Immaculate Confinement

So sweeping are South Africa's penal codes that almost everything is against the law. Under the Prisons Act, for example, it is a criminal offense to "misrepresent" conditions in South African jails--which the Verwoerd government, of course, adjudges to be always immaculate. Last week, a court in Durban agreed. After a four-month trial, Magistrate M. E. Goodhead found Harold Strachan, 40, a bearded art teacher who has served three years as a political prisoner, guilty of building an "edifice of lies" about prison brutality. To improve its case against Strachan, the government called 56 witnesses, confiscated defense documents, arrested five defense witnesses--including a prison warden--thereby intimidating most of the rest. Sentence: another 21 years of immaculate confinement.

The conviction opens the way for prosecution of crusading Johannesburg Editor Laurence Gandar, who for years has been one of Verwoerd's most nettlesome critics. Gandar ordered his Rand Daily Mail to publish Strachan's story after a thorough check convinced him that it was true. Obviously, he should have known better.

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