Advertisement

S. Africa Bans New Opposition Headed by Tutu

Associated Press

The government Saturday banned a church-led opposition group headed by Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu and said it is a threat to public safety.

Adriaan Vlok, South African minister of law and order, said the recently created Committee for the Defense of Democracy was barred from “performing any activities or acts whatsoever.”

Police, meanwhile, banned a rally today in Cape Town that was to mark National Detainees Day.

Advertisement

Tutu, who heads the Committee for the Defense of Democracy and who had planned to attend today’s scheduled rally, said clergymen instead would hold a church service at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town. Similar church services are scheduled in four other cities.

“We are dealing with a vicious government that will not tolerate any opposition to its evil and immoral policies,” Tutu told a news conference. “They have banned a committee even before it has started operating.”

Tutu’s group was set up after the government’s Feb. 24 crackdown on black-led opposition groups. In that crackdown, the government banned 17 anti-apartheid organizations and a labor organization from participating in politics.

Advertisement

The Committee for the Defense of Democracy is led by several church leaders, including Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, and Allan Boesak, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. The clergymen said the group would attempt to take over some of the activities previously carried out by the restricted organizations.

However, Vlok’s latest order places the same restrictions on Tutu’s group as on the other anti-apartheid groups.

Vlok accused church leaders of promoting the aims of the outlawed African National Congress, which wages a bombing and sabotage campaign in a bid to overthrow the white-led government.

Advertisement

He cited a March 1 broadcast by ANC’s Radio Freedom which called for the church in South Africa to take a more active role in opposing the government.

Advertisement