Apartheid Laws

Apartheid South Africa

Period: 1913 to 1964

Black Land Act

Jun 19, 1913

This act prohibited blacks from owning or renting land outside designated reserves. This is significant because this prohibited the blacks from buying land in places that they can easily find jobs and shows the early stages of discrimination from the whites.

Native (Black) Urban Areas Act

Jun 14, 1923

This act made each local authority responsible for the blacks in its area. 'Native advisory boards' regulated influx control and removed all of the blacks that was not employed out of the cities

Industrial Conciliation Act

Apr 8, 1924

This act provided for job reservation for the white workers meaning that their jobs were mostly safe from the possibility of the black workers taking their jobs. This excluded blacks from membership of registered trade unions as well as prohibit the registration of black trade unions.

Mines and Work Amendments No 25

1926

This act basically continued the discrimination of not letting blacks get achievement certificates and only letting whites achieve them. This prevented blacks from working in mines and they were devoid of a potential job opportunity and income. This is significant in only allowing the whites to be able to go up in ranks and make more money than the blacks.

Immorality Act No 5

Sep 30, 1927

Stated that intercourse between unmarried whites and blacks was against the law. This was the basis for the Sexual Offences Act No 23 which prohibited any intercourse between whites and non-whites. This is significant as the government is stepping into make sure that the whites ad the colored will stay separated.

Development Trust And Land Act

Aug 31, 1936

This act expanded the amount of reserved land to 13 percent from 6 percent of the land in South Africa. It also used the Department of Bantu Administration to eliminate black spots which prevented blacks from having property even in places that was not fully controlled but rather only surrounded by the whites.

Black (Native) Laws Amendment

1937

This prohibited blacks from purchasing land from non-blacks unless there was consent from the Governor-General's consent. This was another restriction put on by the government in order to make land owning nearly impossible for blacks in good locations.

Black (Native) Laws Amendment

Jun 27, 1952

This Act forced black people to carry passes to wherever they went and limited their stay in urban areas for no longer than 72 hours unless they were given permission. This act is significant as it gave the government the ability to control where and when the black people were allowed to be in.

Reservation of Separate Amenities Act

Oct 9, 1953

This act allowed for public facilities and transport to be reserved for particular race groups. Which allowed the whites and the colored to have to use different parts of the buses, bathrooms, beaches, parks, and etc. With this it was another public demonstration of segregation from the whites.

Black Education Act No.47

Jan 1, 1954

This act formalized the segregation of the black education and it made blacks follow the Bantu Education. This act made black learn skills that would be useful for hard labor and the whites received higher level education. This is significant as the government is making sure that the races remain segregated from a young age by giving different education

Urban Black Council Act No 79

Jun 30, 1961

This act sought to replace the Advisory Boards earlier established by the native urban areas act of 1923, and allowed African chairmen and some administrative duties. This is the first provision for black ‘self-government’ in the urban townships. This is significant because this is the first time that the blacks were placed in any position of power