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eventREF E-0011828Revised

Event record

Separate Representation of Coloured Voters Act is passed

Date
28 Feb 1956
Updated
30 Sep 2019
Separate Representation of Coloured Voters Act is passed

Following years of struggle in courts and abortive parliamentary attempts to pass the Separate Representation of Coloured Voters Bill, the act was passed after enlarging the Senate and the Appellate Court. It removed Coloured voters from the common voters roll in the Cape and placed them on a separate roll. The Cape was divided into four electoral divisions and the Coloureds received the right to elect one White representative for each of these constituencies. After a long and bitter struggle lasting six years, the government had achieved its aim. Click here to read about opposition to the Act.

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How we know this

  1. 01SAHO, main chronology 1950's, from South African History Online, [online], Available at www.sahistory.org.za [Accessed: 31 January 2014]
  2. 02Muller, C.F.J. (ed) (1981). Five Hundred years: a history of South Africa; 3rd rev. ed., Pretoria: Academica, p. 481.

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Separate Representation of Coloured Voters Act is passed. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011828

South African History Online (2011) 'Separate Representation of Coloured Voters Act is passed', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011828 (Accessed: 4 August 2026).

South African History Online, Separate Representation of Coloured Voters Act is passed [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011828, (accessed 4 August 2026).

"Separate Representation of Coloured Voters Act is passed." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011828. Accessed 4 Aug. 2026.

South African History Online. "Separate Representation of Coloured Voters Act is passed." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011828.

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