Extract from the Separate Amenities Act, 5 October 1953, Catalogue Ref: DO 35/10560
The Separate Amenities Act 1953 enforced segregation for all public amenities, including buildings and transport. Segregation meant that whites (or Europeans) were given separate facilities than non-whites described as ‘Coloureds, Indians, and Blacks’. The act stated that facilities provided for different races need not be equal.
Transcript
ACT
To provide for the reservation of public premises and vehicles or portions thereof for the exclusion of persons of a particular race or class, for the interpretation of laws which provide for such reservation, and for matters incidental thereto.
(English text signed by the Governor-General.)
(Assented by 5th October,1953.)
BE IT ENACTED by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate and the House of Assembly of the union of South Africa, as follows: –
Definitions
- In this Act, unless the context otherwise indicates-
“public premises” includes any land, enclosure, building, structure, hall room, office or convenience to which the public has access, whether on the payment of an admission fee or not but does not include a public road or street;
“public vehicle” includes any train, tram, bus, vessel or aircraft used for the conveyance for reward or otherwise of members of the public.
- What are the aims of this legislation?
- Look at the photograph at the top of the web page for the lesson. How does it show this law in action?
- How does the Separate Amenities Act strengthen earlier apartheid legislation?
- How will this law affect life in the South African Union for all communities?
‘Petty apartheid’ is a term used to describe segregation of public facilities and social events.
- Research the meaning for the term ‘grand apartheid’. How does it apply to other sources of legislation in this lesson?
- Compare the Separate Amenities Act to the ‘Jim Crow laws’ (a derogatory term used to refer to African Americans) which had enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States.