired relations between segments of the country’s people, or if they risked compromising public safety or national security.

Before the end of apartheid, the ban was accomplished through the Publications Control Board and the Publications Appeal Board, both agencies of the White minority government. The Appeals Board encouraged South African writers and their publishers to submit manuscripts for review prior to publication. Book store personnel were also encouraged to report to the Board materials that they deemed objectionable.

Under these repressive mandates, South Africans were officially kept from reading any materials that questioned apartheid, that explained Communism or depicted societies in which it was practiced, that criticized racism, or that questioned the validity of colonialism. Under the ban, more than eighteen thousand titles were specifically prohibited from distribution in South Africa.

Nevertheless, during this period, fugitive books entered the country and were distributed clandestinely, perhaps hastening the cessation of book banning and other such repressive acts. Thought control in South Africa, however, extended far beyond book banning and affected the lives of every South African.

Censorship Versus Control

During the repressive era that officially ended with the abolition of apartheid in 1992, the South African government denied practicing censorship, contending rather that it practiced control of those media that most affected the public welfare and safety and that protected national security. Despite such protestations, freedom of the press was denied for nearly fifty years in South Africa, and all of the arts endured under the ever-present threat of oppression.

Such oppression in South Africa has a long history. As early as 1914, the Riotous Assemblies Act gave the president the power to forbid the publication of any materials that might cause hostility between Black individuals and Europeans. This act required no proof of intent on the parts of the accused. The amended version of it in 1956 criminalized publicizing information about any assembly that was banned. In 1927, the Bantu Administration Act made it illegal for anyone to utter words or commit acts that might engender antagonism between the races.

The 1950s and 1960s

The Suppression of Communism Act of 1950 worked hand-in-hand with other repressive acts of censorship in South Africa. This act authorized the president to ban from the nation any person thought to espouse Communist doctrine and to ban the publication of materials by such people. The act, from which there was no appeal, allowed the government to suppress the materials of dead, as well as living, people with communist leanings. It banned such South Africans from writing for publication in places other than South Africa.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1953—aimed directly at the ANC—criminalized actions that encouraged others to break existing laws. The same year, the Public Safety Act declared a state of emergency that permitted the executive banning of any newspaper in the country. Another legislative measure aimed at the ANC, the Official Secrets Act of 1956, made it illegal to publish material relating to the military, the police, or the Bureau of State Security (BOSS). This act was followed in 1959 by the Prisons Act, which banned the publication of anything about prisoners or the administration of prisons that had not been previously approved by the commissioner of prisons.

The Extension of the University Education Act in the same year established separate tribal colleges for Black individuals and forbade the circulation of student publications not previously approved by the rector. The act also eschewed students’ speaking to the media without similar approval.

In 1963, the Entertainment Act, later strengthened by the Publications Act of 1974, provided for a Board of Censors to monitor films and advertising and ban imported and domestic materials considered politically controversial. The Publications and Entertainments Act of 1963 listed ninety-eight examples of materials the government considered objectionable. The Customs Act of 1964 gave the government full power to ban the importation of materials it thought to be objectionable. The Defense Amendment Act of 1967 prohibited the publication of any material that provided information about the South African armed forces in the name of national security. By the end of the decade, the General Law Amendment Act of 1969 empowered the minister of justice to declare any geographical area officially protected, thereby prohibiting the press from referring to it in any way.

The BOSS Act of 1969 made illegal communications about any personnel of the Bureau of State Security or any of its detainees. Under this law, evidence in a legal case involving BOSS was banned from trials no matter how important it was to a defendant’s case.

Last Decades of Apartheid

Repressive laws continued to be enacted as apartheid began crumbling as an institution and as South Africa’s racial inequalities attracted worldwide notoriety. The Newspaper and Imprint Registration Act of 1971 forced all newspapers to make known their intended natures and contents and to provide personal information about their editors and staff. They also were forced to make indemnity against the possibility that their staff would breach the Suppression of Communism Act. The Internal Security Act of 1982 consolidated most of South Africa’s existing security laws. It specifically addressed publications government authorities thought subversive or potentially disruptive.

On June 12, 1986, the South African government declared a state of emergency against newspapers that threatened the violent overthrow of the state. A proclamation extended this state of emergency in 1987. A new Board of Censors was appointed to control the newspapers. Emergency regulations passed in 1986 and 1987 prohibited journalists from covering scenes of unrest or restricted gatherings.

Fall of Apartheid

In 1989, politically moderate F. W. de Klerk was elected president of South Africa, serving in that position until 1994. Within three years, he led the parliament to abolish all laws that supported apartheid, thereby effectively ending this blight on South Africa’s world image and paving the way for the enfranchisement of Black individuals. In March 1992, two-thirds of the electorate voted for South Africa to draft a new constitution that would extend the franchise to Black Africans, who first voted in a presidential election in 1994, electing President Nelson Mandela.

South Africa’s modern constitution is a model of political liberalism. Though the country banned television until 1976, it later became a leader in producing television sitcoms that satirize racial problems, much as Norman Lear’s All in the Family (1971-1979) did in the United States.

However, after years of a new constitution promoting freedom of expression and the press, the rise of the Internet introduced new complications in censorship. Along with several other countries, South Africa began considering restricting Internet content. In 2013, the Protection of Personal Information Act was signed, aiming to improve security, privacy, and data for internet users. Commentators labeled the draft legislation introduced by the Film and Publication Board (FPB) as draconian, insisting that the bill would represent the worst Internet censorship bill on the African continent if passed. The law stipulated that video bloggers and content creators must first apply to be classified as distributors and submit the content for classification before posting. The law was ultimately approved later that year. The agency promoted the bill to protect children from harmful online material, but critics were concerned that the measure was a first step in curbing Internet freedom. In 2022, the Films and Publications Amendment (FPA) Act came into effect. This legislation increased the FPB’s power to regulate online content. Under this act, all online content distributors, including movies and television, were required to submit their materials for classification. The act also outlined rules banning the use of revenge pornography, hate speech, propaganda, and other improper uses of the Internet. However, some argued that the government may use these rules to garner increased control of the South African people.

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