Pass law

Initially applied to African men, attempts to enforce pass laws on women in the 1910s and 1950s sparked significant protests.

[1] The first internal passports in South Africa were introduced on 27 June 1797 by the Earl Macartney in an attempt to prevent Africans from entering the Cape Colony.

A major boost for their utilization was the rise of the mining sector from the 1880s: pass laws provided a convenient means of controlling workers' mobility and enforcing contracts.

[4]: 181  The pass laws, “had entitled police at any time to demand that Africans show them a properly endorsed document or face arrest”, hindering their freedom of movement.

[5] This meant that it restricted where they could live,[5] which in turn then “tied them to their white employers, underpinning a system of cheap labor and humiliating subjection”.

When the pass laws were implemented at the turn of the century, they “encouraged the flow of labor into 'white' agriculture and industry and to redistribute labour into geographical areas where it was needed”.

This stemmed from the “efforts to use the pass system to balance white needs for security and labor”, while also creating laws that would allow for the control of “African employment, housing, access to land, and citizenship”.

[6] The vociferous opposition to the pass laws are of no surprise, considering the “fact that black women in South Africa have traditionally taken a more active role in mass popular protest”, in comparison to men.

[6]: 1  The biggest manifestation was a phenomenon that occurred “during the 1950s when black women throughout the nation fiercely resisted official efforts to make them carry passes for the first time”.

[6]: 1  The history of the application of pass laws towards women was intertwined with the belief that it would benefit the black female population.

[6]: 77  They hypothesised that if a woman could prove that they made an honest living with legal employment then they would not be allowed to resort to illegal activities since they would be evicted.

This act outlined requirements for African peoples' "qualification" to reside legally in white metropolitan areas.

Under the terms of the law, any government employee could strike out such entries, basically cancelling the permission to remain in the area.

[12] The system of pass laws was formally repealed retroactive on April 23, 1986, with the Abolition of Influx Control Act.