All human beings belong to the same race

ALTHOUGH segregation had been part of the South African social and political landscape since European colonisers arrived in the 17th century, it was only in 1950, with the introduction of the Population Registration Act, that the state attempted to classify the entire population into fixed groups based on the false notion of race. Scientifically, there is no such thing as separate “races” — all human beings belong to the same race.

In South Africa, race classification determined people’s voting rights, where they could reside, where they could buy or sell property, their social status, the jobs for which they could apply, the amount of their pension and the quality of their children’s education. When it was first passed in 1950, the Population Registration Act defined racial groups relatively loosely. A coloured person was defined as “a person who is not a white person nor generally accepted as a member of aboriginal race or tribe of Africa”.

However, the Act was revised at least six times to tighten loopholes. “Race” was no longer judged only on appearance, but also according to line of descent. Amendments to the Act sub-divided coloured South Africans into further different categories such as Cape Coloured, Cape Malay, Griqua, Chinese and “other coloured”. After the Population Registration Act became law, the classification of whites and coloureds in Cape Town was carried out by the Electoral Officer. Later, in January 1958, a Population Registration Office was opened.

The Population Registration Act determined people’s race classification, which in turn determined the implementation of many other racially based laws. For example, the Group Areas Act determined where people of different racial groups could live. It did not permit mixing of any groups. Thus, any woman who married or lived with a member of someone from another “racial” group would, in terms of the Group Areas Act, be deemed to belong to the racial group of the man involved, except if the man were white. In that case, the man took on the racial group of the woman and would need to be re-classified before being allowed to live in that Group Area.

In February 1958 the Cape Times reported the Minister of the Interior as saying that the Population Registration Act was assisting people by removing uncertainty and unease and the “clouds which hovered over them”. However, at the end of 1961 the newspaper reported that there were at least 20 000 people in the Cape Peninsula who were still uncertain whether they were officially “white” or “coloured”. The first Race Classification Review Board was established in 1954. In September 1959 the minister announced that the board of review was to be replaced by special appeal boards to be set up in the Transvaal, Cape Province and possibly Natal.

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>> Sue Valentine <<