The Peace Preservation Ordinance and Ordinance No. Only three Africans and 251 Indians ever acquired voting rights in Natal. African people were disenfranchised in 1865.
The Franchise Act No 8 of 1896 disenfranchised Indians. The Franchise Act of 1894 is introduced in Natal to disenfranchise Indians. The expelled are awarded nominal compensation.
#FN 1905 PENETRATION FREE#
By 1891, The Volksraad in the Orange Free State (OFS) passed a law expelling all Indians from the province. The Orange Free State Act 29 of 1890 "aims to provide against the influx of Asiatics and the removal of White criminals entering the state from elsewhere." There were nine licensed Indian, traders in the Free State. In 1888 legislation is passed compelling Indians to carry passes or court arrest. The “Gold Law” of 1908 extended this prohibition to the gold fields of the Witwatersrand. The Volksraad of the South African Republic (as the Transvaal was then known) passed the first racially discriminatory legislation, Law 3 of 1885, which prohibited Indians from acquiring citizenship or owning property in the South African Republic except in ‘streets, wards and locations’ set aside for them. In 1876 the Free State Republic passed legislation allowing Indians to enter the Republic with the understanding that they have no permanent right of residence. Notwithstanding the unrelenting vitriol of a largely rabid White racist community, through sheer sacrifice and perseverance, they overcame the humiliation of being relegated to and treated as second class citizens in their newly adopted country.ĭiscriminatory laws directed at the Indian community ↵ Their lot was aggravated by a lack of legislation to protect them. A slew of racist legislation was employed to advance and protect the interests of the plantation owners rather than the new arrivals.ĭeprived of the franchise, segregated into overcrowded areas and uninhabitable housing, prohibited from walking on pavements or travelling from one province to another, the newly arrived Indians were treated nothing less than serfs. From their arrival Indian workers were forced to endure the harshest working and inhuman living conditions. The first batch of 342 indentured labourers arrived in Durban, Natal on 16 November 1860.
#FN 1905 PENETRATION FULL#
The indentured Indian labourers were also entitled to a gift of crown land and full citizenship rights. The system also provided for the labourers to re-indenture for a further five year period which would make them eligible to settle permanently in the colony. This law made it possible for the Colony to introduce immigration of Indians as indentured labourers in the Natal sugar cane fields, with the option to return to India at the end of the five year period in which case a free passage would be provided.
On securing the reluctant agreement of the Indian Government (under British rule) the wheels of immigration were set in motion. After protracted negotiations between the Natal Government and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Natal Coolie Law, Law 14 of 1859 was passed. An acute labour shortage forced White settlers in Natal to plead to the Indian Government to send its citizens to work in their cane fields.