The Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act, 1968 (Act No. 50 of 1968) 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 ...
enacted under the government of
B. J. Vorster, which repealed the
Separate Representation of Voters Act, 1951.
The act provided for the expiry of the term of all members of the
South African Parliament who had represented "non-European" voters, as well as preventing the election of any future members under that categorisation.
This had the effect of removing the four members 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 ...
who were elected by
Coloured voters in the
Cape Province as well as abolishing the additional nominated seat in the Senate for the "non-European" (i.e. Coloured, as black Africans were explicitly excluded from the definition under section 1 (ii) of the 1951 act) population of the Cape Province, that had only been filled once in 1957 and had been vacant since 1962. Subsequently the House of Assembly would be elected solely by
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.
The act was promulgated on 5 June 1968, but the repeal only took effect at the dissolution of the House of Assembly on 2 March 1970, before the
general election of 22 April 1970. In the interim, the term of office of the four members was extended and the filling of any vacancy in their seats (or the vacancy of the additional Senate seat for the Coloured population of the Cape Province) was prohibited.
In 1969, Coloured citizens were given the right to elect members to the
Coloured Persons Representative Council, a quasi-legislative body with limited powers.
The act was repealed by the
Constitution of 1983, which created the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
to represent Coloured citizens in Parliament.
References
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Apartheid laws in South Africa
Election legislation
1968 in South African law