📅 8 May 1925
Parliament recognized Afrikaans alongside English. The measure strengthened Afrikaner nationalism within a state that excluded the Black majority from national political power.
📅 1 September 1927
The act expanded executive control over African communities and empowered the governor-general to move people and govern by proclamation, weakening legal protections and African land rights.
📅 19 May 1930
The act enfranchised white women but not Black women. By enlarging the white electorate, it diluted the influence of the limited number of African men still qualified to vote in the Cape.
📅 7 April 1936
The act removed African voters in the Cape from the common voters' roll and substituted limited, segregated representation. It was a decisive attack on remaining African political rights.
📅 6 September 1939
Parliament chose war on Germany and replaced Prime Minister Hertzog with Jan Smuts. Black South Africans served and worked for the war effort while racial inequality continued at home.
