Apartheid Legislation South Africa. Nationalist Government in South Africa enacted laws to define and enforce segregation. South Africa's apartheid was formalised through laws.

Apartheid Legislation in South Africa

Nationalist Government in South Africa enacted laws to define and enforce segregation.

South Africa's apartheid was formalised through laws. The main laws are described below.

Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949
Prohibited marriages between white people and people of other races. Between 1946 and the enactment of this law, only 75 mixed marriages had been recorded, compared with some 28,000 white marriages.

Immorality Amendment Act, Act No 21 of 1950; amended in 1957 (Act 23)
Prohibited adultery, attempted adultery or related immoral acts (extra-marital sex) between white and black people.

Population Registration Act, Act No 30 of 1950
Led to the creation of a national register in which every person's race was recorded. A Race Classification Board took the final decision on what a person's race was in disputed cases.

Group Areas Act, Act No 41 of 1950
Forced physical separation between races by creating different residential areas for different races. Led to forced removals of people living in "wrong" areas, for example Coloureds living in District Six in Cape Town.

Suppression of Communism Act, Act No 44 of 1950
Outlawed communism and the Community Party in South Africa. Communism was defined so broadly that it covered any call for radical change. Communists could be banned from participating in a political organisation and restricted to a particular area.

Bantu Building Workers Act, Act No 27 of 1951
Allowed black people to be trained as artisans in the building trade, something previously reserved for whites only, but they had to work within an area designated for blacks. Made it a criminal offence for a black person to perform any skilled work in urban areas except in those sections designated for black occupation.

Separate Representation of Voters Act, Act No 46 of 1951 - Together with the 1956 amendment, this act led to the removal of Coloureds from the common voters' roll.

Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act, Act No 52 of 1951 - Gave the Minister of Native Affairs the power to remove blacks from public or privately owned land and to establishment resettlement camps to house these displaced people.

Bantu Authorities Act, Act No 68 of 1951 - Provided for the establishment of black homelands and regional authorities and, with the aim of creating greater self-government in the homelands, abolished the Native Representative Council.

Natives Laws Amendment Act of 1952 - Narrowed the definition of the category of blacks who had the right of permanent residence in towns. Section 10 limited this to those who'd been born in a town and had lived there continuously for not less than 15 years, or who had been employed there continuously for at least 15 years, or who had worked continuously for the same employer for at least 10 years.

Natives (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act, Act No 67 of 1952 -
Commonly known as the Pass Laws, this ironically named act forced black people to carry identification with them at all times. A pass included a photograph, details of place of origin, employment record, tax payments, and encounters with the police. It was a criminal offence to be unable to produce a pass when required to do so by the police. No black person could leave a rural area for an urban one without a permit from the local authorities. On arrival in an urban area a permit to seek work had to be obtained within 72 hours.

Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act of 1953 - Prohibited strike action by blacks.

Bantu Education Act, Act No 47 of 1953 - Established a Black Education Department in the Department of Native Affairs which would compile a curriculum that suited the "nature and requirements of the black people". The author of the legislation, Dr Hendrik Verwoerd (then Minister of Native Affairs, later Prime Minister), stated that its aim was to prevent Africans receiving an education that would lead them to aspire to positions they wouldn't be allowed to hold in society. Instead Africans were to receive an education designed to provide them with skills to serve their own people in the homelands or to work in labouring jobs under whites.

Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, Act No 49 of 1953 - Forced segregation in all public amenities, public buildings, and public transport with the aim of eliminating contact between whites and other races. "Europeans Only" and "Non-Europeans Only" signs were put up. The act stated that facilities provided for different races need not be equal.

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 - Denied black people the option of appealing to the courts against forced removals.

Bantu Investment Corporation Act, Act No 34 of 1959 - Provided for the creation of financial, commercial, and industrial schemes in areas designated for black people.

Extension of University Education Act, Act 45 of 1959 - Put an end to black students attending white universities (mainly the universities of Cape Town and Witwatersrand). Created separate tertiary institutions for whites, Coloured, blacks, and Asians.

Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act, Act No 46 of 1959 - Classified black people into eight ethnic groups. Each group had a Commissioner-General who was tasked to develop a homeland for each, which would be allowed to govern itself independently without white intervention.

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 - Created black councils in urban areas that were suppoed to be tied to the authorities running the related ethnic homeland.

Terrorism Act of 1967 - Allowed for indefinite detention without trial and established BOSS, the Bureau of State Security, which was responsible for the internal security of South Africa.

Bantu Homelands Citizens Act of 1970 - Compelled all black people to become a citizen of the homeland that responded to their ethnic group, regardless of whether they'd ever lived there or not, and removed their South African citizenship.

Various segregation laws were passed before the Nationalist Party took complete power in 1948. Probably the most significant were The Natives Land Act, No 27 of 1913 and The Natives (Urban Areas) Act of 1923. The former made it illegal for blacks to purchase or lease land from whites except in reserves; this restricted black occupancy to less than eight per cent of South Africa's land. The latter laid the foundations for residential segregation in urban areas.

APARTHEID

Most black children in the USA are taught that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Yet, they are not taught that 120 million Africans died because of the effects of slavery - James S. Wright

Apartheid is a policy of racial segregation maintained in South Africa from 1948 to 1991. The policy established the doctrine of ‘separate development’ whereby South African blacks were segregated into reserves known as ‘homelands’ and subjected to residential and occupational restrictions. Apartheid was maintained by a wide range of laws that included the prohibition of inter-racial sexual intercourse or marriage and outlawed racially integrated political and social organizations. A white-minority government, faced with international pressures and internal conflict, began the process of dismantling apartheid in the late 1980's and eventually extended the right to vote on equal terms to all South African adults. A subsequent election in 1994 installed South Africa's first Black majority government led by Nelson Mandela.

"American Apartheid" is the unfair and brutal treatment of Native Americans and Africans in the United States.

Apartheid is the Afrikaans word meaning ‘separation’.

Apartheid policy was designed to separate black and white South Africans, to oppress, dominate and control blacks, and in the same breath to enrich white South Africans at the expense of the oppressed people.

South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid, Building Democracy - overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/
Presents first-hand accounts of this important political movement. Interviews with South African activists, raw video footage documenting mass resistance and police repression, historical documents, rare photographs, and original narratives tell this remarkable story.
South Africa's successful struggle for freedom and democracy is one of the most dramatic stories of our time. The racial tyranny of apartheid ended with a negotiated transition to a non-racial democracy, but not without considerable personal cost to thousands of men, women, and young people who were involved.

Education and Racial Inequality in Post-Apartheid South Africa Malcolm Keswell
Abstract: Has the end of Apartheid made South African labor markets meritocratic? This paper presents an analytical framework with testable hypotheses concerning equal opportunity. Using this framework and nationally representative panel data, it is demonstrated that while opportunities have been significantly equalized, as evidenced by an overall decline in the white-black wage differential, a new form of racial inequality has emerged, operating not directly on income as in the heyday of job reservation, influx control, and school segregation, but indirectly, through inequality in the rewards to effort, as witnessed by sharply divergent patterns in the returns to education between the races. Differences in the returns to education now account for about 40% of the White-African wage differential, whereas a decade ago this effect was virtually zero. One consequence of this trend is an incentive structure likely to impede or possibly even reverse gains made in the equalization of schooling attainment. santafe.edu/research/publications/wpabstract/200402008

WHY SOUTH AFRICA'S APARTHEID ECONOMY FAILED ANTON D. LOWENBERG, Professor, Department of Economics California State University Northridge
South Africa's apartheid system was enormously costly and ultimately collapsed because the inefficiencies created by apartheid policies escalated as the economy's structure changed. Labor market regulation and industrial decentralization policy inhibited efficient resource utilization, especially as the manufacturing sector became dominant. Apartheid educational policies generated skill shortages. A mercantilistic development strategy distorted trade patterns, exacerbated dependence on foreign capital inflows, and created chronic balance of payments difficulties. The administrative and defense costs of implementing apartheid were onerous and rising. These internal weaknesses enhanced South Africa's vulnerability to capital flight, changes in world prices and business cycle conditions, and political changes abroad. Ultimately, apartheid was abandoned because its costs came to exceed its benefits to white South Africans. The internal dynamics of the system dictated the retrenchment of apartheid, which in all probability would have occurred even without foreign sanctions. - cep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/XV/3/62

Documenting the trauma of apartheid: Long Night's Journey into Day and South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission Ashley Dawson
How has the documentary evolved as filmmakers grapple with the complex projects of truth telling and nation building in post-apartheid South Africa? If the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has become an internationally renowned instance of conflict resolution, recent documentary accounts suggest that the nationally televised hearings laid bare enduring wounds in the body politic just as much as they healed such wounds. While media coverage of the TRC sessions often folded these social tensions into a celebratory model of national unity, accounts of the process attentive to the suffering of victims tend to unsettle such unificatory discourses, in the process disrupting conventional narrative form. Through a discussion of Frances Reid and Deborah Hoffmann's Long Night's Journey Into Day: South Africa's Search for Truth and Reconciliation, this article challenges tightly compartmentalized typologies of documentary films, arguing instead for an awareness of the narrative complexity and irresolution embedded within even ostensibly orthodox modes of documentary. Through its dialectical narrative account of the TRC, Long Night's Journey Into Day creates a searing account of the lacunae in South Africa's celebrated transition to democracy.
- screen.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/46/4/473

South African Jews and Apartheid Author: F.H. Adler
Source: Patterns of Prejudice, Volume 34, Number 4, October 01, 2000, pp. 23-36(14)
Abstract: Jews were overwhelmingly over-represented among Whites in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. At the same time, the Jewish community remained inwardly focused on narrowly Jewish concerns; Jewish communal institutions, until relatively late, remained distant from the struggle against racial injustice, if not wholly complicit with the apartheid regime. In this essay, Adler attempts to account for both responses, activism and compliance, by examining the dilemmas faced by South African Jewry as a relatively small group of suspect Others living at the sufferance of the dominant and traditionally antisemitic Afrikaners. Anti-apartheid activism, he argues, was deeply rooted in Jewish culture and values, regardless of how secular the forms that it took were, and how disturbing it might have seemed to a fearful Jewish community pre-occupied with its own interests. - Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group - ingentaconnect.com

Books on Apartheid:

Apartheid in South Africa (Witness to History) by David Downing
Gr. 7-10. Part of the Witness to History series, this dense volume is an excellent narrative overview of the apartheid struggle, drawing extensively on primary sources that provide depth, detail, drama, and authenticity. Still very readable, the pages are packed with newspaper articles and official documents, full-color documentary photos, and boxed insets, in varied typefaces, that provide context for the quotes that present many sides of the issues. The bibliography is short, but the fully documented list of primary sources will stimulate readers to find out more, and the book has both an extensive glossary and a time line. Other titles in the series include Afghanistan, Hiroshima, and The War in Iraq. Hazel Rochman. Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Crossing the Line: A Year in the Land of Apartheid by William Finnegan
From Publishers Weekly
In one of the best recent books on South Africa, an American vividly recalls his experiences as a white teacher of black students near Cape Town and intersperses more detached descriptions of what was going on under apartheid. Finnegan wanted attentive, disciplined students at the same time that he encouraged in them a radical skepticism, a critical, independent habit of mind, a combative approach to all forms of vested authority. He tried to counsel his students to aim high and work hard, and he often met with hostility. Within that one year, he became acutely aware of how rapidly they were becoming more active in boycotts and protests and forming an essential element of a growing revolutionary movement. He shows how the Afrikaners' hatred for African children has led to bloody massacres and how their fear is an unspoken, unconscious recognition that communal violence is retribution for the countless blacks killed and maimed over the years. A final section describing Finnegan's long hitch-hiking trip with a bitter, white-hating, 18-year-old black woman beautifully shows the apartheid situation in microcosm. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Norman Rush, New York Times Book Review.
"How does it happen that the main combatants in the struggle against the South African race state are children? In Crossing the Line we have a powerful and responsible testimony illuminating that question and others that flow from it. This may be the best book to give to an American trying for the first time to understand the agony of South Africa."

Overcoming Apartheid: Can Truth Reconcile a Divided Nation? by James L. Gibson
A groundbreaking work of social science research, "Overcoming Apartheid" is also a primer for utilizing innovative conceptual and methodological tools in analyzing truth processes throughout the world. It is sure to be a valuable resource for political scientists, social scientists, group relations theorists, and students of transitional justice and human rights.
Perhaps no country in history has so directly and thoroughly confronted its past in an effort to shape its future as has South Africa. Working from the belief that understanding the past will help build a more peaceful and democratic future, South Africa has made a concerted, institutionalized effort to come to grips with its history of apartheid through its Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In "Overcoming Apartheid," James L. Gibson provides the first systematic assessment of whether South Africa’s truth and reconciliation process has been successful. Has the process allowed South Africa to let go of its painful past and move on? Or has it exacerbated racial tensions by revisiting painful human rights violations and granting amnesty to their perpetrators?
"Overcoming Apartheid" reports on the largest and most comprehensive study of post-apartheid attitudes in South Africa to date, involving a representative sample of all major racial, ethnic, and linguistic groups.
Grounding his analysis of "truth" in theories of collective memory, Gibson discovers that the process has been most successful in creating a common understanding of the nature of apartheid. His analysis then demonstrates how this common understanding is helping to foster "reconciliation," as defined by the acceptance of basic principles of human rights and political tolerance, rejection of racial prejudice, and acceptance of the institutions of a new political order. Gibson identifies key elements in the process—such as acknowledging shared responsibility for atrocities of the past—that are essential if reconciliation is to move forward. He concludes that without the truth and reconciliation process, the prospects for a reconciled, democratic South Africa would! diminish considerably. Gibson also speculates about whether the South African experience provides any lessons for other countries around the globe trying to overcome their repressive pasts.
James L. Gibson is Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government at Washington University, St. Louis.

Is Apartheid Really Dead: Pan Africanist Working Class Cultural Critical Perspectives
by Julian Kunnie
Is Apartheid Really Dead? provides an illuminating and comprehensive critique of post-apartheid society in South Africa, through the lenses of indigenous Black Consciousness philosophy, and discussing issues of class, gender, religio-culture, and Pan Africanism.

American Apartheid by James S. Wright
"American Apartheid" discusses the unfair and brutal treatment of Native Americans and Africans in the United States. Similar to the African tradition of storytelling, the author recreates the injustices of the founding fathers of this country against the ancestors of the Native Americans and enslaved Africans. The historical perspective of "American Apartheid" sheds light in the dark tunnels of ignorance so prevalent in the teaching of American history. Most black children in the USA are taught that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Yet, they are not taught that 120 million Africans died because of the effects of slavery, nor are do they learn of the torment Native Americans suffered at the hands of their persecutors. Even more alarming, they know little or nothing about Africans before they were forced to be slaves.
The purpose of this book is to teach American history in more than one color and from something other than a white perspective. Rekindle the agressive spirit that was part of the civil rights movement of the 60's. The stories told by blacks about the history of America must be handed down to each generation. If one generation is allowed to forget, all Americans risk repeating the horrific mistakes of our past.

The Anti-Apartheid Movement, 1959-1979 - by E.S Reddy
Anti-Apartheid Movements in Western Europe - by Kader and Louise Asmal, March 1974
Anti-Apartheid Movement and the United Nations - Paper presented by E.S Reddy to the symposium on "The Anti-Apartheid Movement: a 40-year Perspective," London, 26 June 1999

Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House - Lucy McCann
Anti-Apartheid Workshop, St Antony’s College, Oxford - Abstract- Christabel Gurney
Anti-Apartheid Activism in Britain: The AAM, the BEM/BSC and the wider concerns of the Black community regarding anti-apartheid activism in Britain - Elizabeth Williams , Birkbeck College, University of London
African Freedom Struggle - in Denmark: Organisations as Policy Developers and Policy Advocates - Christopher Munthe Morgenstierne, University of Copenhagen
Black Activism and the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain - Elizabeth Williams
Twenty Years of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement - Speech by E.S.Reddy, London, 26 June 1979
Archives of the Anti-Apartheid Movement
"When the Boycott Began to Bite". Christabel Gurney describes the origins of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, History Today, London, June 1999
'A Great Cause'. The origins of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, June 1959?March 1960. Article by Christabel Gurney, 1999
The Anti-Apartheid Movement: A 40-year Perspective. Report of the Symposium Organised by the Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives Committee to Mark the 40th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, South Africa House, London, 25-26 June 1999
The Anti-Apartheid Movement, Britain and South Africa: Anti-Apartheid Protest vs Real Politik. A History of the AAM and its Influence on the British Government's Policy towards South Africa in 1964. Dissertation by Arianna Lissoni, 15 September 2000
"Hanging on a Tree" - Vanessa Redgrave
"Revisiting 'Strange Fruit': an Exploration of Culture and Anti-Apartheid Activism" - Frankie Nicole Weaver

American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa (ANLCA): Resolutions, 1962 and 1964
The African-American Manifesto on Southern Africa, 1976
American Supporters of the Defiance Campaign. Statement by George Houser at a meeting of the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid on 25 June 1982, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the "Campaign of Defiance against Unjust Laws".
United Nations Centre Against Apartheid - Relations between the United States and South Africa by George Houser, 11 August 1984
Reagan Administration's Policy of "Constructive Engagement" and the Arms Embargo Against South Africa. Statement before the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid by Richard Knight, American Committee on Africa, April 3, 1984

"Southern Africa: Freedom and Peace". Addresses to the United Nations by Canon L John Collins, 1965-1979

Cultural Boycotts, Statement by Enuga S. Reddy, Director of U.N. Centre Against Apartheid at a press briefing - London, January 11, 1984
Anti-Apartheid, "NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS" and the globalization of politics - Dr. Håkan Thörn, Department of Sociology, Gothenburg University
Nederland tegen apartheid? - Genevieve Klein, University of Pretoria
Abstract - Christopher Morgenstierne
Turbulent priests or movement intellectuals? Christian voices and international opposition to apartheid in the 1950s - Rob Skinner, University of Sussex
From Passive Resistance to Armed Struggle. Press release by the Irish anti-Apartheid Movement, 24 February 1987
Parliaments and the Struggle against Apartheid. Article by E.S. Reddy, August 1987
"Free Nelson Mandela". An Account of the Campaign for Free Nelson Mandela and all other Political Prisoners in South Africa. Article by E.S. Reddy, July 1988
United Nations, the Anti-Apartheid Movement and Campaign for Arms Embargo against South Africa. Statements, papers and letters by Abdul S. Minty, honorary secretary of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and director, World Campaign against Military and Nuclear Collaboration with South Africa. Compiled and edited by E.S. Reddy
in cooperation with the United Nations Department of Public Information
Some Reflections on Irish Solidarity with the Struggle Against Apartheid, by Rafique Mottiar, 15 October 1997
Perspectives on the International Anti-Apartheid Strugggle: Solidarity and Social Movements - African Studies, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford , Day Workshop, 31 May 2003
Perspectives on the International Anti-Apartheid Strugggle: Solidarity and Social Movements - African Studies, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford ,Saturday 31 May 2003
Conference on International Anti-Apartheid Movements in South Africa’s Freedom Struggle: Lessons for Today” , International Convention Centre, Durban, 10-13 October 2004
The Road to Democracy in South Africa - University of South Africa 2008

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