The pass measures were aimed at controlling the mobility of the Black population in White urban areas. Bloemfontein was becoming a fast-growing economy and held employment opportunities for Black people, who ended up being segregated from the city in a location called Waaihoek. Women played a significant role in the provision of labour services, both skilled and unskilled. Thus, the passes posed a hindrance to their sources of income.
The first anti-pass protest march in Bloemfontein occurred in 1894 in which women sent petitions to the local municipality. By 1898, the anti-pass protestors, still subjected to carrying passes, drew up a petition to President Marthinus Theunis Steyn against the pass system.
This was one of many actions initiated and undertaken to protest the passes that continued to be remodelled in the goal of segregating Black people from White settlements, by controlling their mobility for extracting their labour and services.
