TRC Final Report

Volume 1

Chapter 13

Subsection 2

■ PART I: SOUTH AFRICAN PARLIAMENT

The legislation in this section is flagged as follows for ease of reference:

Basic apartheid laws (A):

The most important legislation relating to segregation of race groups.

The workplace (W):

Laws which determined racially based job reservation, employment practices and labour relations.

Security legislation (S):

The history of security legislation in South Africa is very convoluted. Only those laws mentioned in the Race Relations Surveys (RRS and SRR) and John Dugard’s Human Rights and the South African Legal Order (1978) are listed. In particular, those laws relating to the tightening up of detention legislation are included. Only a brief description of the various state of emergency regulations is given.

Political representation (P):

Discriminatory legislation related to political rights, including freedom of movement of homeland residents.

Land and property (L):

Legislation referring to black rural areas and the homelands: Prior to 1913 in the three northern provinces and 1936 in the Cape, blacks were legally entitled to acquire land from whites in parts of the country outside the scheduled areas. After 1913 (for the Orange Free State, Natal and Transvaal, and after 1936 in the Cape) this was prohibited unless the purchases were in areas which had been recommended by various commissions for ‘release’ to blacks (Horrell 1978: 203).

Education (E):

Racially discriminatory laws which relate to primary, secondary and tertiary education.

Urbanisation (U):

Legislation concerning freedom of movement issues and land ownership in white urban areas. See also ‘political representation’ above.

Note: Only discriminatory legislation is listed; laws and amendments that are purely administrative and not race-based are excluded.