Pass Laws - History

History

The first pass laws in South Africa were introduced on 27 June 1797 by the Earl Macartney in an attempt to exclude all natives from the Cape Colony.

Introduced in South Africa in 1923, they were designed to regulate movement of black Africans in white urban areas. Outside designated "homelands", black South Africans had to carry passbooks ("dom pas", literally meaning dumb pass) at all times, documentation proving they were authorized to live or move in "White" South Africa.

The laws also affected other non-white races. Indian people, for example, were barred from the Orange Free State.

These discriminatory regulations fueled a growing discontentment from the black population and the ANC began the Defiance Campaign to oppose the pass laws.

This conflict climaxed at the Sharpeville Massacre, where the black opposition was violently put down, with 69 people killed and over 180 injured.

On July 23, 1986, under international pressure, the South African government lifted the requirement to carry passbooks, although the pass law system itself was not yet repealed. The system of pass laws was repealed in South Africa on November 13, 1986.

The first pass laws were introduced in 1760 to regulate the movement of slaves in the Cape. The Urban Areas Consolidation Act of 1945, together with the Natives (Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents) Act of 1952, were key laws. The Urban Areas Act outlined requirements for African peoples' "qualification" to reside legally in white metropolitan areas. To do so, they had to have Section 10 rights, based on whether

• the person had been born there and resided there always since birth;
• the person had laboured continuously for ten years in any agreed area for any employer, or lived continuously in any such area for less than ten years;
• the person was the spouse, spinster or son under eighteen years of age of an African person, falling into the above two categories, usually lived with him and had originally entered the area legitimately; or
• the person had been granted a permit to remain by a labour bureau.