Apartheid legislation in South Africa
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| Apartheid legislation in South Africa |
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Precursors Group Areas Act (1950) |
The Apartheid Legislation in South Africa was a series of different laws and acts which were to help the apartheid-government to enforce the segregation of different races and cement the power and the dominance by the Whites, of substantially European descent, over the other race groups. Starting in 1948, the Nationalist Government in South Africa enacted laws to define and enforce segregation. With the enactment of apartheid laws in 1948, racial discrimination was institutionalised.
What makes South Africa's apartheid era different from segregation in other countries is the systematic way in which the National Party, which came into power in 1948, formalized it through the law.
The effect of the legislation was invariably favorable to the whites and detrimental to the other race groups.
[edit] 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] [2] An early example is the Glen Grey Act, passed in 1894 in Cape Colony, and which had the effect of diminishing the land rights of Africans in scheduled areas. [3]
[edit] Primary apartheid legislation
The "apartheid laws" were enacted following the 1948 South African election and subsequent declaration of "grand apartheid". The principal pieces of legislation to enforce apartheid were as follows:[4]
[edit] 1940s
- Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949
[edit] 1950s
- Early 1950s
- Immorality Amendment Act, Act No 21 of 1950; amended in 1957 (Act 23)
- Population Registration Act, Act No 30 of 1950
- Group Areas Act, Act No 41 of 1950
- Suppression of Communism Act, Act No 44 of 1950
- Bantu Building Workers Act, Act No 27 of 1951
- Separate Representation of Voters Act, Act No 46 of 1951
- Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act, Act No 52 of 1951
- Bantu Authorities Act, Act No 68 of 1951
- Natives Laws Amendment Act of 1952
- Natives (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act, Act No 67 of 1952
- Mid 1950s
- Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act of 1953
- Bantu Education Act, Act No 47 of 1953
- Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, Act No 49 of 1953
- Natives Resettlement Act, Act No 19 of 1954
- Group Areas Development Act, Act No 69 of 1955
- Natives (Prohibition of Interdicts) Act, Act No 64 of 1956
- Late 1950s
- Bantu Investment Corporation Act, Act No 34 of 1959
- Extension of University Education Act, Act 45 of 1959
- Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act, Act No 46 of 1959
[edit] 1960s
- Coloured Persons Communal Reserves Act, Act No 3 of 1961
- Preservation of Coloured Areas Act, Act No 31 of 1961
- Urban Bantu Councils Act, Act No 79 of 1961
- Terrorism Act, Act No 83 of 1967
[edit] 1970s
- Bantu Homelands Citizens Act of 1970
[edit] References
- ^ Scythe, N C: 'Early apartheid: race laws in South Africa 1652 - 1836', LLM thesis, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1995.
- ^ 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. ELM thesis, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1995.
- ^ Alistair Boddy-Evans. African History: Apartheid Legislation in South Africa, About.Com. Accessed October 19 2008.
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