In 1902, the bubonic plague broke out among the population which the authorities soon blamed on "these uncontrolled Kafir hordes" (Iliffe, p. 115) leading to many whites demanding segregation.

According to the Cape Town Medical Officer of Health the living conditions of Africans were 'very undesirable, both from the point of view of sanitation and socially, by bringing uncleanly, half-civilised units into intimate contact with the more cleanly and civilised portion of the community".

"Natives who were living under insanitary conditions in the slums of Cape Town were offered accommodation at low rental in Ndabeni" (Wilson & Mafeje, p. 3), although several thousand remained in the city.

The Cape Register replied in March 1901, "[T]he protection of the metropolis from the insanitary disease-spreading nigger is a much more vital matter than the convenience of a few St George Street merchants".

In this year, the Natives (Urban Areas) Act was passed, restricting the entry of black South Africans into the city (Western, p. 46).