The original sin, 100@19: the South African 1913 native land actís history and impact

Abstract

Africa at large suf ered several discriminatory infamous acts that include notorious land acts which dispossessed black Africans of their land. In South Africa, the Natives Land Act of 1913 was the first major piece of segregation legislation passed by the Union Parliament, and remained a cornerstone of apartheid until the 1990s when it was replaced by the post- apartheid policy of land restitution. The Act decreed that only certain areas of the country could be owned by natives. These areas totaled only 13% of the entire land mass of the Union. The Act created a system of land tenure that deprived the majority of South Africaís inhabitants of the right to own land which had major socio-economic repercussions. The 1913 Land Act turned 100 on the 19th of June 2013 and saw 2 major conferences being held, one in Cape Town (called Land Divided Conference) and another in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (under the theme ëLand Reform, Land Grabbing and Agricultural development in 21st Century Africaí), to reflect on the trajectory of an Act that came to be known as the original sin. The conferences were on the 19th of June 2013, the 19th year after the demise of apartheid which passed the Native Land Act on the 19th of June 1913. Through desktop, this paper set out to document the history of the 1913 Land Act in South Africa, analyse its impact on natives and examine how it has shaped issues of land to today. Findings are that the Act was the fulcrum of apartheid and its impact are far reaching.