Group Areas Act

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Mass protest at Durban on 28 May 1950 against the Group Areas Bill and the Suppression of Communism Bill attended by over 20,000. The meeting was jointly organised by the African National Congress, Natal Indian Congress, and the Coloured People Organisation.
Group Areas Act, 1950
Parliament of South Africa 
Long title
  • Act to provide for the establishment of group areas, for the control of the acquisition of immovable property and the occupation of land and premises, and for matters incidental thereto.
CitationAct No. 41 of 1950
Enacted by
Minister of the Interior
Repealed by
Group Areas Act, 1957
Status: Repealed
Group Areas Act, 1957
Parliament of South Africa 
Long title
  • Act to consolidate the law relating to the establishment of group areas, the control of the acquisition of immovable property and the occupation of land and premises and matters incidental thereto.
CitationAct No. 77 of 1957
Enacted by
Minister of the Interior
Repeals
Group Areas Act, 1950
Repealed by
Group Areas Act, 1966
Status: Repealed
Group Areas Act, 1966
Parliament of South Africa 
Long title
  • Act to consolidate the law relating to the establishment of group areas, the control of the acquisition of immovable property and the occupation of land and premises, and matters incidental thereto.
CitationAct No. 36 of 1966
Enacted byParliament of South Africa 
Assented to5 October 1966
Commenced26 October 1966
Repealed30 June 1991
Administered byMinister of Planning
Repeals
Group Areas Act, 1957
Repealed by
Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act, 1991
Status: Repealed

Group Areas Act was the title of three

Pass Laws required people of colour to carry pass books and later "reference books",[1]
similar to passports, to enter the "white" parts of the country.

The first Group Areas Act, the Group Areas Act, 1950 was promulgated on 7 July 1950, and it was implemented over a period of several years. It was amended by Parliament in 1952, 1955 (twice), 1956 and 1957. Later in 1957, it was repealed and re-enacted in consolidated form as the Group Areas Act, 1957, which was amended in 1961, 1962, and 1965. In 1966, that version was, in turn, repealed and re-enacted as the Group Areas Act, 1966, which was amended in 1969, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, and 1984. It was repealed, along with many other discriminatory laws, on 30 June 1991 by the Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act, 1991.

Background

After the

Asiatic Land Tenure Act, 1946.[3]

Provisions

The Act empowered the Governor-General to declare certain geographical areas to be for the exclusive occupation of specific racial groups. In particular the statute identified three such racial groups: whites,

coloureds, and natives. This authority was exercised on the advice of the Minister of the Interior and the Group Areas Board.[4]

Once an area had been designated for sole occupation by certain racial groups, the proclamation would not become legally effective for at least one year.[4] Once this time had expired, it became a criminal offence to remain in occupation of property in that area with the punishment potentially being a fine and two years' imprisonment.[5]

The Act also applied to businesses with racial designation being applied on the basis of the individuals who held a controlling interest in the company.[4]

Impact

The Act became an effective tool in the separate development of races in South Africa. It also granted the Minister of the Interior a mandate to forcibly remove non-whites from valuable pieces of land so that they could become white settlements.[4]

One of the most famous uses of the Group Areas Act was the destruction of Sophiatown, a suburb of Johannesburg.[6] On 9 February 1955, 2,000 policemen began removing residents to Meadowlands, Soweto and erected a new white-only area called Triomf (Victory).[7]

Nelson Mandela said of the Act in his book, Long Walk to Freedom:

"the Groups Areas Act was the foundation of residential apartheid. Under its regulations, each racial group could own land, occupy premises, and trade only in its own separate area. Indians could henceforth only live in Indian areas, Africans in African, Coloureds in Coloured. If whites wanted the land or houses of the other groups, they could simply declare that land a white area and take them"[8]

See also

  • Apartheid laws

References

  1. ^ Women's Anti-Pass Law Campaigns in South Africa http://africanhistory.about.com/od/apartheid/a/WomensAntiPass.htm
  2. ^ http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-separate-development-south-africa The History of Separate Development in South Africa
  3. ^ Davenport, T.R.H. (1978). South Africa: A Modern History. CUP. p. 259-9.
  4. ^
    ISBN 9781841130491
    .
  5. ^ s. 34, Group Areas Act 1950
  6. ^ "Urban Removals - the Destruction of Sophiatown | South African History Online".
  7. ^ http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/sophiatown140206.htm#.Vbzqm_lViko Archived 2008-12-07 at the Wayback Machine Sophiatown again, 50 years on
  8. ^ Mandela, Nelson (2004). The Long Walk to Freedom. Little Brown Book.

External links

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