tangents

news & views

by harry otis

BEHAVIORISM IN SOUTH AFRICA

John Watson, the founder of the American system of psychologybehaviorism, recognized only one method of study, observation. He argued that the task of psychology was to predict and control human behavior: a formidable one today, he would discover, were he confronted with the police situation in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Viewing the records of these supposed guardians of the law, we find among them several ex-convicts. who have served time for assaulting boys and men. Besides defying the moral code they have stolen, driven while drunk, blackmailed men, and used cars without the owners' permission.

A Cape Town news correspondent cited the case of an eighteen-yearold constable recruited into the force at sixteen and a half. He spent six months in prison for blackmailing a business man. At an inquiry in the senate, a senator asked the Minister of Justice why the youth was retained on the police force. The Min-

ister replied: "This is his first and only offense, for which he has been sufficiently punished. He is otherwise rendering efficient service."

The senator inquired about another constable, twenty-three, convicted in Cape Town on a morals charge involving a colored prisoner. The Minister's answer was, "He is young and inexperienced and, apart from this conviction, for which he has been punished, he has rendered satisfactory service and has a good record."

A young police lieutenant with a record of five assault convictions, and two under the Immorality Act, returned to the police force following his release from prison.

The senator, commenting on replies by the Minister of Justice, said in an interview, "I was amazed to hear the Minister's reason for retaining some constables on the force. It is significant that these men, still in their twenties, are personable and of fine physiques."

Another official, shocked and disappointed at the so-called Minister of Justice and his cold Ministerial