ABSTRACT

The terminology that Port Elizabeth officials used to justify segregating Africans held negative assumptions that were influenced by such racial and cultural beliefs. Political power and representation as well as economic rights, including the right to land and property, were the subject of debate. This chapter provides a background to the passage of the Port Elizabeth Muncipal Act of 1897 another piece of legislation aimed at formally segregating Africans in housing settlements. Africans in Port Elizabeth along with other Africans and some white liberals actively protested this legislation, clearly recognizing that restrictions on the franchise and on black land rights in the countryside were a precursor to limitations on their rights to land in the towns. At the local level, in the towns such as Port Elizabeth, Africans expressed discontent at the municipal administration that failed to provide them with proper sanitation, land rights, and security of tenure and opportunities for upward mobility.