In this three part series, we look at some of the laws that were enacted from 1913 to 1996. This is part two of three, Read part one here.
1948 was the year in which the National Party launched its policy of separate development – which enforced laws of segregation and division among its citizens.
Though laws of segregation had been in place since the 19th century, Hendrik Verwoerd’s government introduced crucial laws in the dispossession of blacks from their ancestral land.
The era of Apartheid rule saw forced removals, migrant labour and the deprivation of basic human rights.
Two years into apartheid rule, the Group Areas Act was passed, forcing citizens out of urban areas, and into residential areas where they would be housed according to racial groups.
This is one of the laws enacted during the period between 1948 and 1993.
In 1964, an amendment to the 1913 Land Act is introduced, which allowed for black tenants on white farms to be classified as squatters.
In 1993, an agreement to restore land to its rightful owners was reached, certain communities returned to their ancestral land.
One of such is a community removed from Tsitsikamma in the late 1970s to the then homeland of Ciskei to a small town called Keiskammahoek.
In 1995, the community returned to their land in Tsitsikamma, where they started a community farming project.
In the next episode, we will look at post-apartheid South Africa laws – laws that sort to restore and redistribute land to its rightful owners.
For more on the story see video below:
