When was the group areas act introduced

Apartheid as a system was obsessed with separating the citizens of South Africa on a racial basis. This was done to foster White superiority and to entrench the minority White regime at the expense of the Black majority. Significant pieces of legislature were passed in this regard such as the Land Act of , the Mixed Marriages Act of as well as the Immorality Amendment Act of The South African census showed that The Group Areas Act No 41 forced physical separation and segregation between races by creating different residential areas for each race.

Implementation started in when people were first forcibly removed from living in "wrong" areas, leading to the destruction of communities. The Act also restricted ownership and the occupation of land to groups as permitted, meaning that Africans could neither own nor occupy land in European areas. The law was also supposed to apply in reverse, but the result was that land under Black ownership was taken by the government for use by whites only.

The government set aside ten "homelands" for relocated non-white residents, mostly scattered bits of unwanted territories, based on ethnicity among the Black communities. These homelands were granted "independence" with limited self-rule, the main purpose of which was to delete the homeland residents as citizens of South Africa, and cut back on the government's responsibility for providing housing, hospitals, schools, electricity, and water supplies. However, the Africans were a significant economic source in South Africa , in particular as a labor force in the cities.

Pass Laws were established to require non-whites to carry passbooks, and later "reference books" similar to passports to be eligible to enter the "white" parts of the country. Worker's hostels were established to accommodate temporary workers, but between and , the South African government simply stopped building homes for Africans at all, leading to severe housing shortages.

In February , 2, policemen began removing Sophiatown residents to Meadowlands, Soweto and established the suburb as an area for whites only, newly called Triomf Victory. In some cases, the nonwhites were loaded onto trucks and dumped into the bush to fend for themselves.

There were serious consequences for people who didn't comply with the Group Areas Act. People found in violation could receive a fine of up to two hundred pounds, prison for up to two years, or both. If they didn't comply with forced eviction, they could be fined sixty pounds or face six months in prison.

Citizens tried to use the courts to overturn the Group Areas Act, though they were unsuccessful each time. Others decided to stage protests and engage in civil disobedience, such as sit-ins at restaurants, which took place across South Africa during the early s. The Act hugely affected communities and citizens across South Africa.

By , more than , people had been removed from their homes and relocated. Colored people suffered significantly because housing for them was often postponed because plans for zoning were primarily focused on races, not mixed races.

The Group Areas Act also hit Indian South Africans especially hard because many of them resided in other ethnic communities as landlords and traders. Hellmann, While Africans did still occupy land owned either by the Crown or by absentee white landlords, as nearly a quarter of a million did by the late s, their tenure was insecure as they were not legally entitled to hold the deed for that land, and thus could be evicted at any time Bundy, The Native Trust and Land Act gave new powers to the Department of Native Administration and Development which allowed it to begin to evict owners of 'black spots' land owned by Africans surrounded by White-owned farms Horrell, Furthermore, during the s, White farmers tried to force Africans to labour on their farms for six months as a payment of rent towards land tenure.

While they were unsuccessful in doing so, this demonstrates the degree of ambiguity that African tenure held during the early 20th century Beinhart, Africans were prohibited from acquiring land from non-Africans by the Native Laws Amendment Act of The only circumstance under which it was allowed was with the consent of the Governor-General.

Additionally, it prohibited the construction of new churches, schools, or other institutions which would mainly cater to Africans in urban areas without approval from the Minister of Native Affairs, though this did not affect institutions established before It allowed towns to apply to have areas declared as closed to entry of Africans other than those who were either visiting, employed, or seeking to be employed there Horrell, 3.

In , the Population Registration Act provided for compulsory racial classification on a national register. Documents were issued to people based on the racial group they were designated. The groups named were Europeans, Coloured, and Natives.

Coloured people and Natives were also subcategorized according to their ethnic group. A Race Classification Board was set up to adjudicate disputed cases. Identity cards were issued to all people over the age of sixteen and authorized officials e.

Those who failed to produce their identity cards had seven days to report to a police station South African Institute for Race Relations, People packing belongings onto a truck in preparation for moving out of District Six. The Group Areas Act GAA systematized segregation in the control of transfers of land and immovable property property which cannot be moved without being severely altered or destroyed, like a house as well as occupation rights throughout the Union of South Africa, with the exception of reserves.

The consequence was that one could only buy property from people of the same race South African Institute for Race Relations, Many of the measures in the Act were interim measures until the establishment of 'full group areas', or complete residential segregation Kirkwood, One of the first major changes in South African property law made by the GAA was the creation of 'controlled' areas.

Controlled areas were any area which was not a group area; a Native area, location, or village; or a Coloured persons settlement, mission station, or communal reserve.

Controlled areas had particular provisions for the ownership of immovable property 1. In specified and controlled areas, inter-racial property transactions and changes in occupation of property were subject to permit. In controlled areas, the criteria for occupation was the group of the owner, whereas in specified areas it was the group of the occupier. So for instance in a controlled area, if the owner of the property was White then the occupant needed to be White, while in a specified area the owner could be White while the occupant could be Indian.

Disqualified persons or companies were allowed to enter, or continue, an agreement for a lease or sub-lease of a property in a specified area but could not do so in a controlled area without a permit South African Institute for Race Relations, , Group areas were created, after the bill passed, by making a proposal to the Board, which was appointed by the Minister. The Board had to make a report to the Minister as to whether or not an area should have been proclaimed a group area.

Before it advised the Minister, the Board had to give the public an opportunity to have input on the decision The Board also had to take into consideration the availability of accommodations for the people displaced by the decision.

However, it was the role of other departments, not the Board, to find alternative accommodation for people displaced by the declaration of group areas The Minister was not compelled to listen to the advisement of the Board but was required to read it before issuing a proclamation It was composed of no more than seven members who could be dismissed by the Minister Unlike the Asiatic Land Tenure Board, members could serve for no longer than five years and there were no explicit provisions allowing Coloureds or Africans to serve on the Board Section 2 of the Act defined the 'groups' as White, Native, and Coloured.

The group of women was determined by who they married to or cohabited with 2. African or Coloured groups could be further subdivided by the Governor-General on ethnic, linguistic, or cultural grounds 2. The Governor-General would declare areas as 'group areas' and give the residents who are not of the specified group at least one year to leave ie, that a particular neighbourhood is now a White neighbourhood so all Coloured or Native residents must leave the area by the date specified in the proclamation 3.

The GAA did not itself create 'group areas' but established the machinery to create them Kirkwood, 8. The creation process of group areas was explained in Section 3.

It specified that, for the first five years after the passage of the GAA, the Governor-General had the power to create group areas for Whites in provinces of the Cape of Good Hope and Natal, or areas already set aside in the Transvaal for people who were Native or Coloured. After the first five years had elapsed, these proclamations would be subject to approval by both Houses of Parliament 3. Proclamations could only be given once the Minister had considered a report by the Board and had to consult with the Administrator of the Province affected, the Minister of Mines in the case of any land proclaimed under any mining related law and the Natural Resources Development Council if the area was on any land which they controlled 3.

However, proclamations would be withdrawn at any time by the Minister or the Governor-General Those who were not of the 'group' of an area became a 'disqualified person' under Section 4. Disqualified persons were not allowed to occupy any land or premises in any group area to which a proclamation relates, except under the authority of a permit 4.

The exceptions to this section were any servant or employee of either the state, a statutory body, or of those who were lawfully occupying the land; a visitor staying in a home of a lawfully residing person or at hotel for no more than ninety days; or any person under the control of the state, either as a patient of a hospital or of a similar institution or as an inmate of a prison or similar institution 4.

This section also made the proclamation of a group area override any legal agreements which would prohibit or restrict those who were designated as the lawful occupants ie, if an African is leasing an apartment in a White area, the lease would expire after the date specified in the proclamation 4.