running a command as a super user from a python script

Try:

subprocess.call(['sudo', 'apach2ctl', 'restart'])

The subprocess needs to access the real stdin/out/err for it to be able to prompt you, and read in your password. If you set them up as pipes, you need to feed the password into that pipe yourself.

If you don't define them, then it grabs sys.stdout, etc...

Try giving the full path to apache2ctl.