The battle for South End: group areas removals in Port Elizabeth in the 1960s

Abstract

Since the late 1850s a vibrant cosmopolitan community developed in South End, Port Elizabeth and a variety of communities and nationalities lived in harmony with one another, respecting one another's culture, religion and way of life. After more than a century, the government of the day decreed that people of different colours and cultures could not live together any longer. The Group Areas Act (No. 14) of 1950 set aside separate residential areas for each population group as provided for by the Population Registration Act of 1950. The Group Areas Act aimed at restricting each population group to defrned places as far as ownership, occupancy and trading were concerned. The ultimate goal of the Group Areas Act however, was to extend restrictions in order to establish residential racial purity by shifting groups from one place to another.