All political rights, including voting, held by an African were restricted to the designated homeland. The idea was that they would be citizens of the homeland and lose their citizenship in South Africa. Blacks would also lose any right of participation with the South African Parliament, which held complete authority over the homelands. From 1976 to 1981, four of these homelands were created, which took away citizenship of more than nine million South Africans. The homeland administrations refused the so-called independence, maintaining pressure for political rights within the country as a whole. However, Africans living in the homelands needed passports to enter South Africa. It was as if black South Africans were aliens in their own country. .
In 1953, the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act was passed, which gave the government the right to declare strict states of emergency and increased penalties for protesting against or supporting the revocation of apartheid. The penalties for protest included fines, imprisonment and corporal punishment. And, in 1960, a large group of blacks in Sharpeville who refused to carry their passes resulted in the government declaring a state of emergency in South Africa. The emergency lasted for 156 days, due to a strong opposition by the black citizens of Sharpeville, leaving 69 people dead and 187 people wounded. Hiding behind the power of the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the white establishment had no intent of changing the unwarranted laws of Apartheid. .
The penalties imposed on political protest, even non-violent protest, were severe during these times. And, during the states of emergency, which continued intermittently until 1989, a low-level police official for up to six months could detain anyone without a hearing. Throughout apartheid thousands of individuals died in custody, frequently after gruesome acts of torture.
