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Group Areas Act
This act broke up South Africa into different groups that were then assigned to racial groups. People were then forced to move to their designated areas regardless of how it would impact their lives. This caused many blacks to loose their property and their source of income because they often lived in cities where they were no longer allowed. -
Suppression of Communism Act
The act banned any form of communism. This included protests and various forms of dissent. Ultimately it was used to stop those who protested against apartheid or said anything that the government didn’t like. -
Population Registration Act
This act broke up South Africans and classified them into four different racial groups. The groups were white and non white, this was broken into coloured and bantu. This act started the governmental recognition of segregation in South Africa by dividing people into these racial groups. -
The prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949) and Immorality Amendment Act (1950)
This act banned interracial marriages and cross racial sexual contact. The immorality amendment declared that these marriages were inherently immoral. This act caused severe destruction of families as well as humiliation and harassment for those involved. This upheld the idea of race being a hierarchy and that some were better than others. -
Prevention of illegal squatting act
The act prohibited anyone from staying somewhere without a reason. It also prevented them from staying anywhere that the owner didn’t explicitly gave them permission. It prevented blacks who traveled to cities from having a place to live when they didn’t own property in the city. -
Seperate Representation of Voters Act
This act moved to remove anyone of colour from the voting roll. This prevented those of colour from voting at all. This limited coulored and black peoples voice in government and prevented them from voting against apartheid laws. -
Black (Native) Laws Amendment Act
This act forced all black people over 16 to carry passes anywhere they went. These passes also restricted them from being in a an urban area for more than 72 hours. This severely limited the job opportunities for blacks living in the homelands as they could only be in the urban areas for 72 hours and they would have to try and get a job in 72 hours. In addition, the pass system was unfair and police would mess with passes so black people couldn’t go anywhere. -
Separate Amenities Act
This act separated public amenities on the basis of race. The majority of the facilities were allocated to whites and black people tended to have inferior amenities/facilities. This was the beginning of segregation that was outwardly expressed in a way where only whites could do/use certain things. -
Bantu Education Act
This act said that blacks should only be educated to their highest potential in life, which in Apartheid South Africa was considered to be very little. They were given a small portion of the education that whites were receiving and it was often inferior. This maintained poverty among black Africans because they didn’t receive the education necessary to procure a job that required significant education, and thus had to rely on skills based occupations that didn’t pay well. -
Public Safety Act
This act stated that a police officer could arrest anyone on the basis of maintaining “public safety”. The officer didn’t have to provide a reason and the arrested couldn’t appeal it. This allowed for misuse of the law and police officers could arrest anyone they felt fit under the guise of public safety.
