Apartheid Laws Timeline

By elspethoh

  • The Mines and Works Act

    This Act restricted the semi-skilled jobs in mining to White citizens; migrant and black labor was cheap and the whites viewed the non-white people as "taking white jobs", thus the creation of white-only jobs.

  • Native Lands Act

    This act gave Africans "back their own land"; in reality, it pushed 2/3 of the population (African and non-white) to a minority of the available land; the land granted them was not profitable and barely fit to sustain human life.

  • Natives (Urban Areas) Act

    Cities because of primary use to Whites; they were the only ones allowed permanent residence within them. All non-whites were required to carry passes to gain short entry into cities for work.

  • Industrial Conciliation Act

    This act legalized worker's unions in several different professions (mostly mining) for white unions and not their black and non-white counterparts.

  • Wage Act

    This act gave preferential treatment to whites, who could be compensated higher for the same work as non-whites.

  • Mines and Works Amendment

    This created a color bar in South Africa's most profitable industry: mining. This act allowed only Whites to work in Mining and other industries, pushing non-whites to lower-paying jobs.

  • Representative Natives Act

    This act removed all non-whites from electoral rolls, leaving all the positions of power and representation in government to whites.

  • Native Trust and Land Act

    This act gave 13% of South African land to Africans (more than what they had previously had) but made it easier to evict them from non-native lands.

  • Bantu Authorities Act of 1951

    The decision was made to create regional authority for the Africans, with an end goal of separating them from White South Africa entirely. This eliminated Native representation in South African government and was a way for White South Africans to justify Apartheid.

  • Bantu Self-Governing Act

    Passed by the Verwoerd Government, this act made Bantustans "independent" and allowed South Africa to stop claiming Africans as a political responsibility because they were politically "independent".