The Population Registration Act of 1950 required that each inhabitant of South Africa be classified and registered in accordance with their racial characteristics as part of the system of apartheid. This law worked in tandem with other laws passed as part of the apartheid system. Under the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949, it was illegal for a white person to marry a person of another race. With the enactment of the Immorality Amendment Act of 1950, it also became a crime for a white person and a person of another race to have sexual intercourse.
Social rights, political rights, educational opportunities, and economic status were largely determined by the group to which an individual belonged. There were three basic racial classifications under the law: Black, White and Coloured (mixed). Under the act, as amended, Coloureds and Indians were formally classified into various subgroups, including Cape Coloured, Malay, Griqua, Chinese, Indian, Other Asian and Other Coloured. Indians (that is, South Asians from the former British India, and their descendants) were later added as a separate classification as they were seen as having "no historical right to the country".
History
Early history of race classification
In 1910 the Union of South Africa was established with four provinces based on the old colonies of the Cape, Natal and the two Afrikaner republics of the Free State and the Transvaal, with a white parliament. The idea arose again in 1935 when a parliamentary select committee discussed it, but was soon dismissed as impracticable and costly. He announced all South African races would be registered and issued with an identity card, and would supersede all current forms of identification. It called for the introduction of a population register to be compiled after a census of the population was conducted in 1951.
The Population Registration Amendment Act, No. 71 of 1956, ended the indefinite time period a person had to object to their classification by giving the person disagreeing only 30 days to state their objection in writing to the Director of Census. It also added the presumption, which had previously been stated in the 1950 Act, that those who appearance was obviously white were classified as white, for those people who appear to be of an African race, were assumed to be native African, unless otherwise proved.
In 1959, the South African government addressed the issue of the lack of clarity with the Coloured classification. Proclamation No. 46 of 1959 was issued, which allocated sub-sections to the Coloured classification. A person classified Coloured could choose to be either a Cape Coloured, Cape Malays, Griqua, Chinese, Indian, Other Asiatic (Asians other than Indian, Pakistani, or Chinese), or Other Coloured.
During November 1959, the Minister of the Interior announced that legislation would be introduced to make identity cards compulsory in order to vote in White only elections. The Population Registration Amendment Act, No. 30 of 1960, legislated the transfer of the management of the population register from the Director of Census to the Secretary of the Minister of the Interior. In January 1961, it was announced that the Governor-general would issue a proclamation in September making the possession of identity cards compulsory for whites and coloureds over 16 years of age. Reference books at this time were compulsory for black men over sixteen years of age but not black women. On 1 February 1963, it finally became law that when challenged by a policeman, a white, coloured or Asian person had to produce an identity document within seven days or be fined.
The Population Registration Amendment Act, No. 61 of 1962, amended the description of what is a white person, basing it on their perceived appearance and acceptance by white society. It acknowledged the use of census data supplied by the Director of Census, would now to be used by the Interior Ministry, to maintain the population register. It also allowed the Secretary of the Interior the discretion to extend the time period a person or persons had to object to the race classification issued to that person from 30 days to up to a year. It legislated that it was the duty of a person providing information for the population register to prove their information was correct, and legislated the right to delegate duties to other civil servants to investigate and report to the Secretary of the Interior information provided to the population register.
In 1967, the South African government introduced an amendment bill to parliament, the Population Registration Amendment Act 64 of 1967, to further clarify aspects of the Population Registration Act. It had now added one's racial descent to the previous requirements of appearance and public acceptance used to determine a race classification. The reference book became an identity book and an indication of their citizenship in a black homeland. On 25 June 1986, the passbook for urban Black South Africans, which was a requirement from age sixteen, was scrapped and replaced with a uniform identity document carried by all the citizens of the Republic of South Africa, the exception being citizens of the homeland states.
By 1990, there were a dozen or more population registers, starting with the national South African population register itself and the homeland states' versions which overlapped with the formers or were duplicated. In February 1991, the national population register was deracialised, but the incorporation of the data from the homeland's population registers was not inserted into the former until 1994. The Natal Colony had brought in indentured Indians from India since 1860, and in 1870s, free Indian migrants. Essentially, Indians were regarded as immigrants while whites were colonists. In 1932, 80% of the Indian population were born in South Africa; by 1960, it was as high as 90%. The next wave was in the Transvaal when 60,000 Chinese were brought in for gold mining from 1904 to 1906 and were mostly repatriated by 1910. In May 1962, a loophole in the Population Register Act had to be closed by means of a proclamation, when a Chinese man, David Song, successfully contested his Asiatic classification based on his association with white people and his acceptance by them, which assisted him being reclassified as white. Initially they were indentured servants, then released after five years and by legislation, were regarded like other Indians in Natal. It had a photograph that had been supplied by the card owner and contained details that the owner had supplied during the 1951 Census and used to populate the identification card. Voting on the repeal act, 178 members of the white parliament cast their vote which resulted in 38 voting against while 11 abstained, with all the votes against coming from the Conservative Party.
However, the racial categories defined in the Apartheid act remain ingrained in South African culture and they still form the basis of some official policies and statistics aimed at redressing past economic imbalances (Black Economic Empowerment and Employment Equity). The Employment Equity Act (Act 55 of 1998) introduced affirmative action into employment in the country with the emphasis on black, coloured and Indian people as target for this classification.
- Coloured woman lost her foster child as he had been reclassified black;
See also
- Demographics of South Africa
- Pencil test
- Urban apartheid