Separate Representation of Voters Act

The Separate Representation of Voters Act No. 46 was introduced in South Africa on 18 June 1951. Part of the legislation during the apartheid era, the National Party introduced it to enforce racial segregation, and was the start of a deliberate process to remove all non-white people from the voters' roll.

This act was declared invalid by the Supreme Court when challenged in the case of "Harris v Minister of the Interior 1952(2) SA 428(AD)". The government, however, was able to circumvent this decision by increasing the number of Appellate Division judges from five to eleven, and increasing the size of the Senate from forty-eight to forty-nine. These changes enabled the government to successfully introduce the South Africa Act Amendment Act No 9 of 2 March 1956, effectively overturning the Supreme Court's decision and revalidating the act. This amendment was repealed by the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act 32 of 1961.

The act as a whole was repealed by section 4 of the Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act No 50 of 27 March 1968. This bill introduced the "Coloured Persons Representative Council", consisting of forty elected members and twenty nominated members. This council could make laws on finance, local government, education, community welfare and pensions, rural settlements and agriculture which affected coloured people. A bill could only be introduced when approved by the Minister of Coloured Relations, as well as requiring the approval of the white Cabinet. This act was repealed in 1983 by section 101(1) of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act No 110.

References

* [http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/chronology/special-chrono/governance/apartheid-legislation.html Chronology of Apartheid legislation from South African History Online]