This Day in History: January 14, 1981
Additional Date: January 14, 1981
Under a proposed amendment to the Population Registration Act South Africans across race spectrum would have their fingerprints taken and recorded on a central fingerprint register. A uniform identity document was to be issued to all races. This Act was first passed in 1950. It defined racial groups relatively loosely. The Population Registration Act determined people’s race classification, which in turn determined the implementation of many other racially based laws. One of the apartheid laws passed in the 1950s was the Group Areas Act, which determined where people of different racial groups could live. The Group Areas Act did not permit mixing of any groups.