The Silent Bystander

It was a fateful end to a special friendship between a white and a black. Donald Woods, a fifth-generation English-speaking South African and editor of the feisty East London Daily Dispatch (circ. 30,000), is now a "banned person, as was his friend Steve Biko, who died in jail two months ago. It was in fact, Woods' crusade over the mystery surrounding Bik'o's death that probably led to his banning in the government's massive wave of detentions and crackdowns.

As one of Woods'fellow journalists has put it, isolation is a CUrSe--and banning is the most insidious punishment in South Africa. Reserved for an elite 150 or so of the government's political enemies, it amounts to an emotionally destructive public Coventry. For five years, Woods may not meet with more than one other person at a time except for members of his family; he may not write for publication or be quoted--he has become, as a result, a public nonperson. Although forbidden by South African law to quote Woods on any subject or even echo his thoughts, TIME Johannesburg Bureau Chief William McWhirter was able to spend a day with the Woods family last week at their home in the coastal city of East London. McWhirter's report on the beginning of their new life in isolation:

It is only the first week of all the weeks to come for the next five years; the nine pages outlining the conditions of Woods' banning until October 1982 still sit on his study desk beside his children's report cards. The beginnings, at least, are outwardly pleasant, like an unexpected family vacation. Eventually there will be financial problems. The Daily Dispatch will continue to pay his

It is only the first week of all the weeks to come for the next five years; the nine pages Woods' outlining the banning until conditions October of 1982 still sit on his study desk beside his children's report cards. The beginnings, at least, are outwardly pleasant, like an unexpected family vacation. Eventually there will be finan cial problems. The Daily Dis patch will continue to pay his salary as editor, but he will lose the income from a nationally syndicated column that helped syndicated column that helped pay the school bills for five children. The Woodses will still enjoy the trappings of upper-middle-class life: a big, sunny home with leaded, stained-glass windows, spacious rooms with smoothly rubbed, yellow wood Cape Dutch antiques, a swimming pool, two cars.

Woods now has time, lots of time. He is forbidden to write at all, even in a private diary. The government is watching-as part of the ban, the Woodses have been informed that their home, their phones, even their two cars are bugged. Plainclothesmen keep their house under surveillance. Woods gets up after 8:30 a.m., an hour later than in his newspaper days. A gifted amateur pianist, he practices, for an hour, Chopin's B-minor Sonata--which, his wife says, should take him a month to master. "It's a virtuoso piece," says Wife Wendy 36 who must now speak for her husband. "The piece has been sitting in the house for years just waiting for Donald " There is lunch at the big kitchen table, afternoon reading dinner and television with the kids, bed.

The family's life is governed by arbitrary and seemingly illogical rulings on what they can and cannot do. Woods, for example, can visit East London's airport but not the harbor.

He can and did, enter a local chess competition. His table, however was separated from the rest and he could not have tea with other players afterward. Woods won the championship He may not leave the town limits of East London (50 square miles) during his ban and is therefore forbidden to play a chess match in East London's sister city, Port Elizabeth If he and his wife go to a restaurant, a friend may stop to say hello but may not sit down: that would constitute a meeting with more than one person since his wife is considered another person when friends are present.

Similarly, Woods may say hello to someone on a bus, but may not sit down to continue the conversation; that would be more than an incidental meeting. Woods may play golf, but only in a twosome, and he must keep a reasonable interval" in the clubhouse between himself and other members. He may not enter his newspaper office or his children's schools, but may go to a library. He may attend Mass (he is a devout Roman Catholic). He may visit a theater to see a movie, but can he go to a concert? The local chief magistrate, who can grant exceptions to the law, has indicated that he may make exceptions to standing orders but cannot rule on omissions. Woods is also required to make weekly visits to the police station.

Such impositions may seem slight to outsiders, but each small commandment inflicts its own small cut--slowly removing the world from the man, slowly reducing the areas in which he is free to make even small decisions. Woods is already treated as though he suffers some undiagnosed illness. Friends become nervous about how to approach him or what to say. People ask how he is, with the concern they would show for a patient who is in the hospital. "Donald" is discussed in the third person, sometimes even in the past tense. A friend's affectionate newspaper piece about him in the Rand Daily Mail read more like an obituary than a feature. a man There is appear something comfortable and malevolent in useless, a unable system to that affect his makes own fate The new acting editor will soon move into his of fice Wendy will surely become the busy, active member of the family as a freelance writer. The real danger Woods faces is irrelevance. "This is the first time something like this has happened in our white community," says his wife. "Perhaps it's good for them to see. I'm watching Donald. 1 don't open up any subject if I see he wants to withdraw. So far he's showing no strain, but we haven't spoken about what's going to come at all, and we won't unless he needs to also If a it good does get thing to go emotional, if through. it But does we get cannot raw, see then things that s in and heroic terms. Afrikaner It is now nationalists going to to get be at a each rush other. between White blacks lib-

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