S. Africa Abolishes Laws Banning Black Land Ownership

Parliament on Wednesday abolished major apartheid laws that had banned blacks from owning land in most of South Africa and segregated all neighborhoods by race since 1950.

The new bill, the Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures, ends the legal segregation of neighborhoods and replaces laws that reserved 87% of South African land for the white minority.

Despite the new law, the vast majority of the country’s 30 million blacks lack the resources to move from impoverished townships to white residential areas.

President Frederik W. de Klerk had pledged in February to scrap all discriminatory land laws as part of his plan to end the apartheid system of racial segregation.

De Klerk’s National Party says that all major apartheid laws will be abolished during the current session of Parliament in Cape Town. The government is trying to clear the way for talks with the African National Congress and other opposition groups on a new constitution that would extend political rights to blacks.

The measure contains one controversial section that allows neighborhoods to establish local “norms and standards.”

Critics say this will allow whites to keep blacks out of their areas. But the government says race may not be used as a criterion for protecting “norms and standards.”

The new law abolishes the Group Areas Act, which has segregated residential areas along racial lines since 1950 and was considered a cornerstone of apartheid.