The system of racial segregation and oppression in South Africa known asapartheid was implemented and enforced by manyacts and other laws. This legislation served to institutionalize racial discrimination and the dominance bywhite people over people of other races. While the bulk of this legislation was enacted after the election of theNational Party government in 1948, it was preceded by discriminatory legislation enacted under earlier British and Afrikaner governments. Apartheid is distinguished fromsegregation in other countries by the systematic way in which it was formalized in law.
Segregationist legislation before apartheid
Although apartheid as a comprehensive legislative project truly began after the National Party came into power in 1948, many of these statutes were preceded by the laws of the previous British and Afrikaner administrations in South Africa's provinces.[1] An early example is theGlen Grey Act, passed in 1894 in Cape Colony, and which diminished the land rights of Africans in scheduled areas.[2]
List of apartheid segregation in South Africa
Population registration and segregation
ThePopulation Registration Act, 1950, required that every South African be classified into one of a number of racial "population groups". This act provided the foundation upon which the whole edifice of apartheid would be constructed.
TheReservation of Separate Amenities Act, 1953 allowed public premises, vehicles and services to be segregated by race, even if equal facilities were not made available to all races.
TheGroup Areas Act, 1950 (re-enacted in 1957 and 1966) divided urban areas into "group areas" in which ownership and residence was restricted to certain population groups.
TheSouth Africa Act 1909, which united the four South African colonies into a unitary state, preserved electoral arrangements unchanged, meaning that qualified black voters in theCape Province could vote for theHouse of Assembly. This was anentrenched clause, protected by a provision requiring a two-thirds majority in a joint sitting of Parliament to alter theCape Qualified Franchise.
TheRepresentation of Natives Act, 1936, passed with the necessary two-thirds majority, removed black voters in the Cape from the common voters' roll and placed them on a separate roll, allowing them to elect only three members to the House of Assembly. The act also provided for four indirectly elected senators to represent black people countrywide. Qualifiedcoloured voters in the Cape remained on the common roll.
TheSeparate Representation of Voters Act, 1951 removed coloured voters in the Cape from the common voters' roll and placed them on a separate roll, allowing them to elect only four members to the House of Assembly. It was not, initially, passed with a two-thirds majority, and the Appellate Division of theSupreme Court invalidated it on this basis, precipitating the "coloured vote constitutional crisis". The government subsequently altered the method of election of the Senate and passed theSouth Africa Act Amendment Act, 1956 with a two-thirds majority, validating the Separate Representation of Voters Act.
TheNative Administration Act, 1927 gave the executive government wide-ranging authority to govern the "native reserves", and the people living in them, by proclamation.
TheBantu Authorities Act, 1951 established a hierarchy of tribal, regional and territorial authorities, led by chiefs and appointed councillors, to govern the reserves.
TheBantu Homelands Citizenship Act, 1970 made black people citizens of one of the bantustans, with the intention that when the bantustans became independent they would cease to be South African citizens.
TheStatus of the Transkei Act, 1976 declared the Transkei to be an independent state and no longer part of South Africa. This independence was not recognised by any country other than South Africa.
^Smythe, N C: 'The origins of apartheid: race legislation in South Africa - 1836-1910'. LLM thesis, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1995.
^Smythe, N C: 'The origins of apartheid: race legislation in South Africa - 1836-1910', p. 262. LLM thesis, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1995.
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