What were the laws passed to allow government to regulate the economy?

Slaves at the Cape were forced to carry passes. This fabricated it easier for their owners and the local government to control their movements.

The first time Pass documents were used to restrict the movement of non-European S Africans was in the early 1800's. However, slaves at the Cape had been forced to bear Passes since 1709. Farmers at the Cape ran short of labour during the first British occupation of the southern tip of Africa in 1795, with its subsequent abolitionism of slavery in 1808. Until that time Dutch farmers employed by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) supplied fresh food to passing ships using slave labour to stock upwardly the refreshment station. They could still sell slaves within the colony, but were prohibited from importing new slaves. The settlers and government turned to the indigenous Khoikhoi people to fill the labour gap.

Local farmers began employing more local Khoikhoi people when they ran brusque of labour at the Cape.

The Khoikhoi had lost their land to the colonisers in the tardily 1700's and were forced to piece of work for European landowners to survive.The colonial regime turned a bullheaded eye to the widespread mistreatment of Khoikhoi workers. These workers had to carry 'permission documents' from their employers allowing them to exit the farms they worked on. The inflow of Christian missionaries brought well-nigh slight improvements following criticism of the treatment of the Khoikhoi. Eventually, Ordinance 50 was published in 1828 placing the Khoikhoi on equal footing with their White employers and freeing them of having to carry passes.

Passes for Europeans

The 1820 settlers were accommodated in the new town of Bathurst in the Eastern Cape and needed passes to travel to nearby Grahamstown.

In 1820 a group of British settlers arrived at the Greatcoat to make a new life for themselves. They were disillusioned with unemployment and poverty in England, and were willing to defend the eastern borderland of their Cape colony. Approximately 4 000 settlers arrived at Algoa Bay in April 1820 with more than following over the adjacent 3 months. The voyage lasted nearly 4 months and during this fourth dimension disagreements and friction arose among the settlers. British government at the Greatcoat wanted to keep the group together in their new town of Bathurst and instituted pass laws in May 1820 to control vagrancy. The settlers could not movement from Bathurst to Grahamstown without written permission from local authorities. Travelling farther than this required a district pass that had to be approved by the Governor. These restrictions acquired 60% of the settlers to motility to other parts of the country in disobedience.

Passes in the Free State

Large numbers of Blackness and Coloured people moved to Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State. Local government aimed to command them by forcing them to carry passes.

The Boer Republic of the Orange Costless State was the first independent Voortrekker land and came into being during the signing of the Sand River Convention past British and Boer representatives in January 1852. The Basotho, nether Moshoeshoe, the Barolong, other smaller Blackness groups and Voortrekkers initially all lived in harmony in the Commonwealth and by 1880 the uppercase city, Bloemfontein, had a population of ii 567 people, of which i 688 were of Caucasian race.

Nearly of the population was rural, only towns provided ameliorate work opportunities and local inhabitants began moving to towns to look for work. Local and national authorities tried to dissuade Blackness and Coloured people from moving to towns, but some were required to work in urban areas. They were housed in locations with few facilities on the outskirts of towns, abroad from White areas and were not allowed to vote. Vagrancy laws too forced them to comport Passes and restricted movements and travel.

Passes in the Zuid Afrikaansce Republiek

Laissez passer laws in the Transvaal, or South African Republic, were intended to force Black people to settle in specific places in order to provide White farmers with a steady source of labour.

This Boer Republic came into being in September 1853 and covered the surface area north of the Vaal River, later known every bit the Transvaal. The surface area had a large and speedily growing Blackness population. In 1852 there were 15 000 White settlers and 100 000 Black residents betwixt the Vaal and Limpopo Rivers and in 1880 these numbers grew to 43 260 and 773 000. This led to conflict over grazing and hunting rights.

Only White people were allowed to vote and own property in the Transvaal and expected Black people to work for them. Many Voortrekkers settled shut to big concentrations of Blackness people to have access to a big labour pool, but also aimed to command the movements of their neighbours. In 1866 a Pass law was passed. Any Black person found outside the allowed residential area without a Laissez passer from an employer, a magistrate, missionary, field cornet or principal chief could be arrested.

Passes on the diamond mines

The start South African diamond, the Eureka, was found in Hopetown in 1867. In the post-obit year thousands of prospectors and miners streamed into the area.

In 1867 Erasmus and Louisa Jacob discovered the first diamond in South Africa on their male parent'southward farm about the Orange River and Hopetown. Although the authenticity of the jewel was verified the diamond blitz only began in earnest in 1868. By 1870 at that place were approximately 10 000 diamond diggers in the area that would become Griqualand West. More discoveries rapidly followed and fortune hunters streamed into the land from all over the world to live in squalor and prospect for and mine diamonds.

The diamonds were found in gravel deposits below the surface of the ground. Diggers had to employ helpers to guard their claims for fear of theft. A labour shortage soon developed and the Pedi, from the Transvaal, provided most of the migrant labour in exchange for guns. Black and Coloured people were allowed to buy claims and digger's licenses but were resented by their White competitors. Although all workers had to be registered only Blacks were really forced to bear Passes at all times.

Passes on the gold mines

Thousands of Black men streamed to goldmines on the Witwatersrand to make a living. They were housed in compounds, had to bear passes and were separated from their families, who were not allowed to visit them.

Black inhabitants of southern Africa had been mining and working gold for centuries earlier the arrival of European colonisers. They plant aureate in rivers and streams and British immigrant Edward Button discovered the showtime subterranean deposits in 1871 in the eastern Transvaal Drakensberg. Another Brit, George Harrison, found the richest deposit in 1886 on the Witwatersrand. Laws relating to the new mining manufacture were immediately put in place and specified that no Coloured, Black or Indian person could work or live on a mine except equally the servant of a White human.

Aureate was more difficult to excerpt than diamonds and the labour needs of the new mines far exceeded that of the diamond diggings. Black people were already used extensively as labourers and tenants on wealthy White farms and, with large harvests, could survive off the excess of their employers' harvests. Some White farmers institute this objectionable and complained to the Transvaal government. The authorities capitulated and passed a law that express the number of tenants on a subcontract to 5, forcing large numbers of Black people from their homes and land.

Photo from book Soweto: A History past Philip Bonner and Lauren Segal

Young men from all over the land came to the Witwatersrand goldmines nether duress. They had to make a living, but the conditions they had to alive in were misrepresented. Overcrowding and poverty made it extremely hard to leave the mines once they had arrived.

Landless, poor and without whatsoever means to practice subsistence farming these people were forced to seek out wage paying jobs. The labour requirement of the growing number of gold mines forced mine-owners to actively recruit Blackness workers through agents that received a fee for each worker they were able to recruit. They lied about living and working conditions, as well every bit wages, in order to convince Black men to work for the mines. Once the worker arrived at the mine he would be kept there for as long as possible. White workers were allowed to move to homes in the greater Johannesburg surface area with their families, just Black mineworkers were housed in compounds on the mines' premises. A Pass system was rigorously enforced to keep the men within their designated areas and prevented the workers' families from visiting them.

Passes in the Union

Louis Botha was appointed equally the first Prime Government minister of the Union of S Africa.

On 31 May 1910 the British colonies of the Cape Natal, Orange Costless Land and Transvaal became the Wedlock of South Africa under Prime Government minister Louis Botha. The new dispensation did non brand any drastic changes and Black people retained the same inferior condition they had under colonial rule.

Labour was a specific surface area of discrimination and in 1911 the Mines and Works Human activity reserved certain skilled positions for Whites. The Native Country Regulation Human activity of the aforementioned year fabricated it law for Black people injured in industrial accidents to receive less compensation than Whites. They would also be held criminally responsible for strikes and whatsoever breaches of their work contracts and could non bring together the military. Pass laws also remained in place and in May 1918 Black workers embarked on strike action against depression wages, poor housing and Passes. The Bantu Women'southward League, precursor of the African National Congress Women'southward League, also led an anti-Pass campaign during this menses.

J. B. Thousand. Hertzog became Prime Minister of South Africa in 1924. His greatest ambition was the height of the Afrikaner

The Union government experienced internal disharmonize, specifically between Botha and cabinet fellow member J. B. M. Hertzog. Hertzog, the founder of the National Party (NP) in 1919, was an intense Afrikaner nationalist and promoted the idea of racial segregation of Afrikaners, English language, and Black residents of Due south Africa. In 1924 the NP won the general elections with the assistance of the Labour Party (LP). The new Pact Regime nether Hertzog held ability until 1929. It was a time of economic development and industrialisation with a bias towards White workers. Hertzog's drive to elevate the Afrikaner went hand-in-mitt with the subjugation of Black Due south Africans.

The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) and the Communist Political party of South Africa (CPSA) joined forces in a Laissez passer burning campaign in 1930.

The Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 to 1932, had far reaching bear on on the entire land. White and Black were plunged into extreme poverty, but the regime focused on alleviating the plight of Whites while ignoring Blackness suffering. Increasing numbers of Black people moved to urban areas in a bid to survive and Pass laws were strictly enforced. This did not stem the tide of drastic people. In 1930 the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Marriage (ICU) began a Laissez passer-burning campaign for the 16th of December when Black and Indian people all over the country would gather to burn their Laissez passer Books. In Durban police stormed the protesters and ended up killing four people. The Pass burning connected until February 1931 when the entrada was crushed.

In 1929 the issue of colour was overtly used every bit a candidature tool in national elections for the outset fourth dimension. Hertzog represented the NP every bit the champion of White S Africa. Voting for the NP meant voting for a White Southward Africa. Once he obtained victory Hertzog turned his attention to attaining full independence from U.k.. The Pact government remained in power until 1934, when the NP forged a bond with the Due south African Party nether January Smuts in order to ensure victory and the Fusion or Coalition government was built-in. It remained in ability until 1939 when it broke autonomously as a upshot of disagreements regarding participation and neutrality in the 2nd Globe War and Hertzog resigned from his position as Prime Minister, leaving January Smuts to take over his responsibilities.

Administrating Pass laws was costly and difficult because all Black people in urban areas had to be checked by regime. The constant humiliation and monitoring caused intense anger in Black communities.

From 1939 to 1948 South Africa participated in the Second World War and benefited from new war economy. Blackness families began migrating to cities equally a issue of increased job opportunities and the grinding poverty they were experiencing in rural reserves created for them through the 1913 Land Human action. The urban Black population of the land nearly doubled from 1939 to 1946. In 1942 Prime Minister Smuts appointed an Inter-Departmental Committee on the Social, Health and Economic Conditions of Urban Natives to be chaired by the Secretary of Native Diplomacy, Douglas Smit. In his report, which was presented in the aforementioned yr, Smit stated that Laissez passer Laws inspired a "burning sense of grievance and injustice" in Black South Africans. He added that it would exist better to face the results of the abolition of Passes than continue to enforce them because it was politically and administratively too expensive. Although this seemed like back up for the removal of Pass laws, control over the movements of Blackness people would proceed. A network of labour exchanges in urban centres, where all contracted Black employees would exist registered and curfewed, would replace them. These measures amounted to Passes with another name.

Malan, Strijdom and Verwoerd all supported and perpetuated apartheid.

The unprecedented labour need sparked past the Second Globe War forced the government to slacken entry command laws and to debate the revision of Pass laws. The 1946 Fagan Commission, under Judge Henry Fagan, was appointed to address this issue. Although the Committee recommended that Passes be abolished they remained in place.

On 26 May 1948 the Herenigde, or Reunited, National Party (HNP), under D. F. Malan, won the national general elections ushering in the era of apartheid. Malan was determined to implement his policy of separate development nether the backdrop of Afrikaner Nationalism and he did and so with neat success until his retirement in 1954. He besides merged the Afrikaner Party (AP) with the HNP, to once once again found the National Political party (NP), consolidating Afrikaner back up and eliminating contest for Afrikaner votes. J. 1000. Strijdom replaced him as Prime number Government minister and the NP continued to aggrandize. On Strijdom's expiry in 1958 H. F. Verwoerd took over the reigns.

The Split Amenities Deed separated the residents of South Africa through forcing different races to use split up public facilities.

Strijdom'south tenure every bit Prime number Government minister cemented the apartheid policies that Malan had initiated through legislation. Malan passed the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act in 1949 and in 1950 the Immorality Human action became constabulary. This year likewise saw the passing of the Population Registration Act, which established a national registration process to allocate people according to their race. At the aforementioned time Group Areas Act came into existence which physically and spatially separated White, Black, Coloured and Indian people. The Separate Amenities Act, which was passed in 1953, completed this separation by forcing dissimilar race groups, European and Non-European, to use separate facilities and so creating racial inequity through the establishment of services based on what was deemed to be appropriate for each race group.

Passbooks helped authorities to trace the whereabouts of Black, Coloured and Indian people

A hated constabulary passed during this period was the Natives (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act of 1952. This forced Black South Africans to acquit a range of documents, including a photograph, identify of birth, employment records, tax payments and criminal records, and enabled the regime to further restrict their movement. Information technology was illegal to be without a Pass the penalty for which was abort and jail. The Natives (Prohibition of Interdicts) Act of 1956 removed all legal recourse for objecting to the removal of Black people from certain residential areas. The Urban Areas Deed express Black people to 72 hours in an urban area without permission from a specific municipal officer.

Dissatisfaction of Blackness South Africans grew to unprecedented levels. Popular resistance spread and in 1949, afterward the elections, the ANC launched a militant, armed anti-apartheid entrada through its Youth League for the first time since its nascence in 1912. Strikes and marches began in earnest and police retaliation was cruel. Clashes and repression continued through the post-obit iii decades.

Passes in the Republic

Malan'due south ambitions for the Afrikaner nation included total independence for Due south Africa from United kingdom. He passed the South African Citizen Act in 1949, removed the British Privy Council in 1950, introduced a new canticle and flag and gear up the phase for South Africa to get a republic. Strijdom avant-garde on this try. Verwoerd took the practical steps to make it a reality with growing White back up for apartheid and confronting increasing international condemnation and isolation.

In 1960 Verwoerd decided on a White referendum for v Oct to decide on the establishment of a democracy. A majority voted in support of him. In March 1961 Verwoerd attended the Commonwealth briefing in London and was forced to withdraw South Africa'south membership post-obit criticism from other members. Legislation to establish a commonwealth had already been tabled in January 1961. On 31 May 1961 the Republic of South Africa (RSA) came into existence.

In 1966 a Parliamentary messenger called Dimitry Tsafendas stabbed and killed Verwoerd in Parliament.

Under the new republic the suppression of Blackness Southward Africans continued unabated. The RSA became increasingly isolated from the rest of the earth as a result of its apartheid policies and Black resistance soared. The 1970'southward were marked past turbulence and insecurity as apartheid was met at every plough with popular mobilisation and response. International outrage grew and events like the 1976 Soweto Youth Uprising earned the back up of the international community for the cause of freedom in South Africa. The land's relationship with its neighbours also worsened severely as a effect of the government's efforts to secure minority White dominion by way of manipulating politics across its own borders.

On 6 September 1966, a uniformed parliamentary messenger called Dimitry Tsafendas assassinated Verwoerd in Parliament. B. J. Vorster, Minister of Justice since 1961 took his place as Prime Minister. He ruthlessly continued Verwoerd's implementation of apartheid policies. He resigned from his postal service in 1978 and became figurehead position of President. His successor, P. W. Botha, became the first Premier forced to temper apartheid. He was motivated by growing economical crisis and forced to implement major reforms to address the situation.

Previous leaders had hoped that refuse in urban Black locations would force development within the homelands and attract people to them. This strategy failed and Black people connected to stream to urban areas in a bid to escape the grinding poverty of the reserves. Botha'south government granted Black workers the correct to course unions, merely demanded that all unions, registered or not, hand over membership registers to the state. This in effect negated the correct to unionise because of the exposure of individuals to state security for surveillance and repression.

Botha as well implemented some ramble modify as function of his reform measures. The 1961 constitution made the head of state position more symbolic than politically potent. Botha reviewed this in a new constitution enacted in 1983 following a white referendum in 1982. He became South Africa's commencement State President with full political power.

Black protest escalated and Botha declared a State of Emergency in July 1985 to beat the violence. This failed. Botha's "Rubicon " spoken communication was received with international contempt. Efforts to control urban Blacks had proven hopeless and the authorities repealed the Laissez passer laws on 23 July 1986. From 1800 betwixt 15 and twenty one thousand thousand people had been arrested and for violating these laws.

Resistance to Passes

Pass laws inspired several resistance campaigns. Before South Africa'due south transition to a union in 1910, protest confronting colonial laws seemed futile. In March 1912 a group of Black and Coloured women from the Orangish Free Country sent a petition confronting passes signed by five 000 people to Prime Minister Louis Botha. After failing to receive a response 6 women were sent to run across with Henry Burton, the Minister of Native Affairs. Once again they were ignored and by May 1913 they decided to pursue more aggressive anti-Pass campaigns. On 28 and 29 May they resolved never to conduct Passes again and said, "Nosotros are washed with pleading, nosotros at present need!" This passive resistance entrada was met with arrests in Bloemfontein, Jagersfontein and Winburg, in the Orange Free Country. In 1914 the regime relaxed Pass laws for women and the resistance entrada ended.

Charlotte Maxeke

Charlotte Maxeke and the Bantu Women's League launched an anti-Laissez passer entrada in 1918. They hoped to force the authorities to carelessness the use of Passes for women completely.

In May 1918 Black workers beyond the country went on strike against low wages, poor housing and Passes for men. Many of the protesters were arrested and imprisoned. The Bantu Women's League, that preceded the African National Congress Women'due south League, under Charlotte Maxeke, launched a campaign to end the use of Passes for Black women completely.

The Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) launched an anti-pass campaign in 1943. In March 1944 labour activist, Josie Palmer convened the Women'due south Anti-Pass Conference in Johannesburg. In 1945 the Urban Areas Consolidation Act was passed, further limiting the freedoms of Black South Africans. At the 1947 International Women's Day meeting in Johannesburg, the CPSA decided to launch a "non-colour bar women's organisation". The Transvaal All-Women's Union was born, changing its name to the Union of S African Women in 1949. It never grew to become a national group, but Palmer afterwards helped establish the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW).

The Federation of South Africa Women (FEDSAW) was instrumental in the 1956 Women's March against Passes in Pretoria.

Passes gave rising to not bad protests from women during the 1950's. In 1950 proposed changes to the Urban Areas Human action were leaked to the public. The changes involved further restrictions on Black women and a more efficient Pass system to facilitate this. South African women protested vehemently. The ANC Women's League attracted a huge following with this politicisation of Blackness women. In April 1950 Bertha Mkhize, Provincial Secretarial assistant of the ANC Women's League, alleged, "Our fight is on" precipitating a major anti-Pass campaign.

Anti-Pass campaigns took place beyond the land.

National demonstrations and protest meetings made the news in The Guardian with headlines similar "We will not carry any Passes: African women indignant", "African women up in arms, mounting opposition to Passes for women" and "Campaign confronting Passes for women gathers strength". Faced with such an onslaught the regime decided to put off Passes for women. When the proposal resurfaced in 1952 protests were launched in Cape Town, Cato Manor, Port Elizabeth, Oudtshoorn, Stellenbosch, Ixopo and Umzinto.

In September 1955 the government announced it would begin issuing Passbooks for women in January 1956. This sparked more than resistance and women in the Transvaal began planning a mass demonstration at the Union Buildings in Pretoria to take identify the following year. This issue was preceded by a mass sit-in organised by FEDSAW of more than than 2 000 women of all races on 27 October 1955. On ix August 1956 more 20 000 South African women gathered to march to the Union buildings to paw a petition to the government demanding an end to Passes.

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Source: https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/pass-laws-south-africa-1800-1994

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