Monday, 27 March 1876
The first issue of South Africa’s first daily newspaper, The Cape Times, was published in Cape Town as an English language morning newspaper with Frederick York St Leger as editor.
It sold for the cheap price of a penny and has been in continuous daily production ever since.
The history of newspapers in South Africa was closely linked to the struggle for freedom of speech.
The South African Commercial Advertiser, the first newspaper in South Africa, appeared in 1824 in Cape Town, but was closed by Governor Lord Charles Somerset.
The paper reappeared again in 1828, with the promise of freedom to publish subject only to the law of libel.
The Cape Times, covering South African and world news, sport and lifestyle,has withstood the test of time and has a daily readership of about 316 000.
Sunday, 27 March 1960
The South African Commissioner of Police announced that the pass laws, applicable to the African population, were suspended until normality had been restored, following the Sharpeville Massacre.
The Police Commissioner said that the pass laws were not being suspended to appease the unfounded protests of Bantu agitators, but because the jails could no longer accommodate the many Africans who presented themselves for arrest by openly violating the pass laws.
Pass laws required that Africans carry their pass books all the time; this helped the government in restricting their movements.
The suspension of pass laws followed the country-wide anti-pass campaign that resulted in the Sharpeville Massacre where more than 200 protesters were shot down by police.
Wednesday, 27 March 1968
The Coloured Persons Representative Council was formed with forty elected members and twenty nominated members.
It had legislative powers to make laws affecting Coloureds on finance, local government, education, community welfare and pensions, rural settlements and agriculture.
No bill could be introduced without the approval of the Minister of Coloured Relations, nor could a bill be passed without the approval of the white Cabinet (Dugard 1978: 98).
Assent gained: 27 March 1968; commencement date not found Repealed by s 101(1) of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act No 110 of 1983.
Thursday, 27 March 1975
The Nationalist party government announced its intention to consolidate the total number of separate ‘homeland’ areas from 113 to 36.
The homelands were officially instituted in the 1950s as a form of apartheid separate development and a way to strip Black South Africans of their South African citizenship.
The idea was that the ‘homelands’ would, from the point of view of the apartheid government at least, be like countries where the Black people could live and vote for their own governments.
The reality was that they became impoverished cheap labour pools ruled by chiefs controlled by the apartheid state.
Wednesday, 27 March 1985
Beyers Naudé, Allan Boesak and 200 others are arrested for leading a march through the city of Cape Town to Pollsmoor Prison.
They were protesting for the release of Nelson Mandela.
The charges were subsequently dropped, but the South African police kept the two men under surveillance.
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