The City of Cape Town still has a by-law on its books regulating the accommodation of ”natives”.
However, it has come to light only because it has been identified by city officials as one of about 800 obsolete pieces of legislation that need to be sent to the scrap-heap.
The city said in a statement on Thursday that some of these ”veritable hodgepodge” of redundant and sometimes offensive by-laws dated back to the 1800s.
They include a 1956 decree relating to ”premises licensed for the accommodation of natives” and an 1938 by-law concerning a ”census of natives”.
There is also an 1898 by-law relating to brothels, a 1910 by-law regarding the safety of the public at ”cinematograph exhibitions” and a 1911 by-law on ”the prevention of danger from whirligigs and switchback railways”.
Another by-law, to scrap them all at a single stroke, has been drawn up, and will be advertised for public comment. — Sapa