Population Registration Act, no. 30

Introduction: Voted into South African law in 1950, the Population Registration Act, no. 30 was not repealed until 1991. All South African citizens were required to register according to racial characteristics; this classification then helped in the enforcement of other laws prohibiting mixed-race activities. The extracts reproduced here showcase the strictly apartheid nature of life in South Africa throughout much of the twentieth century.

the population registration act, no. 30, of 1950

2. There shall, as soon as practicable after the fixed date, be compiled by the Director and thereafter maintained by him, a register of the population of the Union….

5. (I) Ever person whose name is included in the register shall be classified by the Director as a white person, a coloured person or a native, as the case may be, and every coloured person and ever native whose name is so included shall be classified by the Director according to the ethnic or other group to which he belongs.

(2) The Governor-General may be proclamation in the Gazette prescribe and define the ethnic or other groups into which coloured person and natives shall be classified in terms of sub-section (I), and may in like manner amend or withdraw any such proclamation.

(3) If at any time it appears to the Director that the classification of a person in terms of sub-section (I) is incorrect, he may, subject to the provisions of sub-section (7) of section eleven and after giving notice to that person, and, if he is a minor, also to his guardian, specifying in which respect the classification is incorrect, and affording such person and such guardian (if any) an opportunity of being heard, alter the classification of that person in the register.

6. The Director shall assign an identity number to every person whose name is included in the register.

7. (I) There shall, in respect of every person whose name is included in the register, other than a native, be included in the register the following particulars and no other particulars whatsoever namely:

1. his full name, sex and ordinary place of residence;
2. his classification in terms of section five;
3. the date and place of his birth;
4. his citizenship or nationality, and in the case of an alien, an indication of the fact that he is an alien;
5. his marital status;
6. in the case of a registered voter, the electoral division and polling district in which he is registered as a voter under the Electoral Consolidation Act, 1946 (Act No. 46 of 1946);
7. the date of his arrival in the Union, if not born in a part of South Africa included in the Union;
8. a recent photograph of himself, except in the case of a person who has not yet attained the age of sixteen years, or who has been admitted to the Union for a temporary purpose; and
9. his identity number.

(2) There shall in respect of every native whose name is included in the register, be included in the register the following particulars and no other particulars whatsoever, namely:

1. his full name, sex and the district in which he is ordinarily resident;
2. his citizenship or nationality, the ethnic or other group and the tribe to which he belongs;
3. the date, or if the date is not known, the year or reputed year, and the place, or if the place is not known, the district of his birth;
4. his marital status;
5. the year of his arrival in the Union, if not born in a part of South Africa included in the Union;
6. a recent photograph of himself in the case of a native who has not yet attained the age of sixteen years, and, in the case of a native who is not a South African citizen, his fingerprints; and
7. his identity number.

(3) Upon the death or permanent departure from the Union of a person whose name is included in the register, the date of his death or departure from the Union, as the case may be, shall be recorded in the register.