Pass Laws - Remember & Honour: Sharpeville Day

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Pass Laws - Remember & Honour: Sharpeville Day

On March 21, 1960 the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) under the leadership of Robert Sobukwe held a non-violent anti-pass laws protest campaign.

PASS LAWS, WHAT ARE PASS LAWS, AND THEIR IMPACT:

Pass laws turned African man 'bachelors' and as such they had to stay away from their loved ones in some "bachelor zones" (hostels). African women and children had been "endorsed" and separated from their husbands and fathers - the bachelors. The apartheid government had removed Africans from urban areas to reserves in an 'endorsing out' law. Under the discriminatory Urban Areas Act, Africans weren't allowed to stay in urban areas for longer than 72 hours unless they'd lived there for longer than 15 years, had worked with the same employer for 10 years or had a discretionary permit to reside and work there.

Employers - employers were legally and technically white people (exclusively) - would quite often terminate the workers' (black workers) contracts after nine years and 11 months. (Just one month before the ten-year term allowing them in urban areas). Now what does that mean? It means that the poor African had to go