Universities To Be Fined

Political freedom at South African and Rhodesian universities will be further restricted as the result of recent moves by the racist governments of the two countries.

According to a report in The Australian of May 29 the South African Government plans to fine universities whose students are arrested "in the course of public political agitation", regardless of whether they arc later charged with an offence or convicted.

The suggested penalty for each student is understood to be about $1000. while universities would also be fined an amound equal to the salary of any member of staff arrested during a protest.

The scheme appears to be aimed directly at English-speaking universities where students have become increasingly vocal in their protests against the apartheid system since June last year.

Both Cape Town and Witwatersrand Universities, the main centres of student action, are short of funds and would be unable to afford the proposed fines.

Student leaders estimate that last summers' protest in Johannesburg alone would have cost Witwatersrand University $260,000.

In the past three weeks police have arrested scores of students who were protesting against a new bill which will prohibit demonstrations in a wide area around Parliament Buildings.

The students fail to sec how their protests can be illegal before the bill has been enacted, but the basis for the arrests has not been explained.

In Rhodesia the government is also cracking down on student agitation. In the New Statesman of May 18 Mary Holland reported that African students at (he University of Rhodesia now receive their grants retrospectively, at the end of each term, on production of a certificate of good behaviour.

This measure was introduced when Africans protested last year against the fact that black graduates who take up teaching are now paid considerably less than their while colleagues.