• The Benches and the Racial Classification Council 1959-1991

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3 December 2024 by 
The Benches and the Racial Classification Council (38 Queen Victoria Street)

In the 1960s, a room in what is now the Supreme Court’s annex was the scene of formal hearings of the most bizarre and humiliating kind, where ordinary people came before an appeals panel to hear what “race” they belonged to. Between 1950 and 1991, during apartheid, the Population Registration Act classified every South African as belonging to at least seven “races.” They were then granted more or less citizenship rights on a scale from ‘white’ (with full rights) to ‘Bantu’ (with the least rights). The classification was very subjective, and families were broken apart by placing children or parents with lighter or darker skin tones, curly hair, or different facial features into separate categories. This racial classification, one of many racist practices in South Africa, affected not only individuals, but entire families. The Benches, ‘whites only’ and ‘non-whites only’, an installation by artist Roderick Sauls, reminds visitors of this racist era.

Sources
  • Valentine, Sue. (N.d.). “The Lightbulb Moment: The Artist’s Concept.” Sunday Times Heritage Project. [online]
  • https://sthp.saha.org.za/memorial/articles/the_light_bulb_moment_the_artists_concept_9.htm.

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