The Separate Representation of Voters Act No. 46 was introduced in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

on 18 June 1951. Part of the legislation during the

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

era, the National Party introduced it to enforce racial segregation, and was part of a deliberate process to remove all non-white people from the voters' roll and revoke the Cape Qualified Franchise system. This act was declared invalid by the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

when challenged in the case of ''Harris v Minister of the Interior 1952(2) SA 428(AD)''; this gave rise to the

Coloured vote constitutional crisis The Coloured vote constitutional crisis, also known as the Coloured vote case, was a constitutional crisis that occurred in the Union of South Africa during the 1950s as the result of an attempt by the Nationalist government to remove coloured ...

. The government, however, was able to circumvent the court's decision by increasing the number of Appellate Division judges from five to eleven, and increasing the size of the Senate from forty-eight to eighty-nine. These changes enabled the government to successfully introduce the South Africa Act Amendment Act No 9 of 2 March 1956, effectively overturning the Supreme Court's decision and revalidating the act. This amendment was repealed by the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act 32 of 1961. This case was one of many where South Africa's parliamentary sovereignty enabled the passing of laws without being subject to judicial review on substantive grounds. The judiciary was bound therefore leaving the legislature and executive to act independently from the third arm of government. Arguably this silencing of the judiciary allowed the Apartheid state to become further entrenched in the legal sphere of South Africa. The act as a whole was repealed by section 4 of the Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act No 50 of 27 March 1968. This act introduced the Coloured Persons Representative Council, consisting of forty elected members and twenty nominated members. This council could make laws on

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

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education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

, community welfare and

pension A pension (; ) is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be either a " defined benefit plan", wh ...

s, rural settlements and

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

which affected coloured people. A bill could only be introduced when approved by the Minister of Coloured Relations, as well as requiring the approval of the white Cabinet. This act was repealed in 1983 by section 101(1) of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act No 110, which enacted the South African Constitution of 1983 and its Tricameral Parliament.

References

Chronology of Apartheid legislation 1850s-1970s from South African History Online

External links

* Copy of th
Separate Representation of Voters Act, Act No 46 of 1951
from the DISA library of the University of KwaZulu-Natal * Copy of th
Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act, Act No 30 of 1956
from the DISA library of the University of KwaZulu-Natal Apartheid laws in South Africa 1951 in South African law Election legislation Election law in South Africa {{statute-stub