Extract from booklet entitled ‘Apartheid: Racial Discrimination’ published on behalf of the Indian Government by the Foreign Relations Society of India, circa 1951, Catalogue Ref: DO 35/3837
The Population Registration Act 1950 defined exclusively in terms of appearance and perception. People had to be identified and registered from birth as belonging to one of three racial groups: white, ‘native’ (Black African), or ‘coloured’ (neither white nor ‘native’). Identity documents were issued to each person and the Identity Number included their assigned race.
Field Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts successfully led troops against Britain in the South African War. Smuts went on to command the South African Defence Force fighting alongside British soldiers in various First World War campaigns. From 1939 to1948 Smuts was also the leader of the United Party and Prime Minister in South Africa.
Transcript
POPULATION REGISTRATION
The Population Registration Act provides for the separate registration of Europeans, Natives and Coloureds. According to Field Marshall Smuts the Act was designed to help the Government to carry out their policy of apartheid and to provide for the elimination of the coloured from the voters’ roll. This is to be done through the compilation of a register after the 1951 census, showing whether a man is a Union citizen, domiciled in the Union or on a temporary visit to the Union. Every person over 16 years of age will be issued with an identity card giving a description of his person and the ethnic group to which he belongs. These cards will have to be presented to authorized police officers. This measure coupled with the Mixed Marriage Act will ensure the supposed purity of the white race.
- What information will be used to create a register of the population for the Act?
- What other measure was also introduced as part of the Population Registration Act?
- Why were these laws introduced?
- How do these laws re-enforce the segregation resulting from the Mixed Marriage Act?
- Why is this legislation for racial classification in this way so repressive?
- What do you think about the evidence provided in this source?