The Electoral Law Amendment Act, 1958 (Act No. 30 of 1958) was an act of the

Parliament of South Africa The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is South Africa's legislature. It is located in Cape Town; the country's legislative capital city, capital. Under the present Constitution of South Africa, the bicameralism, bicameral Parliamen ...

which reduced the

voting age A legal voting age is the minimum age that a person is allowed to Voting, vote in a democracy, democratic process. For General election, general elections around the world, the right to vote is restricted to adults, and most nations use 18 year ...

for

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

voters from 21 to 18. It did not reduce the voting age for

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

and

coloured Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South ...

voters (under the

Representation of Natives Act The Representation of Natives Act No 12 of 1936 (commenced 10 July) was legislation passed in South Africa which further reduced black rights at the time. The Cape province had a qualified franchise which had allowed a small number of blacks in t ...

and the Separate Representation of Voters Act respectively) and hence had the effect of further reducing their (already limited) electoral power. The act came into force on 15 September 1958. The next subsequent general election of the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible g ...

was held on 8 October 1961. The act took the form of a series of amendments to the Electoral Consolidation Act, 1946, and was therefore repealed on 1 February 1980 when that act was repealed and replaced by the Electoral Act, 1979.

References

{{Reflist Repealed South African legislation 1958 in South African law