This Day in History: February 28, 1956
Additional Date: February 28, 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.