28 February 1956
Following years of struggle in courts and abortive parliamentary attempts to pass the Separate Representation of Coloured Voters Bill, the act was passed after enlarging the Senate and the Appellate Court. It removed Coloured voters from the common voters roll in the Cape and placed them on a separate roll. The Cape was divided into four electoral divisions and the Coloureds received the right to elect one White representative for each of these constituencies. After a long and bitter struggle lasting six years, the government had achieved its aim.
Click here to read about opposition to the Act.
References
SAHO, main chronology 1950's, from South African History Online, [online], Available at www.sahistory.org.za [Accessed: 31 January 2014]|Muller, C.F.J. (ed) (1981). Five Hundred years: a history of South Africa; 3rd rev. ed., Pretoria: Academica, p. 481.