A proposed amendment to the Population Registration Act is made

Updated: 30 Sep 2019

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.

How we know this

01O’Malley, P. ‘1981’, from Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Dialog, [online], available at www.nelsonmandela.org.za (19 November 2012)
02South End Museum, ‘The Group Areas Act’, [online], available at www.southendmuseum.co.za (Accessed: 19 November 2012)
03Sunday Times, An appalling "science", [online], available at https://heritage.thetimes.co.za (Accessed: 19 November 2012)

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2012, December 20). A proposed amendment to the Population Registration Act is made. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094457

South African History Online (2012) 'A proposed amendment to the Population Registration Act is made', South African History Online, 20 December. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094457 (Accessed: 15 October 2026).

South African History Online, A proposed amendment to the Population Registration Act is made [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094457, (accessed 15 October 2026).

"A proposed amendment to the Population Registration Act is made." South African History Online, 20 Dec. 2012, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094457. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

South African History Online. "A proposed amendment to the Population Registration Act is made." South African History Online. December 20, 2012. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094457.