Editing Coloureds (section)

==History==

===Pre-apartheid era===
Coloured people played an important role in the struggle against apartheid and its predecessor policies. The [[African Political Organisation]], established in 1902, had an exclusively Coloured membership; its leader [[Abdullah Abdurahman]] rallied Coloured political efforts for many years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/bios/abdurahman-a.htm|title=Dr Abdullah Abdurahman 1872 - 1940|publisher=South African History Online|access-date=2009-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071121035811/http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/bios/abdurahman-a.htm|archive-date=2007-11-21|url-status=dead}}</ref> Many Coloured people later joined the [[African National Congress]] and the [[United Democratic Front (South Africa)|United Democratic Front]]. Whether in these organisations or others, many Coloured people were active in the fight against apartheid.

The political rights of Coloured people varied by location and over time. In the 19th century they theoretically had similar rights to Whites in the [[Cape Colony]] (though income and property qualifications affected them disproportionately). In the [[Transvaal Republic]] or the [[Orange Free State]], they had few rights. Coloured members were elected to Cape Town's municipal authority (including, for many years, Abdurahman). The establishment of the [[Union of South Africa]] gave Coloured people the franchise, although by 1930 they were restricted to electing White representatives. They conducted frequent voting boycotts in protest. Such boycotts may have contributed to the victory of the [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] in 1948. It carried out an apartheid programme that stripped Coloured people of their remaining voting powers.

The term "[[Kaffir (racial term)|kaffir]]" is a racial slur used to refer to Black African people in South Africa. While it is still used against black people, it is not as prevalent as it is against coloured people.<ref>Adhikari, Mohamed, editor. Burdened by Race: Coloured Identities in Southern Africa. UCT Press, 2013, pp. 69, 124, 203 {{ISBN|978-1-92051-660-4}} https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/c0a95c41-a983-49fc-ac1f-7720d607340d/628130.pdf.</ref><ref>Mathabane, M. (1986). Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa. Simon & Schuster. (Chapter 2)</ref>

===Apartheid era===
[[File:ApartheidPopulationGroups.jpg|thumb|Explanation of South African identity numbers in an identity document during apartheid in terms of official White, Coloured and Indian population subgroups]]
Coloured people were subject to forced relocation. For instance, the government relocated Coloured from the urban Cape Town areas of [[District Six]], which was later bulldozed. Other areas they were forced to leave included [[Constantia, Cape Town|Constantia]], [[Claremont, Cape Town|Claremont]], [[Simon's Town]]. Inhabitants were moved to racially designated sections of the metropolitan area on the [[Cape Flats]]. Additionally, under apartheid, Coloured people received education inferior to that of Whites. It was, however, better than that provided to Black South Africans.

[[J. G. Strijdom]], known as "the Lion of the North", continued the impetus to restrict Coloured rights, in order to entrench the new-won [[Nasionale Party|National Party]] majority. Coloured participation on juries was removed in 1954, and efforts to [[Coloured vote constitutional crisis|abolish their participation on]] the common voters' roll in the [[Cape Province]] escalated drastically; it was [[South Africa Act Amendment Act, 1956|accomplished in 1956]] by a supermajority amendment to the [[Separate Representation of Voters Act, 1951|1951 Separate Representation of Voters Act]], passed by Malan but held back by the judiciary as unconstitutional under the [[South Africa Act, 1909|South Africa Act]], the Union's effective constitution. In order to bypass this safeguard, enforced since 1909 to ensure [[Cape Qualified Franchise|Coloured political rights in the then-British Cape Colony]], Strijdom's government passed legislation to expand the number of Senate seats from 48 to 89. All of the additional 41 members hailed from the National Party, increasing its representation in the Senate to 77 in total. The Appellate Division Quorum Bill increased the number of judges necessary for constitutional decisions in the Appeal Court from five to eleven. Strijdom, knowing that he had his two-thirds majority, held a joint sitting of parliament in May 1956. The entrenchment clause regarding the Coloured vote, known as the South Africa Act, were thus eliminated and the Separate Representation of Voters Act passed, now successfully.

Coloureds were placed on a separate voters' roll from the 1958 election to the House of Assembly and forward. They could elect four Whites to represent them in the [[House of Assembly of South Africa|House of Assembly]]. Two Whites would be elected to the [[Cape Provincial Council]] and the [[Governor General of the Union of South Africa|governor general]] could appoint one [[Senate of South Africa|senator]]. Both blacks and Whites opposed this measure, particularly from the [[United Party (South Africa)|United Party]]&nbsp;and more liberal opposition. The [[Torch Commando]] was prominent, while the [[Black Sash]] (White women, uniformly dressed, standing on street corners with placards) also made themselves heard. In this way, the question of the Coloured vote became one of the first measures of the regime's unscrupulous nature and flagrant willingness to manipulate its inherited [[Westminster system]]. It would remain in power until 1994.

Many Coloureds refused to register for the new voters' roll and the number of Coloured voters dropped dramatically. In the next election, only 50.2% of them voted. They had no interest in voting for White representatives — an activity which many of them saw as pointless, and only persisted for ten years.

Under the [[Population Registration Act]], as amended, Coloureds were formally classified into various subgroups, including [[Cape Coloureds]], [[Cape Malays]] and "other coloured". A portion of the small [[Chinese South African]] community was also classified as a coloured subgroup.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120423220247/http://heritage.thetimes.co.za/memorials/wc/RaceClassificationBoard/article.aspx?id=591128 An appalling "science"]</ref><ref>
Graham Leach, ''South Africa: no easy path to peace'' (1986), [https://archive.org/details/southafricanoeas0000leac/page/70 p. 70]: Population Registration Act, 1959 cape coloured</ref>

In 1958, the government established the Department of Coloured Affairs, followed in 1959 by the Union for Coloured Affairs. The latter had 27 members and served as an advisory link between the government and the Coloured people.

The 1964 [[Coloured Persons Representative Council]] turned out to be a constitutional hitch{{clarify|date=January 2012}} which never really proceeded. In 1969, the Coloureds elected forty onto the council to supplement the twenty nominated by the government, taking the total number to sixty.

Following the [[South African constitutional reform referendum, 1983|1983 referendum]], in which 66.3% of White voters supported the change, the [[South African Constitution of 1983|Constitution]] was reformed to allow the Coloured and [[Indian South Africans|Indian]] minorities limited participation in separate and subordinate Houses in a [[tricameral]] [[Parliament of South Africa|Parliament]]. This was part of a change in which the Coloured minority was to be allowed limited rights and self-governance in "Coloured areas", but continuing the policy of denationalising the Black majority and making them involuntary citizens of independent homelands. The internal rationale was that South African whites, more numerous at the time than Coloureds and Indians combined, could bolster its popular support and divide the democratic opposition while maintaining a working majority. The effort largely failed, with the 1980s seeing increased disintegration of civil society and numerous states of emergency, with violence increasing from all racial groups. The separate arrangements were removed by the negotiations which took place from 1990 to [[South Africa general election, 1994|hold the first universal election]].

===Post-apartheid era===
{{More citations needed|section|date=February 2021}}
During the 1994 all-race elections, Coloured people voted heavily for the white [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]], which in its first contest with a non-white majority won 20% of the vote and a majority in the new [[Western Cape]] province – much due to Cape Coloured support. The National Party recast itself as the [[New National Party (South Africa)|New National Party]] after De Klerk's departure in 1996, partly to attract non-White voters, and grew closer to the ANC. This political alliance, often perplexing to outsiders, has sometimes been explained in terms of the culture and language shared by White and Coloured New National Party members, who both spoke Afrikaans. In addition, both groups opposed affirmative action programmes that might give preference to Black South Africans, and some Coloured people feared giving up older privileges, such as access to municipal jobs, if [[African National Congress]] gained leadership in the government. After the absorption of the NNP into the ANC in 2005, Coloured voters have generally drawn to the [[Democratic Alliance (South Africa)|Democratic Alliance]], with some opting for minor parties such as [[Freedom Front Plus|Vryheidsfront]] and [[Patricia de Lille]]'s [[Independent Democrats]], with lukewarm support for the ANC.

Since the late 20th century, Coloured [[identity politics]] have grown in influence. The Western Cape has been a site of the rise of opposition parties, such as the [[Democratic Alliance (South Africa)|Democratic Alliance]] (DA). The Western Cape is considered as an area in which this party might gain ground against the dominant African National Congress. The [[Democratic Alliance (South Africa)|Democratic Alliance]] drew in some former New National Party voters and won considerable Coloured support. The New National Party collapsed in the 2004 elections. Coloured support aided the Democratic Alliance's victory in the 2006 Cape Town municipal elections.

Patricia de Lille, who became the mayor of Cape Town in 2011 on the platform of the now-defunct [[Independent Democrats]], does not use the label Coloured but many observers would consider her as Coloured by visible appearance. The Independent Democrats party sought the Coloured vote and gained significant ground in the municipal and local elections in 2006, particularly in districts in the Western Cape with high proportions of Coloured residents. The firebrand [[Peter Marais]] (formerly a provincial leader of the New National Party) has sought to portray his [[New Labour Party (South Africa)|New Labour Party]] as the political voice for Coloured people.

Coloured people supported and were members of the African National Congress before, during and after the apartheid era: notable politicians include [[Ebrahim Rasool]] (previously Western Cape premier), [[Beatrice Marshoff]], John Schuurman, [[Allan Hendrickse]] and [[Trevor Manuel]], longtime Minister of Finance. The Democratic Alliance won control over the Western Cape during the 2009 National and Provincial Elections and subsequently brokered an alliance with the Independent Democrats.

The ANC has had some success in winning Coloured votes, particularly among labour-affiliated and middle-class Coloured voters. Some Coloureds express distrust of the ANC with the comment, saying that the Coloured were considered "not white enough under apartheid and not black enough under the ANC."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hsf.org.za/resource-centre/focus/issues-31-40/issue-37-first-quarter-2005/a-hollowing-out-of-our-democracy|title=A hollowing-out of our democracy?|last=Welsh|first=David|publisher=Helen Suzman Foundation|year=2005|access-date=2009-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725184207/http://www.hsf.org.za/resource-centre/focus/issues-31-40/issue-37-first-quarter-2005/a-hollowing-out-of-our-democracy|archive-date=2011-07-25|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In the 2004 election, voter apathy was high in historically Coloured areas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.idasa.org.za/index.asp?page=output_details.asp%3FRID%3D60%26Pub%3DY%26OTID%3D5|title=Election Synopsis - How the West was Won (and Lost) - May 2004|first=Jonathan|last=Faull|publisher=Institute for Democracy in Africa|date=June 21, 2004|access-date=2009-10-23|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618021945/http://www.idasa.org.za/index.asp?page=output_details.asp%3FRID%3D60&Pub=Y&OTID=5|archive-date=June 18, 2008}}</ref> The ANC faces the dilemma of having to balance the increasingly nationalistic economic aspirations of its core black African support base, with its ambition to regain control of the Western Cape, which would require support from Coloureds.<ref name="bbc2011RaceElections"/>