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Black Land Act No. 27
This act forced blacks onto native reserves which comprised about 7% of South Africa's land (this land was some of the worst in the entire country). It also became illegal for blacks to own or rent land outside of the reserves. This was the first act to implement territorial segregation in South Africa. -
Immorality Act No. 5
The Immorality Act of 1927 made it illegal for a black to have an extramarital affair with a white because blacks were "unpure." In 1950, this act was amended to include the prohibition of extramarital affairs between whites and all varieties of coloreds. -
Representation of Blacks Act No. 12
This act removed blacks from the common voter registration and transferred them onto a separate role. The black South African population was henceforth represented by 4 white senators despite the fact that blacks constituted a majority of the South African population (this act was meant to minimize representation of the black majority to allow control by the white minority). -
Black (Native) Laws Amendment Act No. 46
By this law, blacks could not acquire land in urban areas through non-blacks, the sole exception being land obtained with the Governor-General's approval. This provided for white dominance over blacks through direct legislation; blacks required white permission to do things they were once allowed to do for themselves. -
Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act No. 55
This act banned marriages between whites and non-whites in an attempt to preserve the white race. Pre-existing interracial marriages, though they constituted less than one percent of all South African marriages, were no longer legally recognized. -
Bantu Authorities Act No. 68
The Bantu Authorities Act granted recognition to tribal authorities within native reserves. These authorities were ultimately not respected by the people they were supposed to control, but the act was a step towards the government's goal of creating self-governing homelands separate from South Africa and for forming a South Africa whose population was strictly white. -
Black Building Workers Act No. 27
This act prevented blacks from being involved in skilled work within the white, urban building industry. That being said, it reserved more of these jobs for whites. -
Blacks (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act No. 67
Though this act repealed laws which obligated non-whites to carry passes at all times (this system was used to ensure that blacks did not go anywhere they were not supposed to go), it replaced passes with reference books. Reference books contained virtually all documented information on a person including race and criminal records, and they were to be carried by blacks at all times. This made it easier for police to search a person's record on site. -
Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act No. 30
The Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act amended the initial Separate Representation of Voters Act of 1951 to exclude all colored people from the common roll, rather than black South Africans alone. With this act, whites further divided the colored majority into smaller minorities with little to no representation in the South African government. -
Unlawful Organizations Act No. 34
The Unlawful Organizations Act declared all organizations which threatened public safety or order to be illegal. However, this law was really used to squash groups including the African National Congress which opposed the party in power or derived power from non-whites.
