Banning order

A banning order was a form of restriction imposed on individuals who were perceived as a threat to the state, and this could mean anything from prohibition from attending meetings, to limitation to a certain regional area or house arrest.

In general legal terms banning is defined as an administrative tool utilized to outlaw and suppress publications, organizations, or assemblies, or restrict an individual person’s freedom of travel, association, and speech.

In South Africa this took on a number of forms. Besides wide use of the familiar censorship practice of banning publications, performances and films (i.e. disallowing sales, performance or showing of such material in a particular country) by the South African Censorship Board, and the banning of meetings, organizations and political parties, another pervasive form of control and suppression of opposition and dissidence was exercised by the issuing of so-called "banning orders" on individuals.