With the passing of the Restoration of Citizenship Act in July last year, the residents of the four nominally 'independent' bantustans - Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei (TBVC), were subjected to new restrictions on their freedom of movement. The legislation followed government statements, in the course of 1985, that South African citizenship would be restored to those who had lost it, when the bantustans to which they were assigned were declared 'independent'. Between 1976 and 1981 an estimated nine million people had been deprived of their citizenship in this way.
The act, however, restored citizenship to only a small number of people. A memorandum released by the Department of Home Affairs in July stated that only those residents of the TBVC bantustans who were 'permanently resident' outside their boundaries would qualify for the return of their citizenship. In a follow-up press conference, the term 'permanent residents' was more closely defined. Only the following categories would be eligible for the newly issued identity documents, which have replaced the old passes:
- those born outside their assigned bantustan before it became 'independent' and permanently resident outside it; - those born outside the bantustan after its 'independence' who had lived outside it permanently since birth; - those who had lived outside the bantustan for five years since 'independence': one period of a year's unbroken residence, plus an additional four years.
There were further qualifications. The people affected had to have left the bantustans lawfully, to have had a suitable home and lived out of the bantustan permanently with their wives and children.
Various acts including the Group Areas Act restrict the place where Africans may lawfully reside outside the bantustans to a house approved by a local authority - usually as tenants of officially approved family housing, as registered lodgers or as residents of approved squatter camps. The drastic shortage and overcrowding of existing housing has for some time restricted the number of people qualifying for legal residence, forcing most new workseekers into illegal squatting.
The stipulation that only those who have lived permanently outside the bantustans with their wives and children qualify under the act, automatically prevents contract workers, residents of hostels and commuters from the TBVC areas from regaining their citizenship.
An estimated nine million people are deemed to be citizens of the TBVC bantustans. Only 1,751,400 are expected to meet the strict criteria under the act (less than one fifth). The remaining 5.75 million ordinarily reside inside the TBVC boundaries or are otherwise disqualified from a claim to permanent residence rights. Under the act all these people remain subject, like workers from South Africa's neighbouring states, to controls contained in the Aliens Act of 1984 and will require special permits to work outside the bantustans. Employers taking on 'alien' workers illegally are liable to stiff penalties - a R5,000 fine or two years imprisonment. Workers themselves face a fine of R600 or six months' imprisonment, followed by removal from the area.
New Controls Enforced In the months following the passing of the act the government began a drive to register 'alien' workers. Employees were sent letters by the Department of Home Affairs asking for particulars of 'alien' employees including their addresses, temporary residence permit numbers, 'nationality', date of employment and occupation. In August it was reported that people had been arrested for failing to renew their visitor's permits. At the end of that month it was revealed in Parliament that in the two years before the passing of the act the Department of Home Affairs had already requested particulars of 'foreigners' in 365 firms. It was not clear from these figures, which include citizens of South Africa's neighbouring states and further afield, how many residents of TBVC bantustans have been affected. But when, in March 1987, figures for the arrests of suspected illegal immigrants were announced, the Minister of Law and Order indicated that people from the Transkei and Bophuthatswana bantustans were among the 19,966 affected.
Residents of the remaining (non-'independent') bantustans benefitted in certain respects from the scrapping of conventional influx controls in July 1986. Under the Abolition of Influx Controls Act they were free to seek work in the areas outside the bantustans but subject to the availability of approved housing. The Act tightened the provisions of the Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act and the Slums Act, increasing the powers of local authorities to demolish illegal squatter camps and to transfer their residents to resettlement sites elsewhere. The Trespass Act continues to be used. The Act provides for the prosecution of people living on property without permission of the lawful owner.
Since July 1986 there have been several reports of the demolition of illegal squatter camps and the arrest of their occupants under the trespass laws. During 1986, 95,384 people were arrested under the Trespass Act - the highest figure since 1983.
