Parliament of South Africa

Internal Security Act, 1982

Published by Good Press, 2021
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Table of Contents


Cover
Titlepage
Text

​

Act

To provide for the security of the State and the maintenance of law and order; and to provide for matters connected therewith.


(Afrikaans text signed by the State President.)
(Assented to 1 June 1982.)


Be it enacted by the State President and the House of Assembly of the Republic of South Africa, as follows:―


Arrangement of Sections
Section
1
Chapter 1 2–3
Chapter 2 4–17
Chapter 3 18–34
Chapter 4 35–45
Chapter 5 46–53
Chapter 6 54–63
Chapter 7 64–69
Chapter 8 70–74


Definitions.

1. In this Act, unless the context otherwise indicates—

(i)

“authorized officer” means a person designated as such under section 6 (1), and includes any person acting under his written authority;

(ii)

“board of review” means a board of review established under section 35;

(iii)

“Commissioner” means the Commissioner of the South African Police;

(iv)

“communism” means any doctrine, ideology or scheme—

(a)

which is based on, has developed from or is related to the tenets of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin or Mao Tse-Tung, or of any other recognized theorist in connection with or exponent of those tenets, and which aims at the establishment of any form of socialism or collective ownership;

(b)

which aims at the establishment, by means of a class or group polarization of the community and ​the subsequent assumption of power by a particular class or group, of a despotic form of govemment under which one political party, group or organization only is recognized and all others are eliminated or prohibited; or

(c)

which aims at bringing about any political, economic, industrial or social change within the Republic in accordance with the directions or under the guidance of or in cooperation with any foreign government or any foreign or intemational institution or organization whose purpose or one of whose purposes (whether professed or not) is to bring about the establishment within the Republic of any economic or social system as contemplated in paragraph (a) or any form of government as contemplated in paragraph (b);

(v)

“Director” means the person appointed in terms of section 2 (2) to the office of Director of Security Legislation;

(vi)

“document” includes any book, pamphlet, record, list, placard, poster, drawing, photograph or picture, or a film as defined in section 47 (1) of the Publications Act, 1974 (Act No, 42 of 1974);

(vii)

“gathering” means, for the purposes of—

(a)

sections 20 (ii), 46 (1) (b) and (3) (b) and 48 (1) (b), any gathering, concourse or procession of any number of persons;

(b)

any other provision of this Act, a gathering, concourse or procession of any number of persons having a common purpose, whether such purpose is lawful or unlawful;

(viii)

“Inspector of Detainees” means any person appointed as such under section 44 (l);

(ix)

“liquidator” means a person designated as such under section 13 (1) (b), and includes any person acting under his written authority;

(x)

“Minister” means the Minister of Law and Order;

(xi)

“office-bearer”, in relation to any organization, means member of the governing or executive body of—

(a)

the organization;

(b)

any branch, section or committee of the organization; or

(c)

any local, regional or subsidiary body forming part of the organization;

(xii)

“officer”, in relation to any organization, means any person working for the organization or for any branch, section or committee of the organization, or for any local, regional or subsidiary body forming part of the organization;

(xiii)

“organization” means any association of persons, incorporated or unincorporated, and whether or not it has been established or registered in accordance with any statute;

(xiv)

“periodical publication” means any publication appearing at intervals;

(xv)

“place” means any place, whether or not it is a public place, and includes any premises, building, dwelling, flat, room, office, shop, structure, vessel, aircraft or vehicle, and any part of a place;

(xvi)

“police” means any body of men established or enrolled under any law and exercising or carrying out the powers, duties and functions of a police force, and includes any portion of the South African Defence Force when used for the prevention or suppression of terrorism or internal disorder;

(xvii)

“police officer” means any member of the Force as defined in section 1 of the Police Act, 1958 (Act No. 7 of 1958), and includes any member of the South African Railways Police Force referred to in section 43 of ​the South African Transport Services Act, 1981 (Act No. 65 of 1981);

(xviii)

“publication” means any newspaper, magazine, pamphlet, book, hand-bill or poster, and includes, for the purposes of section 56 (1) (c), any record or other object in or on which sound has been recorded for reproduction;

(xix)

“public body” means any institution or body contemplated in section 84 (l) (f) of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1961 (Act No. 32 of 1961), and includes any institution or body established by law;

(xx)

“public office” means any office or post in the service of the State or a public body, and includes any office or post in the South African Defence Force or the Reserve referred to in sections 5 and 6, respectively, of the Defence Act, 1957 (Act No. 44 of 1957);

(xxi)

“this Act” includes any regulation made under any provision thereof;

(xxii)

“unlawful organization” means an organization—

(a)

which, before the commencement of this Act, was by or under any law repealed by section 73 declared to be an unlawful organization for the purposes ot the repealed law in question, and which immediately prior to the said commencement is such an unlawful organization; or

(b)

which, under section 4, is at any time after the said commencement declared to be an unlawful organization, and includes any branch, section or committee of any such organization and any local, regional or subsidiary body forming part of any such organization;

(xxiii)

“violence” includes the inflicting of bodily harm upon or killing of, or the endangering of the safety of, any person, or the damaging, destruction or endangering of property.


Chapter 1

Director of Security Legislation


Appointment and functions of Director of Security Legislation.

2. (1) The Minister of Justice shall, subject to the provisions of subsection (2), appoint an officer, to be known as the Director of Security Legislation, who shall, subject to the control and directions of the Minister, perform the functions assigned to the Director by this Act as well as such other functions as the Minister may assign to him from time to time.

(2) The Minister of Justice shall, subject to the laws governing the public service and with the concurrence of the Minister, appoint to the office of Director of Security Legislation a person holding a degree or diploma in law.

(3) The Minister of Justice may appoint, subject to the laws governing the public service and with the concurrence of the Minister, one or more Deputy Directors of Security Legislation or one or more Assistant Directors of Security Legislation or one or more such Deputy Directors and one or more such Assistant Directors, who shall respectively have the power to perform, subject to the control and directions of the Director, any of the functions of the Director.

(4) Whenever it becomes necessary to appoint an acting Director, the Minister may appoint a Deputy Director referred to in subsection (3) or, in the absence of such a Deputy Director, an Assistant Director referred to in that subsection to act as Director for the period for which such appointment is necessary.


Secretarial work.

3. The secretarial work incidental to the performance of the functions of the Director shall be performed by such persons in the service of the State as the Minister of Justice may with the concurrence of the Minister designate for that purpose.


​

Chapter 2

Measures in Respect of Certain Organizations and Certain Publications


Declaration of certain organizations as unlawful.

4. (1) If the Minister is satisfied—

(a)

any organization engages in activities which endanger or are calculated to endanger the security of the State or the maintenance of law and order;

(b)

that—

(i)

any organization professes, by its name or otherwise, to be an organization for propagating the principles or promoting the spread of communism;

(ii)

the purpose or one of the purposes of any organization is to propagate the principles or to promote the spread of communism;

(iii)

any organization engages in activities for the achievement of any of the objects of communism;

(c)

that any organization is controlled, directly or indirectly, by an organization referred to in paragraph (a) or (b); or

(d)

that any organization carries on or has been established for the purpose of carrying on, directly or indirectly, any of the activities of an unlawful organization,

he may, subject to the provisions of sections 7 and 10, without notice to the organization in question, by notice in the Gazette declare that organization to be an unlawful organization.

(2) (a) The Minister may by notice in the Gazette declare that any body, organization, group or association of persons, institution, society or movement described in or known by a name specified in the notice and which in his opinion exists, or existed at any time after 7 April 1960—

(i)

is in fact a body or organization specified in the notice which by virtue of a notice under subsection (1) or by virtue of the provisions of paragraph (a) of the definition of “unlawful organization” is an unlawful organization;

(ii)

was in fact at all times subsequent to a date specified in the notice, not being earlier than 8 April 1960, a body or organization so specified which by vinue of a notice under subsection (1) or by virtue of the provisions of paragraph (a) of the definition of “unlawful organization” is an unlawful organization,

and thereupon the said body, organization, group or association of persons, institution, society or movement shall in any criminal proceedings be deemed to exist or to have existed at all such times, as the case may be, and to be or to have been at all such times, as the case may be, the said unlawful organization.

(b) In any criminal proceedings any act or omission proved with reference to any body, organization, group or association of persons, institution, society or movement corresponding to the description or known by a name corresponding to the name of a body, organization, group or association of persons, institution, society or movement in respect of which a notice has been issued under this subsection, shall be deemed to have been proved with reference to the unlawful organization specified in the notice.

(c) Whenever in any notice under this subsection a date is specified in terms of paragraph (a) (ii), any person who ​at any time during the period between the date so specified and the date of publication of such notice was an office-bearer, officer or member of any body, organization, group or association of persons, institution, society or movement corresponding to the description or known by a name corresponding to the name of any body, organization, group or association of persons, institution, society or movement in respect of which the notice has been issued, shall, for the purposes of any criminal proceedings, be deemed to have become an office-bearer, officer or member of the unlawful organization specified in the notice, on the day immediately following upon the date so specified.

(3) Any notice issued under subsection (1) or (2) may be withdrawn by the Minister by like notices.

(4) The provisions of subsection (1) (a), (b) (ii) and (iii), (c) and (d) shall not apply in relation to an employers’ organization or trade union registered under the Labour Relations Act, 1956 (Act No. 28 of 1956) or to any employers’ organization or trade union whose registration under the said Act has been cancelled in terms of section 14 of that Act, until such organization or trade union or any office-bearer, officer or member thereof has had a reasonable opportunity of exhausting, in respect of such cancellation, the remedies provided in section 16 or 27 of the said Act.

(5) A notice under subsection (1) or (2) shall not be invalid or ineffective by reason of the fact that the organization in question was dissolved before the coming into operation of the notice.


Prohibition of certain publications.

5. (1) lf the Minister is satistied that any periodical or other publication—

(a)

serves inter alia as a means for expressing views or conveying infomation the publication of which is calculated to endanger the security of the State or the maintenance of law and order;

(b)

professes, by its name or otherwise, to be a publication for propagating the principles or promoting the spread of communism;

(c)

serves inter alia as a means for expressing views or conveying information the publication of which is calculated to further the achievement of any of the objects of communism;

(d)

is published or disseminated by, or under the direction or guidance of, an organization which has been declared an unlawful organization under section 4 (1) or (2) or which by virtue of the provisions of paragraph (a) of the definition of “unlawful organization” is an unlawful organization, or was published or disseminated by, or under the direction or guidance of, any such organization immediately prior to the date upon which it became an unlawful organization;

(e)

serves inter alia as a means for expressing views propagated by an organization referred to in paragraph (d), or did so serve immediately prior to the date referred to in that paragraph;

(f)

serves inter alia as a means for expressing views or conveying infomation the publication of which is calculated to cause, encourage or foment feelings of hostility between different population groups or parts of population groups of the Republic; or

(g)

is a continuation of or substitution for, whether or not under another name, any periodical or other publication the printing, publication or dissemination of which has been prohibited in terms of this section,

he may, subject to the provisions of sections 7 and 10 and without notice to any person concerned, by notice in the Gazette prohibit, or prohibit for a period specified in the notice, the printing, publication or dissemination of such periodical publication, ​or a particular edition or particular editions thereof, or the dissemination of such other publication.

(2) Any notice issued under subsection (1) may be withdrawn by the Minister by like notice.


Investigation concerning suspected organizations or publications.

6. (1) If the Minister has reason to suspect—

(a)

that the activities, purposes, control or identity of any organization is such that it ought to be declared an unlawful organization under section 4 (1) or (2); or

(b)

that the circumstances connected with any periodical or other publication are such that the printing, publication or dissemination thereof ought to be prohibited under section 5,

he may in writing under his hand designate any person as an authorized officer to investigate the activities, purposes or identity of that organization or the manner in which it is controlled, or the circumstances connected with that periodical or other publication, as the case may be.

(2) If directed by the Minister to do so in any case referred to in subsection (1) (a), an authorized officer shall compile a list of persons who are or at any time before or after the commencement of this Act were office-bearers, officers, members or active supporters of the organization in question.

(3) An authorized officer may, for the purposes of the performance of his functions in terms of subsection (1) or (2)—

(a)

without previous notice at any time enter upon any premises whatsoever and make such investigation and inquiry as he deems necessary;

(b)

require of any person the production then and there or at a time and place fixed by the authorized officer, of any document or of any copy of any periodical or other publication which is on the premises;

(c)

at any time and at any place require of any person who has possession or custody or control of any document or any copy of any periodical or other publication, the production thereof then and there or at a time and place fixed by the authorized officer;

(d)

(b)(c)section 4section 5

(e)

(f)

(g)

(b)(c)(e)(f)