About this site

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

1913

The Native Land Act is passed under which the white population of one and half million is allotted 87% of the land of South Africa while the remaining 13% is put in trust for the use of the black population of five and half million in the designated 'Reserves'.

In July moves to extend the pass laws to include women are met with determined resistance. Six hundred women march to the municipal offices in Bloemfontein and deposit a bag containing their passes. They politely inform the Deputy Mayor that they will no longer buy or carry passes. In Winburg, Charlotte Maxeke, one of the organisers and spokeswomen of the anti-pass campaign, is arrested with 800 women on a march to the town hall, singing hymns. They refuse to pay their fines and say they will never carry a pass.

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. Return to theThis resource is hosted by the site.