TRC Final Report

Volume 1

Chapter 13

Subsection 1

Volume ONE Chapter THIRTEEN

Chronology of Apartheid Legislation¹

■ INTRODUCTION

This chronology seeks to record all major apartheid legislation as a context within which gross human rights violations occurred, but is not exhaustive of all legislation passed in the period under consideration by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (the Commission). Legislation of ‘independent’ and ‘self-governing’ homelands is given separately. The homelands chronology is not, however, as comprehensive as that on the legislation enacted by the South African Parliament. Much of the homelands legislation was similar to South African parliamentary legislation. In several instances it proved extremely difficult to trace and record all details of homelands legislation.

The chronology is divided into two parts: Part 1 examines legislation in South Africa while Part 2 focuses on the ‘independent’ states - Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei (the TBVC states) - and the ‘self-governing territories’.

The naming of legislation follows Statutes of the Republic of South Africa Classified and Annotated from 1910 (Butterworths). Where an alternative name is in use, this is provided in brackets.

The commencement: date of the legislation is underlined and, where applicable, the repealing act is in italics. Where the legislation was still in force in September 1996, the name of the Butterworths title (subject category) is cited in upper case italics. Only the most important amending legislation (as this impinges on the mandate of the Commission) is cited. Where amendments contain extended detail which is relevant to the mandate of the Commission, appropriate references only are provided for the sake of brevity. Dates of some major events are included as historical landmarks; these are given in italics.

Note: For the purposes of this chronology, the term ‘black’ is taken to exclude coloured and Asian persons except where otherwise indicated.