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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 It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

1920. Native Affairs Act No 23

"This established a native affairs commission; provided for a system of local councils in the reserves; and authorized the administration to convene conferences of chiefs, councillors and 'prominent Natives' with a view 'to the ascertainment of the sentiments of the Native population' ... [It] was a shoddy device to side-track the African demand for the right to sit in parliament" (Simons & Simons 1969: 251).

It "set up separate tribal councils for the administration of the reserves and advisory councils for Africans in urban areas [but see the NATIVES URBAN AREAS ACT of 1923], all under the aegis of the Native Affairs Department and under the ultimate authority of the Prime Minister" (Worden 1994: 74).

Together with the NATIVES ADMINISTRATION ACT of 1927, this was "part of a process of transferring power over the regulation of African life from Parliament to the executive" (Dyzenhaus 1991: 37).

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