Pass

... those questions. We also bring you a short documentary on the black people of the Karoo who have pretended for decades to be coloured to escape the pass laws and now want their African heritage back. But we start with the dramatic day in George in the Southern Cape. ...

the late 1700s the white settlers in South Africa forced slaves to carry identity books so they could control their movement. In some way or another pass books had existed since then, but when the National Party came to power in 1948 and formalized the ideology of apartheid they needed more ...

In the fifties women were suddenly also required to carry a pass and had to qualify for permits in their own right. They were no longer seen as part of their husband’s household.

is 714 6254. We would love to hear from you. Next week we’ll show you a special documentary on one of the most shameful practices of our past, the pass laws. And before we go, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, if you are watching. We miss you, please get back soon. Good bye to you all, until next Sunday ...

But there’s no way in which you could have lived through the last 40 years of apartheid and not know of the pass laws and not know of forced removals and not know of race classification and not know of group areas and also not know of what that did to communities and to individuals’ lives.

We are aware too of the anguish through which you have had to pass over so many years and in a way, although we’re still going to hear your testimony, it is wonderful that you had been vindicated.

And when I started working outside and I saw how the men were being caught for Pass books, how black men struggled I decided to play Coloured to be able to live.

the last fifteen years and worked for one employer for ten years, or be 15 years in the area. // So the number of people who could qualify to have a pass that entitled them to be in the urban areas were limited, very strictly ...

I just remember shaking. I don’t think I actually felt anything, I don’t think you did either. It wasn’t a time to feel things. I just remember sitting there shaking really and just letting the time pass.

we were disturbed by flying aircraft. We then left that place and on the 6th were down here where we were killed. We were beaten for not wanting the pass system, the fencing off of our land, Bantu education and the introduction of taxes which meant paying for our own cows. Those were the things we ...

And when I started working outside and I saw how the men were being caught for pass books, how black men struggled I decided to play coloured to be able to live.

the last 15 years and worked for one employer for ten years, or be fifteen years in the area. // So the number of people who could qualify to have a pass that entitled them to be in the urban areas were limited, very strictly ...

... say Hey! You mustn’t say I’m your child. I’m a child of South Africa. I’m a child of South Africa, not yours, because I am fighting for the pass ...

... and they stopped there and one of them just come out, climb on top of the car and use a torch to light us. And, in few seconds I saw one of them passing through the car lights and after few seconds he came out. They were all having guns, all of them. And they were shooting to us. And, we were ...

... themselves coloured. In the Karoo they called this ‘om jou baadjie om te draai,’ to turn your jacket inside out. There were many advantages to passing as coloured. coloured people did not have to carry pass books and there were more jobs available. But with freedom comes dignity. Many of the ...

... I did the job very well, I found it very interesting in that there were all sorts of strange messages which people were leaving that I was asked to pass on to other people and it was fairly clear to me therefore that this was an unusual military unit with unusual significance. ...

... wrenching disruption of forced removals in respect of their homes, businesses and land; who over the years suffered the shame of being arrested for pass law offences; who over the decades, and indeed centuries suffered the indignities and humiliation of racial discrimination; who for a long time ...