The Natives Land Act comes into force, restricting where Black South Africans may own or rent land
The Natives Land Act (Act 27 of 1913), passed by the Union Parliament in Cape Town and signed on 16 June, took effect on 19 June 1913. It barred Black South Africans from buying or renting land outside reserves covering about 7 per cent of the country.
Photo: Unknown photographer · Public domain
The Union Parliament, which sat in Cape Town, passed the Natives Land Act during its 1913 session. The Governor-General, Lord Gladstone, signed it on 16 June 1913, and it was published in the Government Gazette and came into force on 19 June.
The Act set aside 'scheduled native areas', about 7 per cent of South Africa's land, and stopped Black people from buying or leasing land from white owners outside them. Its effect differed by province, but in places such as the Free State sharecroppers and tenant families were forced off farms. Sol Plaatje wrote that on 20 June 1913 Black South Africans woke up as outcasts in the land of their birth.
In 1914 a South African Native National Congress delegation travelled to Britain to ask for the law to be overturned, without success. The Native Trust and Land Act of 1936 later raised the reserves to about 13 per cent.
Why it matters
The Act was the first national law to divide land by race and laid the legal groundwork for later segregation and apartheid removals. Its legacy remains central to land reform in South Africa today.
- Source: The Natives Land Act of 1913, South African History Online · Sol T. Plaatje, Native Life in South Africa (1916), chapter I, 'A Retrospect' · A Century of the Notorious 1913 Land Act, SAHO archive · 1913 Natives Land Act: the original text, Politicsweb · Historical context, Rebuilding Parliament, Parliament of South Africa
Where it happened
South Africa (national law)
The Act came into force across the Union of South Africa on 19 June 1913 by publication in the Government Gazette; there was no ceremony venue. Where Lord Gladstone signed it on 16 June is not recorded in the sources used.
-
Where it happened National
South Africa (national law)
The Act came into force across the Union of South Africa on 19 June 1913 by publication in the Government Gazette; there was no ceremony venue. Where Lord Gladstone signed it on 16 June is not recorded in the sources used.
-
Institution Exact site
Houses of Parliament, Cape Town
The Union Parliament sat in this complex in Cape Town, where both houses passed the Act during the 1913 session. The Old Assembly chamber was built for the Union Parliament in 1910.
