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reclassification appeal against his designation as coloured when a judge declared that he was a "white of the Mediterranean type" (Horrell 1968, 22). |
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The reclassification process was fraught in myriad ways and was completely internally inconsistent. At first the Race Reclassification Board ruled out descent (or "blood" as it was commonly called) as the determining factor. Instead, it used a mixed criteria of "appearance and general acceptance and repute." This was in explicit contrast with the American one-drop rule (Davis 1991), presumably for the reason that nearly all white South Africans had some traceable black African ancestry.
31 Bamford, in an article in the South African Law Journal, attempts to clarify the juridical meanings of "appearance'' and "general acceptance" (1967). He notes, ''Appearance is a matter of visual observation and assessment, to be undertaken by the tribunal. This observation and assessment should be made at the start of reclassification proceedings. If the subject is obviously white in appearance the presumption in section 19(1) will operate; if he is obviously not white, no further enquiry is necessary since he cannot be reclassified as white; and if he is neither obviously white nor nonwhite, the tribunal must proceed to decide on general acceptance" (41). There was no clear onus of proof about the meaning of general acceptance as white; in ambiguous cases the Race Reclassification Board would decide after conducting hearings and administering a range of tests of race. Like child custody hearings in American courts, such painful (and often shameful) tests were not stable or guaranteed of permanence: |
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The concept of general acceptance does not preclude a person's movement from one classification to another by virtue of changing association. The acceptance need not be absolute or without exception, so that the fact that a subject maintains contact with relatives or remains friendly with a Coloured family is not in itself fatal. In such cases: '[The tribunal must] decide whether the nonwhite history and associations were so overshadowed by the acceptance as white as to constitute general acceptance of the [subject] as white.' (Bamford 1967, 41) |
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Acceptance is an ambiguous, highly subjective prototypical concept sitting uneasily in the middle of the attempt for Aristotelian certainty. The New York Times reports the story of one Johannes Botha, a mail carrier living in Durban in 1960. Botha returned home to find his wife in tears following a visit from two investigators from the group areas board whose mandate was to seek out those living illegally outside of |
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