Pass laws

Pass laws

Pass laws in South Africa were designed to segregate the population and limit severely the movements of the non-white populace. This legislation was one of the dominant features of the country's apartheid system. The Black population were required to carry these pass books with them when outside their compounds or designated areas. Failure to produce a pass often resulted in the person being arrested. Any white person, even a child,[citation needed] could ask a black African to produce his or her pass.

Contents

History

The first pass laws in South Africa were introduced on 27 June 1797 by the Earl Macartney in an attempt to exclude all natives from the Cape Colony.[1]

Introduced in South Africa in 1923, they were designed to regulate movement of black Africans in white urban areas. Outside designated "homelands", black South Africans had to carry passbooks ("dom pas", meaning dumb pass) at all times, documentation proving they were authorized to live or move in "White" South Africa.[2]

The laws also affected other non-white races. Indian people, for example, were barred from the Orange Free State[3].

These discriminatory regulations fueled a growing discontentment from the black population and the ANC began the Defiance Campaign to oppose the pass laws.

This conflict climaxed at the Sharpeville Massacre where the black opposition was violently put down, with 69 people killed and over 180 injured

The system of pass laws was repealed in South Africa in 1986.[citation needed]

Pass laws also stated that black Africans could not hold a higher business position within a company than the lowest white employee.

The first pass laws were introduced in 1760[citation needed] to regulate the movement of slaves in the Cape. The Urban Areas Consolidation Act of 1945, together with the Natives (Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents) Act of 1952, were key laws. The Urban Areas Act outlined requirements for African peoples' "qualification" to reside legally in white metropolitan areas. To do so, they had to have Section 10 rights, based on whether[citation needed]

  • the person had been born there and resided there always since birth;
  • the person had laboured continuously for ten years in any agreed area for any employer, or lived continuously in any such area for less than ten years;
  • the person was the spouse, spinster or son under eighteen years of age of an African person, falling into the above two categories, usually lived with him and had originally entered the area legitimately; or
  • the person had been granted a permit to remain by a labour bureau.

Natives (Urban Areas) Act

The Natives (Urban Areas) Act, 1923 deemed urban areas in South Africa as "white" and required all black African men in cities and towns to carry permits called "passes" at all times. Anyone found without a pass would be arrested immediately and sent to a rural area. It was replaced in 1945 by the Natives (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act, 1945 which imposed essentially the same restrictions.

Pass Laws Act

The Natives (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act, 1952, commonly known as the Pass Laws Act, made it compulsory for all black South Africans over the age of 16 to carry a "pass book" at all times within white areas. The law stipulated where, when, and for how long a person could remain. This pass was also known as a dompas.

The document was similar to an internal passport, containing details on the bearer such as their fingerprints, photograph, the name of his/her employer, his/her address, how long the bearer had been employed, as well as other identification information. Employers often entered a behavioural evaluation, on the conduct of the pass holder.

An employer was defined under the law and could be only a white person. The pass also documented permission requested and denied or granted to be in a certain region and the reason for seeking such permission. Under the terms of the law, any governmental employee could strike out such entries, basically canceling the permission to remain in the area.

A pass book without a valid entry then allowed officials to arrest and imprison the bearer of the pass. These passes often became the most despised symbols of apartheid. The resistance to the Pass Law led to many thousands of arrests and was the spark that ignited the Sharpeville Massacre on 21 March 1960, and led to the arrest of Robert Sobukwe on that same date.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Part II - Historical". Report of the Inter-departmental committee on the native pass laws.. Union of South Africa. Union of South Africa. 1920. pp. 2. http://www.archive.org/stream/reportofinterdep00sout#page/2/mode/1up/search/pass. Retrieved 2009-12-12. 
  2. ^ Johnstone, Frederick A. (1976). Class, Race, and Gold: A Study of Class Relations and Racial Discrimination in South Africa. Routledge. pp. 35. ISBN 0710082762. 
  3. ^ "1948 - 1976: Legislation & Segregation". http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/hands-on-classroom/classroom/pages/projects/grade12/lesson22/02-apartheid-legislation.htm. Retrieved 7 April 2011. 

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