The purpose of the Group Areas Act of 1950 was to legally establish apartheid in South Africa. It set up segregated residential and commercial districts in urban areas throughout the country. It sought to keep black and mixed raced peoples out of the more desirable and better developed areas of South African cities. Essentially, the Group Areas Act served to prop up the white minority of the country and to keep the non-white majority marginalized. Over the four decades that the act was in effect, hundreds of thousands of non-whites were forcibly removed from areas designated for whites.

The Group Areas Act also defined the races of the "groups". These were "White," "Native," and "Colored." The non-white groups were then subdivided along tribal and linguistic lines.

The Group Areas Act was strictly enforced throughout urban South Africa. Violators could face heavy fines and imprisonment. The Group Areas Act was repealed in 1991, at the effective ending of apartheid in South Africa.

What was the Group Areas Act?

The Group Areas Act was one of the main legislative components of the apartheid system. It was expressly designed to keep races apart. South Africa was divided geographically along racial lines, with each area occupied by members of just one single race. The ruling National Party believed that white people were superior to the majority black population and, accordingly, were entitled to the best land and economic opportunities. As much of this land was occupied by blacks, the Group Areas Act stipulated their forced removal to make way for white homes and businesses.

Under the Act, large numbers of the majority black population were forcibly evicted from land that they and their ancestors had occupied for centuries. Once removed, they were restricted to certain geographical areas reserved exclusively for their habitation. These areas were poor, overcrowded, and offered little scope for economic development. But this was precisely what the government intended, as they did not want the indigenous African people to rise socially and economically to a position where they could challenge the ruling whites.