Apartheid "Legislation" (1948-64)

Paper 1 | 4.RIghts and Protest | Case study: Apartheid

Petty Apartheid

Referred to the laws that impacted day-to-day life

e.g. separate beaches, restaurants, and toilet facilities

There was a never-ending application of these laws

Grand Apartheid

Involved the loss of political and land rights

The Prohibition of Mixed Marriage Act (1949)

An apartheid-era law in South Africa that prohibited marriages between "whites" and "non-whites"

The first pieces of apartheid legislation to be passed following the National Party's rise to power in 1948

The Immorality (Amendment) Act (1950)

Criminalized extra-marital interracial sex between heterosexual white South Africans and people of other “races.”

The Population Registration Act (1950)

Required all citizens to be identified and registered as belonging to one of four core racial groups: white, colored, Indian, Bantu (black African)

The Group Areas Act (1950)

Fashioned as the “cornerstone” of Apartheid policy

The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system of urban apartheid

To exclude people of color from living in the most developed areas

The Suppression of Communism Act (1950)

Renamed the Internal Security Act in 1976

Formally banned the Communist Party of South Africa and proscribed any party or group subscribing to communism, according to a uniquely broad definition of the term.

The Separate Representation of Voters Act (1951)

The National Party introduced it to enforce racial segregation

It was part of a process to remove all non-white people from the voters' roll and revoke the Cape Qualified Franchise system.

The Bantu Authorities Act (1951)

Aka. Black Authorities Act

To give authority to Traditional Tribal Leaders within their traditional tribal homelands in South Africa

The Native Laws Amendment Act (1952)

Part of the apartheid system

Limited the category of blacks who had the right to permanent residence in urban areas.

The Pass Laws Act (1952)

Aka. The Natives’ Law

Served as an internal passport system designed to racially segregate the population, restrict the movement of individuals, and allocate low-wage migrant labor

The Bantu Education Act (1953)

Aka. The Black Education Act

Enforced racially-separated educational facilities

The government no longer helps to support their schools. Very few authorities continued using their finances to support education for native Africans

Black teachers' salaries in 1953 were extremely low and resulted in a dramatic drop in trainee teachers

The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953)

Legalized the racial segregation of public premises, vehicles, and services

Only public roads and streets were excluded from the Act

The Extension of University Education Act (1959)

Made it a criminal offense for a non-white student to register at a formerly open university without the written permission of the Minister of Internal Affairs.

The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act (1959)

Relabeled the reserves as “homelands,” or Bantustans, in which only specific ethnic groups were to have residence rights

The Transkei Constitution Act (1963)

The first 'self-governing' homeland government, namely that of Transkei

It "provided for a legislative assembly to exercise control over finance, justice, interior, education, agriculture and forestry, and roads and works” (no way approaches political independence)