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A sign from Apartheid-era South Africa
In a bid to crush the year-old uprising against the racist Apartheid system and social inequality, on June 12, 1986, the government of South Africa imposed a national state of emergency that gave sweeping powers to all security forces to use lethal violence. The measure was implemented immediately, with hundreds of government opponents swept up in predawn raids the same day.
The order stated that the nation’s army, police, and prison wardens “may apply or order the application of such force as [they] under the circumstances may deem necessary in order to ward off or prevent the suspected danger.” Security personnel would also be indemnified from the nation’s judicial system: “any act in good faith advised, commanded, ordered, directed, or performed by any person” acting under the measure would be protected from “civil or criminal proceedings.”
The order allowed for searches and arrests without warrant. Warrantless arrests would result in a 14-day minimum jail period, with no contact allowed with attorneys or anyone else. Jail times could be unilaterally extended by Law and Order Minister Louis Le Grange “without notice to any person.” For those not arrested, the order provided for mass house arrests, allowing police to bar anyone from “being outside the boundaries of his residential premises in any particular area and at any time.”
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