Pass

the late 1700s the white settlers in South Africa forced slaves to carry identity books so they could control their movement. In some way or another pass books had existed since then, but when the National Party came to power in 1948 and formalized the ideology of apartheid they needed more ...

And when I started working outside and I saw how the men were being caught for pass books, how black men struggled I decided to play coloured to be able to live.

... that a minister ordered it was tested? We are dealing here once again with allegations made by people in amnesty applications who are trying to pass the ...

... on the amnesty applications of the three policemen involved with the killing of the Gugulethu Seven. We look at the history and effects of the pass laws and the hostel system and we look at truth commissions elsewhere in the world. We also bring you a special documentary on the notorious ...

Botswana was never a training area. Most of the training was done in Angola and in Zambia. Botswana was a conduit I would say where people when they passed, coming from Zambia, from Zambia they’d pass through Botswana but without the Botswana government’s knowledge. We had to do this, we had no ...

... policemen. // Your callousness, your coldness and insensitivity shows us the kind of leaders that the South African government chose. // No compassion. // We have a fascinating piece on black people from the Karoo who have spent many years trying to pass as coloureds and now want their old ...

In the fifties women were suddenly also required to carry a pass and had to qualify for permits in their own right. They were no longer seen as part of their husband’s household.

... on the ground. I could see her eyes staring. I couldn’t tell whether she was dead already. I rushed to our home which was burning. As I tried to pass the soldiers, they said I should stand back. Nobody was allowed in, because those people were there and they would kill me. I said I did not ...

... many African countries had cast off the colonialist yoke and became independent states. // The PAC organised a massive protest against the pass laws on 21 March 1960. In Sharpeville police killed 69 demonstrators. // This event rocked the country and focused international attention on ...

... say Hey! You mustn’t say I’m your child. I’m a child of South Africa. I’m a child of South Africa, not yours, because I am fighting for the pass ...

In fact you are not the only one who killed there are others, it’s still going on. Right now if you go down the road you’re not sure if you’ll pass safely. All we want is peace and to live ...

we were disturbed by flying aircraft. We then left that place and on the 6th were down here where we were killed. We were beaten for not wanting the pass system, the fencing off of our land, Bantu education and the introduction of taxes which meant paying for our own cows. Those were the things we ...

... that did even more damage to generations of our people that cannot be narrowly defined as individual human rights violations. Practices such as the pass laws and the hostel system. Hostels have been called fortresses of fear. Hostels were mostly primitive buildings housing single black males who ...

the last 15 years and worked for one employer for ten years, or be fifteen years in the area. // So the number of people who could qualify to have a pass that entitled them to be in the urban areas were limited, very strictly ...

... wrenching disruption of forced removals in respect of their homes, businesses and land; who over the years suffered the shame of being arrested for pass law offences; who over the decades, and indeed centuries suffered the indignities and humiliation of racial discrimination; who for a long time ...

... how was I going to live with myself with it?’ So that even during basics I was starting to collect information which I thought I might be able to pass on to someone at a later ...

... I did the job very well, I found it very interesting in that there were all sorts of strange messages which people were leaving that I was asked to pass on to other people and it was fairly clear to me therefore that this was an unusual military unit with unusual significance. ...