The Population registration Act (Act No 30 of 1950) was repealed by the South African parliament
Parliament of South Africa
The Parliament of South Africa is South Africa's legislature and under the country's current Constitution is composed of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces. The newly-elected 27th South African Parliament convened on 22 May 2019.
What is the Population Registration Act of 1950?
The Population Registration Act of 1950 is repealed. The Population registration Act (Act No 30 of 1950 ) was repealed by the South African parliament. The Act was a pillar of the Apartheid system. It required people to register from birth as belonging to one of four different racial groups, White, Black, Coloured and Indian.
What are the four racial groups under the Indian Citizenship Act?
It required people to register from birth as belonging to one of four different racial groups, White, Black, Coloured and Indian. The Act was repealed by the Population Registration Act No 114 of 1991.
What was the purpose of the population Act 2017?
(May 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Act to make provision for the compilation of a Register of the Population of the Union; for the issue of Identity Cards to persons whose names are included in the Register; and for matters incidental thereto.
What are the 4 types of racial groups?
Race was defined by physical appearance and the act required people to be identified and registered from birth as belonging to one of four distinct racial groups: White, Coloured, Bantu (Black African), and Other.
What were 3 main racial groups created by the 1950 Population Registration Act?
There were three basic racial classifications under the law: Black, White and Coloured (mixed). 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".
Who was affected by the Population Registration Act?
The Population Registration Act of 1950 required the people of South Africa to register their racial identity with the Office for Racial Classification. A persons race would fall into one of three categories, white, black, or colored, depending on their physical characteristics or social standing.
Which group of races were affected by the apartheid laws in South Africa?
Apartheid Becomes Law The Population Registration Act of 1950 provided the basic framework for apartheid by classifying all South Africans by race, including Bantu (black Africans), Coloured (mixed race) and white. A fourth category, Asian (meaning Indian and Pakistani) was later added.
What were the four groups in apartheid?
Racial classification was the foundation of all apartheid laws. It placed individuals in one of four groups: 'native', 'coloured', 'Asian' or 'white'.
What was the Group Areas Act of 1950?
Under the Group Areas Act (1950) the cities and towns of South Africa were divided into segregated residential and business areas. Thousands of Coloureds, Blacks, and Indians were removed from areas classified for white occupation. The Group Areas Act and the Land Acts maintained residential segregation.
What was the point of the Population Registration Act?
The purpose of the Population Registration Act of 1950 was to establish a government-sanctioned system of racial classification.
How many ethnic groups are in South Africa?
Statistics South Africa asks people to describe themselves in the census in terms of five racial population groups. The 2011 census figures for these categories were Black South African at 76.4%, White South African at 9.1%, Coloured South African at 8.9%, Indian South African at 2.5%, and Other/Unspecified at 0.5%.
How did race classification start in South Africa?
The modern South African system of racial classification has its roots in Afrikaner settlers' policies in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal and British colonial settler policies, especially those of the Cape Colony.
How did racial classification start in South Africa?
The Population Registration Act, 1950 classified all South Africans into one of four racial groups based on appearance, known ancestry, socioeconomic status, and cultural lifestyle: "Black", "White", "Coloured", and "Indian", the last two of which included several sub-classifications.
What did the Population Registration Act and the Group Areas Act do?
In 1950 two key pieces of legislation, the Population Registration Act and the Group Areas Act were passed. These required that people be strictly classified by racial group, and that those classifications determine where they could live and work.
What did the Population Registration Act of 1950 do?
The Population Registration Act No 30 of 1950 (commenced 7 July) required people to be identified and registered from birth as one of four distinct racial groups: White, Coloured, Bantu (Black African), and other. It was one of the 'pillars' of Apartheid. Race was reflected in the individual's Identity Number.
What are the 5 races?
OMB requires that race data be collectd for a minimum of five groups: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. OMB permits the Census Bureau to also use a sixth category - Some Other Race.
What was the population registration act of 1950?
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. Social rights, political rights, educational opportunities, and economic status were largely determined by the group to which an individual belonged.
What is the purpose of the Act No. 30 of 1950?
Act to make provision for the compilation of a Register of the Population of the Union; for the issue of Identity Cards to persons whose names are included in the Register; and for matters incidental thereto. Citation. Act No. 30 of 1950. Enacted by.
What is the identity act of 1997?
The Identification Act of 1997 makes no mention of race. On the other hand, the Employment Equity Act speaks of 'designated groups' being 'black people, women and people with disabilities'. The Act defines 'black' as referring to 'Africans, coloureds and Indians'.
What are the three basic racial classifications?
There were three basic racial classifications under the law: Black, White and Coloured (mixed). 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".
Why was reclassification not uncommon?
Because some aspects of the profile were of a social nature, reclassification was not uncommon, and a board was established to conduct that process. The following criteria were used for separating the coloured people from the white people: Characteristics of the person's head hair.
What was the population registration act of 1950?
The Population Registration Act (1950) classified every South African by race. The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949) and the Immorality Act (1950) prohibited interracial marriage or sex. The Suppression of Communism Act (1950) defined communism and its aims broadly to include any opposition to the…. Read More.
What was the fourth category of South Africans in the 1950s?
apartheid. …was made possible through the Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified all South Africans as either Bantu (all Black Africans), Coloured (those of mixed race), or white. A fourth category—Asian (Indian and Pakistani)—was later added.
What is the demography of South Africa?
…ethnic classification, embodied in the Population Registration Act in effect from 1950 to 1991, was crucial in determining the status of all South Africans under apartheid. The act divided South Africans at birth into four “racial” categories—Black, white, Coloured ...
Question
To what extent did the Population Registration Act of 1950 put into place during the apartheid era in South Africa affect the rights of specific racial groups living there at the time?
Thesis
The Population Registration Act of 1950 affected the rights of specific racial groups living in South Africa during the apartheid era because this act was the foundation for future laws and other government actions that only affected certain racial groups, whose members were classified by the Population Registration Act of 1950.
General
The Population Registration Act was formed together with the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (enacted in 1949) and the Immorality Act ( 1950 expands the already enacted law in 1927 and 1957 re- tightened ) a basic law with discriminatory under the policy of apartheid.
Significant Laws content
The concern was a categorization of the population and the related issue of an identity card, the identity card ( roughly equivalent to the identity card ), including an identification number ( identity number ) in accordance with section 6 of the Act. The legal definition of the term " alien" has been adopted ( 1/1937 Act No..
Racial Test
The Pencil Test
- If the authorities doubted the color of someone's skin, they would use a "pencil in hair test." A pencil was pushed in the hair, and if it remained in place without dropping, the hair was designated as frizzy hair and the person would then be classified as colored. If the pencil dropped out of the hair, the person would be deemed white.
Incorrect Determination
- Many decisions were wrong, and families wound up being split and/or evicted for living in the wrong area. Hundreds of colored families were reclassified as white and in a handful of instances, Afrikaners were designated as colored. In addition, some Afrikaner parents abandoned children with frizzy hair or children with dark skin who were considered outcasts.
Repeal of The Population Registration Act
- The South African Parliament repealed the act on June 17, 1991. However, the racial categories set forth by the act are still ingrained in the culture of South Africa. They also still underlie some of the official policies designed to remedy past economic inequalities.