Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, 1970

Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, 1970
Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, 1970
Parliament of South Africa
	Long title Act to provide for citizenship of certain Bantu homelands and for the issue of certificates of citizenship to Bantu persons; in connection therewith to amend certain laws; and to provide for incidental matters. ;
Citation	Act No. 26 of 1970
Enacted by	Parliament of South Africa
Assented to	3 March 1970
Commenced	26 March 1970
Repealed	27 April 1994
Administered by	Minister of Bantu Administration and Development
Repealed by
	Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993
	Status: Repealed

Last updated September 26, 2023

The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, 1970 (Act No. 26 of 1970; subsequently renamed the Black States Citizenship Act, 1970 and the National States Citizenship Act, 1970) was a denaturalization law passed during the apartheid era of South Africa that allocated various tribes/nations of black South Africans as citizens of their traditional black tribal "homelands," or Bantustans.

Content of the Act

The following is a brief description of the sections of the Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act of 1970:^[1]

Definitions and interpretation

Section 1

Defines the explanations of keywords in the Act.

Section 2.1

Defines that there is a citizenship for every homeland or self-governing territory.

Section 2.2

Defines that every Black person in the Republic, if not already classified to a homeland or self-governing territory, shall be a citizen of one of these homelands or self-governing territory.

Section 2.3

Defines that a person classified to a particular homeland or self-governing territory has the right to vote there.

Section 2.4

Defines that even though a person is a citizen of a particular homeland or self-governing territory, they were still a citizen of the Republic in relation to international law.

Section 2.5

Defines that duties, obligation or responsibilities of a person classified to a homeland or self-governing territory are not relieved of except what is described by the Act.

Section 3

Defines the citizenship procedures of a Black person is currently in a homeland or self-governing territory.

Section 4

Defines the loss of citizenship of one homeland or self-governing territory if they become a citizen of another.

Section 5

Defines that a Black people in a homeland or self-governing territory shall be entitled to a citizenship certificate.

Section 6

Defines that the certificate would be issued to any Black person who is a citizen of a homeland or self-governing territory, a provisional certificate issue if a full certificate can't be issued immediately and that requirements be made known by whatever means to Black people in the Republic

Section 7

Defines the forms, photographs, and information required to be issued a certificate as well as what homeland or self-governing territory they belonged too.

Section 8

Defines the need for two photographs for certificate to be issued, one of which would remain with the records officer.

Section 9

Defines the rights of a Black person to object to the Minster's officer if he believes his citizenship has been misclassified as could a territories authority to a Black person's classification. The Ministers officer's final decision was binding except if it was appealed to a Minister and was changed.

Section 10.1

Defines the penalties, fines, or imprisonment for using someone else's certificate as one's own; not keeping it safe from others; forges or alters it; having a forgery or alteration; prints or produces a document; issues a document without authority; incorrect records information and make false statements.

Section 10.2

Defines the rights, after conviction of person for offence under section 10(1)(b and d), to confiscate the instruments uses to forge and reproduce a document or citizenship certificate, except in the case where the owner of those instruments did not know what they were being used for.

Section 10.3

Defines what sections of Criminal Procedures Act applies to confiscations detailed in section 10(2)(b).

Section 11.1

Defines the power of the State President to make regulations that are required by the Act, including the issuance of certificates, taking of fingerprints, issuing duplicate certificates, fees payable and transmission of records to the Black Reference Bureau, provisional certificate or documents, size of photographs and anything else to obtain the objectives of the Act

Section 11.2

Defines that the powers conferred in section 11(1)(h) are not limited by the other paragraphs of this section

Section 11.3

Defines that different regulations may made from one Black population group, etc, to the next.

Section 11.4

Defines the penalties, fines or imprisonment for contravening or failing to comply with the said regulations

Section 12

Defines the amendment of section 13(1) of the Population Registration Act 30 of 1950 with the text of this section.

Section 13

Defines the amendment of section 14(1) of the Population Registration Act 30 of 1950 with the text of this section, rights, and duties of a peace officer to have a person furnish them with their full name and address.

Section 14

Defines that section 7 of the Bantu Authorities Act 68 of 1951 be amended with the removal and addition of the word "and" at the end of (f) and (g) and the addition of a new section (h), which defines the ability to issue certificates of citizenship.

Section 15

Defines that section 11 of the Bantu (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act 67 of 1952 be substituted with the text of this section, which defines the establishment of a Bantu Reference Bureau.

Section 16

Defines that section 8 of the Transkei Constitution Act 48 of 1963 be substituted with the text of this section, defining the loss of citizenship if the citizen of the Transkei becomes a citizen of another country or Homeland.

Section 17

Defines the name of the Act.

Repealed

The act was repealed on 27 April 1994 by the Interim Constitution of South Africa.

Related Research Articles

The Republic of South Africa is a unitary parliamentary democratic republic. The President of South Africa serves both as head of state and as head of government. The President is elected by the National Assembly and must retain the confidence of the Assembly in order to remain in office. South Africans also elect provincial legislatures which govern each of the country's nine provinces.

Transkei, officially the Republic of Transkei, was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Bantustan for the Xhosa people, and operated as a nominally independent parliamentary democracy. Its capital was Umtata.

A Bantustan was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa, as part of its policy of apartheid. By extension, outside South Africa the term refers to regions that lack any real legitimacy, consisting often of several unconnected enclaves, or which have emerged from national or international gerrymandering.

Ciskei was a Bantustan for the Xhosa people, located in the southeast of South Africa. It covered an area of 7,700 square kilometres (3,000 sq mi), almost entirely surrounded by what was then the Cape Province, and possessed a small coastline along the shore of the Indian Ocean.

An internal passport or a domestic passport is an identity document. Uses for internal passports have included restricting citizens of a subdivided state to employment in their own area, clearly recording the ethnicity of citizens to enforce segregation or prevent passing, and controlling access to sensitive sites or closed cities.

The Oath of Allegiance of the United States is the official oath of allegiance that must be taken and subscribed by every immigrant who wishes to become a United States citizen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apartheid</span> South African system of racial separation

Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically through minoritarianism by the nation's dominant minority white population. According to this system of social stratification, white citizens had the highest status, followed by Indians and Coloureds, then Black Africans. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day, particularly inequality.

South African nationality law details the conditions by which a person is a national of South Africa. The primary law governing nationality requirements is the South African Citizenship Act, 1995, which came into force on 6 October 1995.

A K-1 visa is a visa issued to the fiancé or fiancée of a United States citizen to enter the United States. A K-1 visa requires a foreigner to marry his or her U.S. citizen petitioner within 90 days of entry, or depart the United States. Once the couple marries, the foreign citizen can adjust status to become a lawful permanent resident of the United States. Although a K-1 visa is legally classified as a non-immigrant visa, it usually leads to important immigration benefits and is therefore often processed by the Immigrant Visa section of United States embassies and consulates worldwide.

The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act, 1959 was an important piece of South African apartheid legislation that allowed for the transformation of traditional tribal lands into "fully fledged independent states Bantustans", which would supposedly provide for the right to self-determination of the country's black population. It also resulted in the abolition of parliamentary representation for black South Africans, an act furthered in 1970 with the passage of the Black Homeland Citizenship Act.

The system of racial segregation and oppression in South Africa known as apartheid was implemented and enforced by many acts and other laws. This legislation served to institutionalize racial discrimination and the dominance by white people over people of other races. While the bulk of this legislation was enacted after the election of the National Party government in 1948, it was preceded by discriminatory legislation enacted under earlier British and Afrikaner governments. Apartheid is distinguished from segregation in other countries by the systematic way in which it was formalized in law.

Law enforcement in South Africa is primarily the responsibility of the South African Police Service (SAPS), South Africa's national police force. SAPS is responsible for investigating crime and security throughout the country. The "national police force is crucial for the safety of South Africa's citizens" and was established in accordance with the provisions of Section 205 of the Constitution of South Africa.

The Bantu Homelands Constitution Act, 1971 enabled the government of South Africa to grant independence to any "Homeland" as determined by the South African apartheid government. In accordance with this act, independence was eventually granted to Transkei in 1976, Bophuthatswana in 1977, Venda in 1979, and Ciskei in 1981.

The Ugandan passport is a document issued to citizens of Uganda for international travel.

The Tomlinson Report was a 1954 report released by the Commission for the Socioeconomic Development of the Bantu Areas, known as the Tomlinson Commission, that was commissioned by the South African government to study the economic viability of the native reserves. These reserves were intended to serve as the homelands for the black population. The report is named for Frederick R. Tomlinson, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Pretoria. Tomlinson chaired the ten-person commission, which was established in 1950. The Tomlinson Report found that the reserves were incapable of containing South Africa's black population without significant state investment. However, Hendrik Verwoerd, Minister of Native Affairs, rejected several recommendations in the report. While both Verwoerd and the Tomlinson Commission believed in "separate development" for the reserves, Verwoerd did not want to end economic interdependence between the reserves and industries in white-controlled areas. The government would go on to pass legislation to restrict the movement of blacks who lived in the reserves to white-controlled areas.

113 Battalion was a motorised infantry unit of the South African Army.

The 1987 Transkei coup d'état was a bloodless military coup in Transkei, an unrecognised state and a nominally independent South African homeland for the Xhosa people, which took place on 30 December 1987. The coup was led by the then 32-year-old Major General Bantu Holomisa, the Chief of the Transkei Defence Force, against the government of Prime Minister Stella Sigcau (TNIP). Holomisa suspended the civilian constitution and refused South Africa's repeated demands for a return to civilian rule on the grounds that a civilian government would be a puppet controlled by Pretoria.

The 1990 Ciskei coup d'état was a bloodless military coup in Ciskei, an unrecognised state and a nominally independent South African homeland for the Xhosa people, which took place on 4 March 1990. The coup was led by the then 37-year-old Brigadier Oupa Gqozo, the Chief of Staff Intelligence of the Ciskei Defence Force, against the government of President for Life Lennox Sebe (CNIP), who was on a state visit to Hong Kong at the time. The coup was followed by widespread rioting and looting, prompting Gqozo to request that the South African government send SADF troops to help restore order.

The 1990 Venda coup d'état was a bloodless military coup in Venda, an unrecognised state and a nominally independent South African homeland for the Venda people, which took place on 5 April 1990. The coup was led by the then 48-year-old Colonel Gabriel Ramushwana, the Chief of Staff of the Venda Defence Force, against the government of President Frank Ravele (NPV).

References

↑ "Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, Act No 26 of 1970" (PDF). Digital Innovation South Africa. Retrieved 7 July 2022.

External links

African History: Apartheid Legislation in South Africa Archived 6 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[DISA-1] "Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, Act No 26 of 1970" (PDF). Digital Innovation South Africa. Retrieved 7 July 2022.

[1]

v t e Apartheid legislation in South Africa
Precursors (before 1948)	Hut tax (1884) Franchise and Ballot Act (1892) Glen Grey Act (1894) Natal Legislative Assembly Bill (1894) Transvaal Asiatic Registration Act (1906) South Africa Act (1909) Mines and Works Act (1911) Natives Land Act (1913) Natives (Urban Areas) Act (1923) Immorality Act (1927) Native Administration Act (1927) Representation of Natives Act (1936) Native Trust and Land Act (1936) Native (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act (1945) Asiatic Land Tenure Act (1946)
Malan to Verwoerd (1948–1966)	Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949) Immorality Amendment Act (1950) Population Registration Act (1950) Group Areas Act (1950) Suppression of Communism Act (1950) Native Building Workers Act (1951) Separate Representation of Voters Act (1951) Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act (1951) Bantu Authorities Act (1951) Native Laws Amendment Act (1952) Pass Laws Act (1952) Public Safety Act (1953) Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act (1953) Bantu Education Act (1953) Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953) Natives Resettlement Act (1954) Group Areas Development Act (1955) Riotous Assemblies Act (1956) Industrial Conciliation Act (1956) Natives (Prohibition of Interdicts) Act (1956) Immorality Act (1957) Bantu Investment Corporation Act (1959) Extension of University Education Act (1959) Promotion of Bantu Self-government Act (1959) Unlawful Organizations Act (1960) Indemnity Act (1961) Coloured Persons Communal Reserves Act (1961) Republic of South Africa Constitution Act (1961) Urban Bantu Councils Act (1961) General Law Amendment Act (1963) Coloured Persons Representative Council Act (1964)
Post-Verwoerd (1966–1994)	Terrorism Act (1967) Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act (1968) Prohibition of Political Interference Act (1968) Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act (1970) Bantu Homelands Constitution Act (1971) Aliens Control Act (1973) Indemnity Act (1977) National Key Points Act (1980) - List of National Key Points Internal Security Act (1982) Intimidation Act (1982) Black Local Authorities Act (1982) Republic of South Africa Constitution Act (1983)