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Masters and Servants Acts
These acts were passed in the four territories and made it illegal to go against a contract of employment. "Desertion, insolence, drunkenness, negligence and strikes were also criminal offences." Although these decrees technically applied to all races, the government articulated the laws only applied to unskilled workers, who were mostly black people at the time...very discriminatory. -
Land and Property (L)
This set aside 7.5% of the land in South Africa for black people. It also prohibited blacks from attaining more land outside their areas. Prior to 1913, black South Africans could own land, but after, this was not allowed. -
Native (Black) Urban Areas Act No 21
Made each local authority responsible for the blacks in its area. ‘Native advisory boards’ regulated influx control and removed ‘surplus’ people, i.e. those who were not employed in the area. -
Representation of Blacks Act No 12
Removed black voters in the Cape from the common roll and placed them on a separate roll. Blacks throughout the Union were then represented by four white senators. -
Group Areas Act No 41
Provided for areas to be declared for exclusive use of one particular racial group. It became compulsory for people to live in an area designated for their classification group. -
Black Building Workers Act No 27
Prohibited blacks from performing skilled work in the building industry in white urban areas. -
Black (Native) Laws Amendment Act No 54
The 1945 Urban Areas Consolidation Act was amended to specify that all black persons over the age of sixteen were to carry passes and were allowed to stay in the urban areas longer than seventy-two hours. This law was a new section that was added to one allowing for ‘the removal of an African from an urban area ... where his presence was detrimental to the maintenance of peace and order in any such area’. -
Black Education Act No 47
Formalized the segregation of black education and laid the foundations for Bantu Education which separated black South Africans from whites in schools. -
Criminal Law Amendment Act No 8
Made civil disobedience punishable by a three-year jail sentence. -
Blacks Resettlement Act No 19
This established a Resettlement Board which would remove blacks from townships. This authorized the Sophiatown extraction and other removals. -
Sexual Offences Act No 23
This law made it illegal for a black and white person to have intercourse or commit "any 'immoral or indecent act'". It was super vague, yet strangely explicit. -
Suppression of Communism Act No 24
Prohibited citizens from making or receiving donations for the benefit of specific organisations not approved by the government; It also banned others from being advocates, attorneys, or notaries for others, and allowed for the deportation of citizens who violated these contentions. -
Black Affairs Administration Act No 45
It allowed for blacks to self-govern in townships. -
South African Citizenship Act No 88
"Provides for the acquisition, loss and resumption of South African citizenship."
