Documentary About Apartheid in South Africa (1965)

Migratory labour, it is usually temporary, but in South Africa it is a permanent part of our economic life. The key instrument for white control of the Africans are the pass laws which require everyone to carry reference documents or books known as passes. These men must have their passes checked to obtain work. The reference book is a document which every African has to carry on his person. It has his photograph, his registration number, his tax receipts, and where he was born, the name of his chief and where his book was issued, and also a service contract, that is, a contract of labour with his employer. It was the pass laws which triggered the infamous

Sharpeville massacre, the turning point in South African destiny. On March 21, 1960 a crowd of unarmed Africans assembled at the police station in the town of Sharpeville, New Johannesburg, to demonstrate against the hated pass laws, the police panicked and opened fire. 72 Africans were killed, 186 wounded. After Sharpeville, instead of easing the pressures which caused the explosion the government took the opposite course. Sharpeville became an excuse to slap down African nationalism with the full force of legal powers and armed might. An emergency was declared and the infamous 90-day law was enacted. This law made it possible for people to be held merely on suspicion. The original 90-day detention could be renewed indefinitely without a trial.

Effective police state measures have brought about relative tranquility... at least on the surface. The 90-day law has been temporarily suspended although it can be brought back into force at a moment's notice. Alan Paton is pessimistic about conditions improving.