Mbalula tries to school Maimane on Apartheid legislation

ANC national executive committee (NEC) member Fikile Mbalula tried to give DA leader Mmusi Maimane a history lesson on Apartheid legislation.

This after the leader of the opposition tweeted on Saturday, July 7: “Today 68 years ago, the Apartheid government passed the Group Areas Act.”

Maimane goes on to say the act would have made his marriage to his wife illegal, “as we would not have been able to live together as a married couple and raise a family”.

Mbalula retweeted Maimane, correcting the leader of the DA by pointing out he most likely meant the Immorality Act.

However, a quick Google search of the two pieces of legislation and skimming through the information provided by website South African History Online shows how the two politicians might have missed the mark on when either the Group Areas Act, as stated by Maimane, was passed, or the Immorality Act, according to Mbalula’s correction, was enacted into law.

According to South African History online, the Group Areas Act was passed on April 27, 1950, but to Maimane’s credit, it commenced on July 7 that year.

The act was meant to keep people of different races segregated and living in urban areas according to their race grouping.

The Immorality Act, according to the website, was passed into law on September 30, 1926. The law made sex between people of different races illegal, whether married or not.

This act would be followed by the Immorality Amendment Act of 1950. The amendment to the Immorality Act prohibited illicit carnal intercourse between Europeans and non-Europeans, according to history website.

According to the online portal on the country’s history, the act that Mbalula could have possibly been referring to is the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, which commenced on July 8, 1949.

The act prohibited marriage or sexual relations between white people and people of other races in South Africa.

Mbalula’s history lesson did, however, cause a frenzy on Twitter, with some users quick to find humour in the fact that the ANC leader had referred to Maimane as ‘ntate  moruti’, which loosely translates to pastor.

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