HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN LAND DISTRIBUTION POLICY

1913: Union Parliament passes a law reserving about 7 percent of land for black South Africans.

1923: Separate residential areas for blacks are created. Pass laws are instituted.

1927: Parliament passes a law laying foundation for forced removal of blacks by government decree.

1936: Land law adds a further 6 percent of land for blacks, allocating 13 percent of the land for 73 percent of the people.

1948: National Party comes to power.

1950: Group Areas Act creates separate residential areas for mixed-race, coloured, and Indian minorities.

1951: Tribal authorities set up in the black homelands. Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act passed.

1952: Pass laws are drastically tightened.

1955: Massive forced removals under Group Areas Act begin.

1959: Foundation is laid for nominally independent black homelands.

1960: Massive forced removals of black urban and rural communities begin.

1964 and 1968: Pass laws and migrant-labor system further tightened.

1970: Citizenship law allowed all blacks to be stripped of their South African citizenship as black homelands are granted nominal independence.

1976-1981: Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei granted ``independence.'' Government minister said forced removals would be halted, but removals continue under a more subtle guise. Leasehold rights extended to some urban blacks.

1985: Black property rights restored in urban townships. Threatened removal of Crossroads squatter camp becomes an international cause. Government backs down.1986: Pass laws are summarily scrapped.

1990: President Frederik de Klerk legalizes the ANC and frees Nelson Mandela.

1991: Land Acts of 1913 and 1936 repealed. Group Areas Act repealed. Commission set up to investigate land claims. Communities which try to reoccupy ancestral lands are forcibly restrained.

November 1992: Thirty-nine dispossessed communities give De Klerk February 1993 ultimatum for restoration of land.

1993: Land is restored to the Natal communities of Roosboom and Charlestown following commissiom findings.

November 1993: Bill of Rights entitles dispossessed communities to full restitution.December 1993: Civil rights groups approach multiracial commission to halt accelerated evictions of labor tenants on farms.