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Group Areas Act - an oversight to the views of world leaders

an oversight to the views of world leaders

Course

Historical Studies (HST)

56 Documents

Students shared 56 documents in this course

University

University of Cape Town

Academic year: 2017/2018

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Luke D'Aguiar

University of Cape Town

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Group Areas Act

What was the Group Areas Act?

The Group Areas Act was an act enacted under

the apartheid government of South Africa.

What was the purpose of the Group

Areas act?

The act assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas. Those living in areas allocated to another race group were forced to leave.

How was the Group Areas Act unfair?

An effect of the law was to exclude non-whites from living in the most developed areas, which were restricted to whites

 Non-whites had to travel very far to get to work  The non-white majority were given much smaller areas to live in than the white minority who owned most of the country  Families were separated into different areas of South Africa

Interview

I interviewed my gardener William Konzeke. I spoke to him on Thursday 25th of August. I asked him many questions and learnt the hardships people had to go through.

William was born in Transkei in the Eastern Cape. As a young man William had to go to work in the mines in Johannesburg. He did not like it there and ran away to come to Cape Town.

His father was very angry with him because he was giving up a job to take a chance of finding work in Cape Town.

William stayed in Crossroads, which is a black Township about 12km east of Athlone. It was a very rough area, but William could not afford to be choosy.

It was hard in Cape Town to find work, but eventually William found work as a labourer for a brick layer who worked on building sites.

My uncle employed the brick layer and William on construction projects, but one day tragedy struck. The brick layer was stabbed and killed on the way home from work.

My uncle felt sorry for William, and kept him on trying to teach him new skills. William worked on many construction projects with my Uncle.

In time William has learned many skills such as painting, skimming, brick laying, tiling and general handiwork.

He still works for my uncle, who has taken out a policy for William, for his pension.

William got a RDP house eventually, and still stays in Crossroads. During the apartheid years he had to carry his passbook wherever he went. He could be locked up in jail if he did not have it with him.

William was not allowed to be in the white suburbs after a certain time. He had to make sure that he left by a certain time to get back home to the black township.

Although William is now allowed to live anywhere he likes, in reality he cannot afford to rent or buy in the old whites only suburbs.

William has a wife and son who live in Transkei. He only sees them at Christmas time and his wife has never seen Cape Town.

During the apartheid years people tried to stop William coming to work, to protest against the harsh laws, but

Cross Roads, Cape Town

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