Population Registration Act, 1950/1967-05-19

​

as amended by

Population Registration Amendment Act, No. 71 of 1956 Statistics Act, No. 73 of 1957 Population Registration Amendment Act, No. 30 of 1960 Population Registration Amendment Act, No. 61 of 1962 Bantu Laws Amendment Act, No. 42 of 1964 Population Registration Amendment Act, No. 64 of 1967

E IT ENACTED by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate and the House of Assembly of the Union of South Africa, as follows:―

1. (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise indicates— “alien” means an alien as defined in section one of the Aliens Act, 1937 (Act No. 1 of 1937);

“Bantu” means a person who in fact is or is generally accepted as a member of any aboriginal race or tribe of Africa;

“board” means a board constituted in terms of section eleven;

“coloured person” means a person who is not a white person or a Bantu;

“ethnic or other group” means a group prescribed and defined by the Governor-General in terms of subsection (2) of section five;

“fixed date” means the date upon which the census is taken in the year 1951 in terms of section three of the Census Act, 1910 (Act No. 2 of 1910);

“identity card” means the identity card referred to in section thirteen but does not include an identity card which has lapsed in terms of any regulation;

“identity number” means the identity number assigned to a person in terms of section six;

“Minister” means the Minister of the Interior;

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulation;

“register” means the register referred to in section two;

“regulation” means a regulation made under section twenty;

“Secretary” means the Secretary for the Interior and includes any officer acting under a delegation from or under the control or direction of the Secretary for the Interior;

“this Act” includes the regulations;

“white person” means a person who—

in appearance obviously is a white person and who is not generally accepted as a coloured person; or

is generally accepted as a white person and is not in appearance obviously not a white person,

but does not include any person who for the purposes of his classification under this Act, freely and voluntarily admits that he is by descent a Bantu or a coloured person unless it is proved that the admission is not based on fact.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in subsection (1) or any other law, but subject to the provisions of section 5 (5)—

in deciding whether any person is in appearance obviously a white person or not a white person within the meaning of the definition of “white person” in subsection (1), his habits. education and speech and deportment and demeanour in general shall be taken into account;

it shall, in the absence of proof that any person is generally accepted as a white person or a Bantu, be assumed that he is generally accepted as a coloured person except where such person is in appearance obviously a member of an aboriginal race or tribe of Africa;

a person shall be deemed not to be generally accepted as a white person, unless he is so accepted in the area in which or at any place where he—

is ordinarily resident;

is employed or carries on business; mixes socially or takes part in other activities with other members of the public,

and in his association with the members of his family and any other persons with whom he lives;

in considering whether or not any person is a white person, he shall be deemed also to admit freely and voluntarily and on the ground of facts that he is by descent a Bantu or a coloured person if—

in any proceedings before a board or for the purposes of his classification before a court of law, he admits or has admitted under oath that he is not by descent a white person; or

in any form or return referred to in section 3 or 9 or in any application for an identity card completed and signed by him there appears a statement to the effect that as far as his race is concerned, he is not a white person; or

he for the purposes of his classification admits or has admitted that either of his natural parents is or was not generally accepted as a white person;

the fact that any person was generally accepted as a white person or a coloured person or a Bantu on the date on which a form or return referred to in section 3 or 9 was completed by or in respect of him, shall at all times be conclusive proof that he is so accepted.

(3) Where in any form or return referred to in section 3 or 9 the race of any person is described as “mixed” or “gemeng”, that description shall for the purposes of subsections (1) and (2) of this section be deemed to be a reference to a coloured person unless such person proves that he is in fact not a coloured person.

5. (1) Every person whose name is included in the register shall be classified by the Secretary as a white person, a coloured person or a Bantu, as the case may be, and every coloured person and every Bantu whose name is so included shall be classified by the Secretary according to the ethnic or other group to which he belongs.

(2) The State President may by proclamation in the Gazette prescribe and define the ethnic or other groups into which coloured persons and Bantus shall be classified in terms of subsection (1), and may in like manner amend or withdraw any such proclamation or any proclamation purporting to have been issued in terms of this subsection.

(3) (a) The State President may in any proclamation referred to in subsection (2) whereby a previous proclamation, including a proclamation purporting to have been issued in terms of that subsection, is amended or substituted, state that anything done or purporting to have been done under the provisions of that previous proclamation, which could be done under that proclamation as so amended or under the new proclamation whereby that proclamation is so substituted, shall be deemed to have been done under the amended or new proclamation, as the case may be.

(b) A proclamation under subsection (2) may be issued with retrospective effect as from a date not earlier than the seventh day of July, 1950.

(4) If at any time it appears to the Secretary that the classification of a person in terms of subsection (1) (other than a classification in accordance with a decision of a board) is incorrect he may, after giving notice to that person and, if he is a minor, also to his guardian, specifying in which respect the classification is incorrect—

alter the classification of that person in the register after affording such person and such guardian (if any) an opportunity of being heard; or

refer the case to a board for decision as to whether the classification of that person in the register should be altered.

(5) In the application of this section—

a person shall be classified as a white person if his natural parents have both been classified as white persons;

a person shall be classified as a coloured person if his natural parents have both been classified as coloured persons or one of his natural parents has been classified as a white person and the other natural parent has been classified as a coloured person or a Bantu;

a coloured person whose natural parents have both been classified as members of the same ethnic or other group, shall be classified as a member of that group;

a person shall be classified as a Bantu if his natural parents have both been classified as Bantus.

9. (1) If the name of any person whose name is by this Act required to be included in the register, does not appear on the register, that person or, if that person has not attained the age of sixteen years, his guardian, shall furnish the Secretary in the prescribed form with such particulars in regard to himself or, as the case may be, his ward under the age of sixteen years, as may be necessary for the inclusion in the register of his or his ward’s name.

(2) In the application of subsection (1) the furnishing of particulars for the registration of a birth in the form prescribed in terms of the Births, Marriages and Deaths Registration Act, 1963 (Act No. 81 of 1963), or deemed in terms of the said Act to be so prescribed, shall in the case of a person born in the Republic after the fixed date, be deemed to be also the furnishing of particulars for the purposes of that subsection in the form referred to therein.

11. (1) Any person who considers himself aggrieved by his classification or the classification of a minor of whom he is the guardian, by the Secretary in terms of section 5 (other than the classification of a minor in accordance with the provisions of subsection (5) of that section), may within thirty days, or such longer period not exceeding one year as the Minister may allow, after the said classification became known to him, but in no circumstances later, object in writing to the Secretary against that classification.

(2) A minor who is not required to be classified in accordance with the provisions of section 5 (5) may himself object in terms of subsection (1) of this section against his classification.

(3) Every such objection shall be lodged in the form of an affidavit setting forth fully the grounds upon which the objection is made and stating the date on which the classification in question became known to the objector.

(4) Every objection received by the Secretary in terms of subsection (3) within the period referred to in subsection (1), shall be referred by him for decision to a board of not less than three persons, including the chairman, constituted for the purpose or for the purposes of section 5 (4) by the Minister, and presided over by a person appointed by the Minister, who is or has been a judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa, or a magistrate.

(5) (a) The provisions of the Commissions Act, 1947 (Act No. 8 of 1947), except section 1 thereof, shall apply mutatis mutandis with reference to any board constituted under subsection (4) of this section: Provided that the Secretary and every objector and every person whose classification has in terms of the provisions of section 5 (4) been referred by the Secretary for decision to a board, and, if that person is a minor, also his guardian, shall be entitled to appear before the board concerned either in person or by counsel or attorney on his behalf, to cross-examine witnesses and to adduce such evidence as may be relevant to the matter before the board: Provided further that all sittings of a board shall be held in public or in camera as the person whose classification is in issue or, if he is a minor and his guardian is present at the sittings in question. such guardian may elect.

(b) In any proceedings before a board any relevant form and return referred to in section 3 or 9, any relevant report referred to in section 12, and any relevant application for an identity card shall be admitted as evidence.

(6) The decision of a board shall be final and binding upon all persons: Provided that any person who considers himself aggrieved by a decision of a board in regard to his own classification or the classification of his ward, or the Secretary, if he considers it necessary for the performance of his duties in terms of this Act, may within thirty days after the decision of the board has been given, appeal against that decision by way of application on notice of motion to the provincial or local division of the Supreme Court of South Africa having jurisdiction in the area within which the person to whose classification the decision relates, is ordinarily resident.

(7) The division of the said Supreme Court to which appeal is made may confirm, vary or set aside the decision of the board, or give such other decision as in its opinion the board ought to have given, and may make such order as to costs as it may deem fit.

(8) Any judgment given or order made by a provincial or local division of the said Supreme Court in terms of subsection (7), shall be subject to appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa in the same manner and on the same conditions as a judgment given or order made in a civil proceeding in that provincial or local division.

(9) A decision by the court in terms of subsection (7) or (8) relating to the classification of any person shall, for the purpose of this Act, be deemed to be the decision of a board.

(10) A member of the board who is not a member of the public service may be paid such remuneration for his services as a member of the board as the Minister may, in consultation with the Minister of Finance, determine.

15. (1) Any person to whom an identity card has been issued which contains any particulars which are incorrect or which by reason of any change of circumstances or by reason of the alteration by the Secretary in terms of section 5 (4) or by a board in terms of section 11 of the classification in terms of section 5 of the person to whom it relates, have become incorrect, or on which the photograph of the person to whom the identity card relates has ceased to be a recognizable image of that person, shall, on the written request of the Secretary, surrender the identity card in question to the Secretary who shall thereupon issue, free of charge, but subject to the provisions of section 16, a fresh identity card to that person.

(2) Whenever it comes to the notice of a Bantu Affairs Commissioner that any person is in possession of an identity card on which such person’s race is reflected as native or Bantu, and also an identity card on which such person’s race is not reflected as native or Bantu, such Bantu Affairs Commissioner shall forthwith seize the identity card on which the race of the person in question is not reflected as native or Bantu, and transmit such identity card together with the relevant particulars to the Secretary, and thereupon the provisions of section 5 (4) shall apply in the same manner in which they apply if it appears to the Secretary that any person’s classification is incorrect.

19. (1) A person who in appearance obviously is a member of an aboriginal race or tribe of Africa shall for the purposes of this Act be presumed to be a Bantu unless it is proved that he is not in fact and is not generally accepted as such a member.

(2) It shall be no defence to a charge under section 18 (f) for failing to comply with the provisions of section 14 (2), that the name of the accused has not been included in the register or that an identity card has not been issued to him, unless he proves that it was not due to any failure or neglect on his part.

(3) If in any prosecution under section 18 (c) it is proved that any identity card was imitated, altered, defaced, destroyed or mutilated, it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, that such identity card was imitated, altered, defaced, destroyed or mutilated with intent to deceive.