Not to flog a dead horse - but this is how race was determined in the heady days of apartheid. This was taken from Constitionally Speaking - which everyone should subscribe to.
The Population Registration Act 30 of 1950 required every South African to be classified in terms of race and these apartheid race categories included “african”, “white”, “coloured”, “other coloured” or “indian”.
The Act was amended often to try and make it more difficult to reclassify anyone as “white”, but the definitions used at one time included the following:
Although this Act was finally abolished in 1991,
- A white person is one who is in appearance obviously white — and not generally accepted as Coloured – or who is generally accepted as White – and is not obviously Non-White, provided that a person shall not be classified as a White person if one of his natural parents has been classified as a Coloured person or a Bantu…”
- “A Bantu is a person who is, or is generally accepted as, a member of any aboriginal race or tribe of Africa…”
- “A Coloured is a person who is not a White person or a Bantu…”
The Act was finally abolished in 1991.
And seeing that race is now VERY relevant we can only hope that level headed people like Trevor Manuel are able to keep our heads down and focus on the ultimate goal - and that has to be empowerment of the people. This is an excerpt from Trevor's letter to jungle jim
As a consequence of your behaviour, people like me ‐ in the ANC and in government, are being asked to explain what was in the mind of the drafters of the amendments to the Employment Equity Act. We were present at the point of the debate of the first Employment Equity Bill; we expressed a complete comfort with the assignment of 'designated groups' to include “black people” which means "Africans, Coloureds and Indians." because it served as a representation of our constitutionality and as the fruits of our struggle. When in your capacity as Chairperson of the Employment Equity Commission you made strange utterances that sought to carve away at the basic premise of the Employment Equity Act, we should have been more vigilant. The just and constitutionally obligated provisions for redress are not and can never be an excuse to perpetuate racism.
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