For more than three hundred years, laws made far from the valley decided who could graze its land, who could live on it, who had to work for whom, and which children went to school. This page brings those laws together in one place. It includes the laws that reached the valley directly, and the national racial laws that shaped the whole country and so shaped the valley too. It also includes the orders the missionaries wrote down in their diaries between 1792 and 1805, because those orders show how the law actually arrived: spoken at the church door by the keeper of the company post, or carried up the kloof by a field cornet. A few rows are not laws at all. They are market signals large enough to change what the law and the valley may do next, and they are marked as such.
Each law is read through the TIME model used on The Valley Through TIME: which of the forms of organisation it built up, which it held back, and whether it carries any early sign of the Emergent form.
What the letters in square brackets mean
Facts on this page are followed by a tag that shows where they come from.
- [IC] Independently Corroborated. Confirmed by at least two sources that do not depend on each other, or by an official record such as a law, a court order, or a heritage register.
- [MS] Mission-Sourced. Comes from Moravian mission records, including the missionaries’ diaries, and the histories written from them, or from one party’s own documents or statements. They have not been checked against sources that do not depend on them.
- [TBV] To Be Verified. Seems likely, but nobody has confirmed it yet.
Reading this page
The columns Built up, Held back, and Emergent are the Forum’s reading of each law. That reading carries no tag. T stands for Tribes, I for Institutions, M for Markets, and E for Emergent. Residents may read the same laws differently, and the page will change as they say so.
The diary passages
Rows marked Diaries come from new English translations in the Genadendal Diaries repository. They are machine translations that no person has checked yet, so they are a guide to what the diaries say and are not quoted here as finished translations. Each row gives the Utrecht file number and the line numbers, so a reader of the old German or Dutch can check it. The diaries were written by the missionaries, and they show the Khoekhoe through the missionaries’ eyes. See The Genadendal Diaries.
How to read the tables
Each row is one law or order. What it did says what it meant for the valley, where that is known. Built up names the form of organisation the law made stronger, and Held back names the form it weakened or pushed aside. Emergent is filled in only where a law opened room for people to organise together in networks, commons, or partnerships of their own. For most of the valley’s history that column is empty, and the emptiness is part of the story. Rows marked Market signal record an instrument or decision outside the law that the Forum reads as a turning point.
The tables follow the rulers of the Cape:
| Period | Who made the laws |
|---|---|
| Before 1652 | Khoekhoe and San custom |
| 1652 to 1795 | The Dutch East India Company (VOC) |
| 1795 to 1853 | British governors, with Batavian rule from 1803 to 1806 |
| 1853 to 1910 | The Cape Parliament, elected under a franchise open to men of any race who met its property test |
| 1910 to 1948 | The Union of South Africa |
| 1948 to 1990 | The National Party government and the laws of apartheid |
| 1991 to today | The end of apartheid and the democratic Constitution |
Before the colony
| Year | Law or order | What it did | Built up | Held back | Emergent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1652 | Khoekhoe custom | Land belonged to the community. A group’s territory was defined by its water sources, and others needed its permission to graze there [IC]. The San held that no one owned the land and everyone could use it [IC]. See Land as Property. | T: land, water, and cattle held by clans and families |
Company rule (1652 to 1795)
| Year | Law or order | What it did | Built up | Held back | Emergent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1657 | First freehold grants | The company granted former servants surveyed farms near Cape Town, the first private land at the Cape [IC]. It gave out land as if it were empty, without treaties [IC]. | M: land as private property. I: the company as the source of title | T: Khoekhoe custom, never recognised as property | |
| 3 July 1714 | Placard on loan farms | Let colonists hold large, unsurveyed grazing farms for a yearly “recognition” fee [IC]. The farms around the valley, Weltevreden among them, were held this way [IC]. See Loan Farms and Quitrent. | I: the company’s revenue. M: a first, loose market in land | T: grazing land taken without purchase | |
| 4 September 1742 | Council of Policy ruling | Stopped Georg Schmidt from baptising more Khoekhoe after the Cape’s Dutch Reformed ministers objected [TBV]. Schmidt left in 1744 and the company kept the Moravians out for almost fifty years [IC]. See Dutch East India Company. | I: the established church | I: the mission, for fifty years | |
| 24 December 1792 | Baas Teunis speaks for the government | On the day the missionaries arrive, Baas Teunis of the company post tells the Khoekhoe that the government has sent them teachers and will protect them while the teachers stay, and that no farmer may punish a Khoekhoe person without reporting it to him [MS]. Diaries: A363595, lines 449 to 539 | I: the company post as local authority; the mission | M: the farmers’ hold over Khoekhoe workers | |
| 1792 to 1793 | New taxes of the Commissioners-General | The Commissioners-General Nederburgh and Frykenius imposed new taxes to raise the company’s income [IC]. The diaries record a yearly sum on every slave and wagon, 300 and then 500 farmers riding to the Cape to protest, and the taxes being lifted in June 1793 [MS]. Diaries: A363595, lines 3125 to 3158 and 3419 to 3479 | I: the company’s finances | M: farmers’ profits, briefly | |
| 15 March 1793 | The Bank van Leening | The company’s lending bank lent at 5% a year against property and gold [IC]. From now on a landowner could turn land into cash, and people without land could not [IC]. See Money and Banks. | M: credit tied to land | T: people who held land in common, or none | |
| May 1793 and August 1795 | Call-ups of Khoekhoe men | Fearing the French, the government calls farmers and armed Khoekhoe men to guard the Cape at sowing time [MS]. In 1795 the company orders every Khoekhoe man who can be found to the Cape to fight the British [MS]. Diaries: A363595, lines 3159 to 3479; A363596, lines 2455 to 2513 | I: the colonial state’s claim on Khoekhoe men | T: households left without their men | |
| 7 December 1794 | The cattle order | Baas Teunis gathers all the Khoekhoe who have moved to the mission and tells them, in the Commissioner’s name, to take their cattle back where they came from. They may keep only a few animals for slaughter, or he will take all the cattle he finds [MS]. None moves away [MS]. Diaries: A363595, lines 12549 to 12597 and 13054 to 13116 | M: farmers’ grazing | T: the herds that let families live at the mission | |
| December 1794 | The certificate order | The mission may accept no Khoekhoe person who has served a farmer unless he brings a certificate from the farmer that his time is up. Until then, the missionaries had been told that no farmer could keep a Khoekhoe who wanted to leave [MS]. Diaries: A363595, lines 12597 to 12683 | M: a labour market closed by the farmer’s signature | I: the mission’s open door | |
| January 1795 | Sluysken’s orders | Commissioner Sluysken refuses to let the Khoekhoe keep their cattle at the mission, and has forbidden the missionaries to build “anything at all, even a goat shed” [MS]. By April the order is largely withdrawn [MS]. Diaries: A363595, lines 13680 to 13806 | M: farmers’ interests, through the Commissioner | I: the mission. T: the herds | |
| 29 July 1795 | Bisani’s order | The rebel burghers of Swellendam, through Commandant Bisani, order the missionaries to leave within three days, and they go to the Cape [MS]. On 7 August the Commissioner tells them they may go home [MS]. Diaries: A363596, lines 1830 to 2146 | M: farmers ruling by their own force | I: the mission, for a few days |
British and Batavian rule (1795 to 1853)
| Year | Law or order | What it did | Built up | Held back | Emergent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 September 1795 | Craig’s proclamation | The mission receives, through Baas Teunis, a proclamation signed by Major-General Craig releasing the inhabitants from their duty to the company, promising that everyone’s grievances will be heard, and the articles of capitulation, one of which respects all religions [MS]. Diaries: A363349, lines 11130 to 11153 | I: the British state and, under it, the mission | I: the company | |
| July and September 1796 | Craig’s boundary stones | A letter from Craig says the mission’s pasture is to be enlarged and fixed with stones, and cattle found beyond them will be taken [MS]. The Landdrost of Stellenbosch reads the boundaries in September. The missionaries say the best grazing has been kept back, and he answers that land cannot be taken from those who bought it and pay taxes on it [MS]. In the same year a farmer who wants back a Khoekhoe youth is told that the Khoekhoe “were free people and could serve whom they wanted” [MS]. Diaries: A363349, lines 16215 to 16238 and 16264 to 16285; A363349, lines 16585 to 16653 | I: the mission as a bounded settlement. M: land bought and taxed | T: open grazing | |
| 5 February 1804 | The Batavian household returns | A written government order, brought by Field Cornet Otto, requires every household head to report what was sown, the harvest, all livestock, and the size of his family, on pain of a fine of 500 rixdollars [MS]. The missionaries write to the Landdrost to ask whether it binds them, since they are not farmers [MS]. Diaries: A363597, lines 1424 to 1453 | I: a state that counts its people and their produce | ||
| January 1805 | The grain ration | After a drought, a government commission sets a ration of one pound of grain a day per head [MS]. Governor Janssens tells the missionaries that the government means to give a sheep a day to the soldiers’ families at the mission [MS]. Diaries: A363597, lines 1844 to 1868 | I: the state as provider in a crisis | ||
| 1 November 1809 | The Caledon Code | Required every Khoekhoe person to have a fixed home and to carry a pass to move, and to have a written contract with a master [IC]. | M: a labour market fenced in by law. I: courts between master and servant | T: free movement and independent kraals | |
| 1812 | The apprenticeship proclamation | Let farmers bind Khoekhoe children who had grown up on their farms to work for them without pay from the age of eight to eighteen [IC]. See Sir John Cradock and From the Farm to the Classroom. | M: farmers’ hold on the next generation | T: families. I: the mission school | |
| 6 August 1813 | Cradock’s quitrent proclamation | Turned loan farms into surveyed “perpetual quitrent” farms that could be inherited and sold, for a higher yearly rent [IC]. | M: land as a registered, priced thing | T: customary rights, which the proclamation ignored | |
| 1 January 1826 | Sterling | British sterling became the Cape’s official money, after the rixdollar was fixed at 1 shilling and 6 pence in 1825 [IC]. | M: one currency with the empire | ||
| 17 July 1828 | Ordinance 50 | Repealed the Caledon Code and the apprenticeship rules, ended passes for Khoekhoe and other free people of colour, and let them choose their employers and own land [IC]. A companion ordinance, Ordinance 49, kept passes for Africans from beyond the colony [TBV]. | I: equality before the law. T: freedom to move and settle | M: forced labour | |
| 1834 to 1838 | The end of slavery | Slavery ended in law on 1 December 1834, followed by four years of “apprenticeship” until 1 December 1838 [IC]. Slaveholders were paid compensation, and freed people received nothing [IC]. | I: freedom in law. M: owners’ capital, through compensation | M: slavery as property | |
| 1839 and 1841 | An education department and school grants | The Cape set up a department of education in 1839, and from 1841 mission schools could receive government grants [IC]. Genadendal’s teachers’ college had opened in 1838 [IC]. | I: the mission school and college, with state money | M: children’s labour on farms | |
| 1841 | Masters and Servants Ordinance | Made breaking a labour contract a criminal offence again [IC]. It was followed by the Masters and Servants Act 15 of 1856 [IC]. | M: employers’ power over workers, by criminal law | T and I: the freedom of 1828 |
Self-government (1853 to 1910)
| Year | Law or order | What it did | Built up | Held back | Emergent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1853 | The Cape franchise | Men of any race could vote if they owned property worth £25 [IC]. Whether residents of Genadendal, who held no title to their land, qualified is not yet known [TBV]. | I: a representative parliament, open in law to all races | ||
| 1856 | Masters and Servants Act 15 | Kept criminal penalties for breaking a labour contract. Courts applied it mainly to black workers [IC]. The Masters and Servants laws stood until 1974 [TBV]. | M: employers | T and I: workers’ freedom | |
| 1858 | The trust grant of Farm 39 | The mission land was granted to the Moravian Church in trust for its residents [MS]. See TRANCRAA and Farm 39. | I: the church as trustee | M: the land was kept out of the market | Land held for a community, the ground on which later claims to a commons rest |
| 1887 and 1892 | The franchise narrowed | In 1887 communal forms of tenure stopped counting towards the property test [IC]. In 1892 the test rose to £75 and a literacy test was added, which cut out many black and coloured voters [IC]. | I: a parliament of property owners | T: land held in common, as a route to the vote | |
| 1905 | School Board Act | Made school compulsory for white children from seven to fourteen, and only encouraged it for other children [IC]. Historians read it as the start of racially separate schooling in law [IC]. | I: separate school systems | I: the mission schools’ place in a common system | |
| 1909 | Mission Stations and Communal Reserves Act | Placed mission land under management boards. Residents could live on the land but not own it [IC]. Forum research describes this as the start of a deep rift between missionaries and residents [MS]. See Moravian Church. | I: state boards over mission land | T and M: residents’ ownership of their own land |
The Union (1910 to 1948)
| Year | Law or order | What it did | Built up | Held back | Emergent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 May 1910 | South Africa Act | Created the Union. The Cape’s franchise was kept for men of all races, but only white men could sit in Parliament [IC]. | I: a white-led national state | I: the Cape’s partly open politics | |
| 1910 | Greyton becomes a municipality | Greyton became a municipality [IC]. See The Municipality. | I: local government in Greyton | ||
| 19 June 1913 | Natives Land Act 27 | Barred black Africans from owning or renting land outside reserves of about 7% of the country [IC]. It made special provision for the Cape, where owning land could qualify a black man to vote [TBV]. Its target was African people, and most of the valley’s people were later classified coloured. Its date matters here today: land claims under the Restitution Act of 1994 can only reach back to 19 June 1913 [IC]. | I: a national map of land by race | T: African land held in common | |
| 1924 | A secular board for Genadendal | A secular board replaced the missionaries in running Genadendal, and Proclamation 98 of 1924 described its extent [IC]. | I: the state | I: the church’s rule | |
| 1926 | The college is closed | The government closed the teachers’ college, arguing that coloured people were suited to farm work and did not need higher education [IC]. The legal basis of the closure is not yet known [TBV]. See From the Farm to the Classroom. | M: a farm labour supply | I: the college | |
| 1927 | Immorality Act | Forbade sex outside marriage between white and black people [IC]. | I: race as a rule of private life | ||
| 1930 and 1931 | White women and white men | White women gained the vote in 1930 [IC]. In 1931 the property test was dropped for white voters only [TBV]. This diluted the weight of coloured and black voters on the Cape roll [TBV]. | I: a white electorate | I: the Cape’s non-racial roll | |
| 1934 | Abolition of Quitrent Act 54 | Ended most quitrent payments from 31 December 1934 [IC]. See Loan Farms and Quitrent. | M: land held outright | ||
| 1936 | Representation of Natives Act and Native Trust and Land Act | Removed black voters in the Cape from the common roll, and set the reserves at 13.6% of the country [IC]. | I: segregation by law | T: African land and votes |
Apartheid (1948 to 1990)
| Year | Law or order | What it did | Built up | Held back | Emergent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 55 | Forbade marriage between white people and people of other races [IC]. | I: race as a rule of family life | T: families across the colour line | |
| 1950 | Population Registration Act 30 | Classified every South African into a racial group [IC]. Every other apartheid law depended on it. | I: the state’s power to classify | T: people’s own names for who they are, such as Khoekhoe | |
| 1950 | Group Areas Act 41 | Made residence and ownership separate by race [IC]. In Greyton, coloured families, many of whom owned their plots, were forced to sell and leave, most of them to Heuwelkroon, probably between 1968 and 1974 [TBV]. The Act was re-enacted in 1957 and 1966 [IC]. See History of Greyton. | M: a land market open to whites only. I: the state | M: coloured owners’ property. T: a mixed village | |
| 1950 | Immorality Amendment Act 21 | Extended the 1927 ban to sex between white people and people of any other race [IC]. | I: race as a rule of private life | ||
| 1951 to 1956 | Separate Representation of Voters Act 46 | Removed coloured voters from the common roll after years in the courts [IC]. Separate coloured representation in Parliament ended in 1970, under an amending Act of 1968 [IC]. | I: a white parliament | I: the vote the Cape had given in 1853 | |
| 1953 | Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 49 | Allowed public places, vehicles, and services to be separated by race [IC]. | I: segregation in daily life | ||
| 1953 | Bantu Education Act 47 | Created a separate school system for African children, designed to fit them for labour [IC]. | I: state control of schooling | I: mission schools | |
| 1959 | Extension of University Education Act 45 | Separated universities by race [IC]. | I: separate universities | ||
| 1961 | Coloured Persons Communal Reserves Act 3 | Applied the Mission Stations Act of 1909 to coloured areas [IC]. Whether it covered Genadendal is not yet known [TBV]. | I: the state over coloured reserves | T and M: residents’ ownership | |
| 1963 | Rural Coloured Areas Act 24 | Replaced the laws of 1961 for coloured rural areas, and was repealed in 1991 [IC]. Whether it covered Genadendal is not yet known [TBV]. | I: the state over coloured rural areas | T and M: residents’ ownership | |
| 1963 | Coloured Persons Education Act 47 | Moved the schooling of coloured children from the provinces to the Department of Coloured Affairs, and required every coloured school to register with the government [IC]. One source says schooling became compulsory for coloured children under it [TBV]. The valley’s schools came under it [TBV]. | I: a separate, state-run school system | I: the mission’s role in schooling | |
| 1968 | Prohibition of Political Interference Act 51 | Banned political parties with members of more than one race [IC]. | I: politics sealed by race | ||
| 13 May 1977 | Greyton Nature Reserve | The reserve was proclaimed on Greyton’s mountain commonage, about 2,200 hectares [IC]. Which law it was proclaimed under is not yet known [TBV]. See History of Greyton. | I: conservation by the state | M: private use of the commonage | A shared mountain protected for everyone, later cared for by the Greyton Conservation Society |
| 1983 | Republic of South Africa Constitution Act 110 | Set up a three-chamber Parliament, with a House of Representatives for coloured voters and none for black South Africans [IC]. | I: race-based government | ||
| 1987 and 1989 | Rural Areas Act 9 (House of Representatives) | Took over the former mission areas, with management boards chaired by magistrates [IC]. Genadendal was added to it in 1989 [IC]. | I: state boards | T and M: residents’ ownership |
The end of apartheid and democracy (1991 to today)
| Year | Law or order | What it did | Built up | Held back | Emergent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 June 1991 | Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act 108 | Repealed the Natives Land Act, the Rural Coloured Areas Act, the Group Areas Act of 1966, and other racial land laws [IC]. The Population Registration Act was repealed in the same year [IC]. | M: a land market open to all | I: land by race | |
| 1994 | Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 | Lets people and communities claim land lost after 19 June 1913 through racially discriminatory laws [IC]. Families moved from Greyton under the Group Areas Act fall within its dates [TBV]. Khoekhoe losses before 1913 do not [IC]. | I: courts and a claims commission | ||
| 1996 | Constitution of the Republic of South Africa | Protects property, and gives people whose tenure is insecure because of past racial laws a right to secure tenure or redress [IC]. It gives everyone a right to an environment that is not harmful, protected for future generations [IC]. What it means today: The Constitution. | I: rights for all | Section 24 speaks for generations not yet born | |
| 1996 | Communal Property Associations Act 28 | Lets a community hold land together through an association with its own constitution [IC]. A CPA is being set up to receive the land of Farm 39 [MS]. What it means today: Communal Property Associations Act. | I: registered community bodies | A legal form for a commons run by its members | |
| 1996 | South African Schools Act 84 | Made school compulsory for every child from the year they turn seven until age fifteen or the end of grade nine [IC]. See From the Farm to the Classroom. | I: schooling for every child | M: children’s labour | |
| 1998 | National Water Act 36 | Made the state the public trustee of the country’s water, and set aside a Reserve for basic human needs and for rivers [IC]. Greyton’s leiwater rights sit under it today [TBV]. See From Water Access to Water Agency. What it means today: National Water Act. | I: the state as trustee | M: water as private property | Water held in trust for people and rivers alike |
| 2 November 1998 | TRANCRAA (Act 94) | Replaced the Rural Areas Act and set out how the land of the former mission areas, Farm 39 among them, is to pass to its residents [IC]. The transfer of Farm 39 has not yet happened [IC]. See TRANCRAA and Farm 39. What it means today: Transformation of Certain Rural Areas Act. | I: the Minister, the municipality, and residents’ committees | Residents choose together who will hold their land | |
| 2005 | Co-operatives Act 14 | Sets out how co-operatives are formed and run [IC]. See Starting a Co-operative. | M: member-owned enterprise | Enterprises owned and governed by their members | |
| 2019 | Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act 3 | Provides for Khoi-San communities and leaders to be recognised by the state [IC]. See Khoekhoe. | T: recognised Khoi-San communities. I: the state that recognises them | ||
| 1 April 2026 | Market signal: the Cape Water Performance-Based Bond | Rand Merchant Bank launched a R2.5 billion, five-year bond, issued by FirstRand Bank and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on 17 April 2026 [IC]. It pays for The Nature Conservancy to clear invasive plants from the catchments of the Western Cape Water Supply System, and investors’ returns depend on independently verified results [IC]. The valley lies below Theewaterskloof Dam, the largest dam in that system [IC]. Whether the bond’s clearing reaches the mountains above the valley is not yet known [TBV]. See From Water Access to Water Agency. | M: capital markets that pay for restored nature | The first time investors are paid for what a living catchment gives back, a price on regeneration that the valley could one day earn |
The laws through TIME
This section is the Forum’s reading.
Institutions turning what the Tribes held into Markets. From 1652 to 1828, almost every law in the tables did the same thing. An Institution, first the company and then the British state, took something the Khoekhoe held in common and made it usable by a market. Grazing land became loan farms in 1714 and priced property in 1813. People’s labour became a market fenced in by the Caledon Code of 1809, and children’s labour followed in 1812. The diaries show this happening in the valley in small steps: a cattle order read out after church, a certificate a farmer could refuse to sign, a ban on building even a goat shed. The orders came from the Cape, but they were carried out by local men such as Baas Teunis and the field cornet, and they could be withdrawn when the missionaries or the Khoekhoe went to the Cape to argue.
A window, and what the mission built in it. Between 1828 and 1909 the law opened doors. Ordinance 50, the end of slavery, school grants, and the Cape franchise gave free people legal room they had never had. The mission used that room to build an Institution of its own: the school, the college of 1838, and the trust grant of 1858 that kept Farm 39 out of the market. The same years also closed doors again. The Masters and Servants laws brought back criminal penalties for workers, and the franchise was narrowed in 1892.
Race as the rule of the Institutions. From 1909 the state took over the mission’s land and, step by step, made race the rule by which it organised everything. The 1909 Act kept residents on the land without ownership. The 1926 closure of the college pushed the valley’s young people back towards farm labour. The Population Registration Act decided who people were, and the Group Areas Act decided where they could live. In Greyton, where plots had been sold as freehold since 1854, the market in land was turned against the coloured families who owned them. In these years Institutions used law to decide who could take part in Markets at all.
Undoing, and the first room for Emergent. Since 1991 the laws have mostly undone or tried to repair. Several of them give communities legal forms they can run themselves: the Communal Property Association, the co-operative, water held in trust with a Reserve for rivers, and TRANCRAA’s promise that residents will choose who holds their land. These are the only rows in which the Emergent column fills up. They are tools, and the valley has not yet used most of them. The water bond of 2026 is the first sign from the Markets side: capital willing to pay for verified restoration of the catchments the valley’s rivers depend on. It may change how the laws already in force, the National Water Act among them, are put to use. The date 19 June 1913 also limits what law can restore, since it leaves the Khoekhoe losses of the centuries before outside the reach of restitution.
What this page leaves out
- Laws of the northern and eastern frontiers that did not reach the valley directly, such as the commando policy against the San of the 1770s.
- Laws that applied mainly within the African reserves, such as the Glen Grey Act of 1894 and the Bantu Authorities Act of 1951.
- The security laws of the 1960s and later.
- Local by-laws of Greyton’s municipality and the rules of the Genadendal boards. The by-laws in force today are on The Rules the Valley Lives By.
What is still open
- The legal basis for the closure of the teachers’ college in 1926.
- Which law governed Genadendal between 1961 and 1989: the Act of 1909, the Coloured Persons Communal Reserves Act of 1961, or the Rural Coloured Areas Act of 1963.
- Whether residents of Genadendal could vote under the Cape franchise of 1853, and how many were removed from the roll in the 1950s.
- Whether families moved from Greyton under the Group Areas Act have claimed restitution.
- A rule said to date from 1775 that let farmers indenture Khoekhoe children born on their farms until the age of 25. No source for it has been found yet [TBV].
- The text of the Council of Policy ruling of 4 September 1742.
- The law under which the Greyton Nature Reserve was proclaimed in 1977.
- How the Moravian Church, residents, and the Transformasie Komitee read these laws, in their own words.
If you know of a law or order that shaped the valley and is missing here, or hold documents about any of the open questions, the moderators would like to hear from you through How to Submit.
Related
- The Valley Through TIME
- History of the Valley
- The Caledon Code
- Loan Farms and Quitrent
- Land as Property
- Money and Land
- From the Farm to the Classroom
- History of Greyton
- TRANCRAA and Farm 39
- The Genadendal Diaries
- The Rules the Valley Lives By
- Organisations Outside the Valley
References
The diaries:
- Genadendal Diaries repository. Genadendal Diaries. The English translations, 1792 to 1805, cited here by file and line number. Unreviewed machine translations.
- Garcés Pérez, J.L. and Lasch, A. (2025). Multilingual working and reading versions of the “Genadendal Diaries” from the Utrecht Archives. Zenodo, version 0.3. The transcriptions of the four diaries.
Company and British rule:
- McLachlan, J.N. (2019). “History of the dispossession of the rights in land of pastoral indigenous communities in the Cape Colony from 1652 to 1910”. Fundamina 25(1). Khoekhoe land law, freehold grants, loan farms, and quitrent.
- Wikipedia. Sebastiaan Cornelis Nederburgh. The Commissioners-General of 1792 to 1793 and their new taxes.
- Havemann, R. and Fourie, J. Colonial Africa’s first financial crash, 1788 to 1793. Economic Research Southern Africa. The Bank van Leening.
- The O’Malley Archives. Ordinance No 50 of 1828, Masters and Servants Ordinance No 1 of 1841, and Masters and Servants Act No 15 of 1856.
- Pretorius, D.M. (2019). “Private schools in South African legal history”. Fundamina 25(2). The education system of 1839, grants to mission schools, and the School Board Act of 1905.
- Soudien, C. (2019). “Institutionalising racial segregation in the South African school: the School Board Act, 1905”. Paedagogica Historica.
The franchise:
- Wikipedia. Cape Qualified Franchise. The franchise of 1853, the changes of 1887 and 1892, and its end.
- Helen Suzman Foundation. A Long Walk to Universal Franchise in South Africa. The franchise from 1853 to 1994.
Segregation and apartheid:
- South African History Online. Apartheid Legislation 1850s to 1970s. The Masters and Servants Acts and their repeal, the Natives Land Act, the laws of 1936, and the apartheid laws with their numbers.
- Wikipedia. Apartheid legislation. The racial laws from 1927 to 1983 and their repeal.
- Wikipedia. Natives Land Act, 1913. Its date, the reserves, and the provision for the Cape.
- Wikipedia. Coloured Persons Communal Reserves Act, 1961 and List of acts of the Parliament of South Africa, 1960 to 1969. The laws of 1961 and 1963 and their numbers.
- South African History Online. Bantu Education and the racist compartmentalizing of education and Coloured Persons Education Act 47 of 1963. Coloured schooling under the Department of Coloured Affairs.
- Knowledge Base Land. Act 9 rural areas. The Rural Areas Act of 1987, its boards, and the laws before it.
- South African History Online. Genadendal Historic Village and Museum. The college of 1838 and the reason given for its closure in 1926.
Democracy:
- Wikipedia. Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act, 1991. The laws it repealed and the date it came into force.
- Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 and South African History Online, Land Restitution in South Africa since 1994. The cut-off date of 19 June 1913.
- Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Sections 24 and 25.
- Communal Property Associations Act 28 of 1996.
- South African Schools Act 84 of 1996. Section 3, compulsory attendance.
- National Water Act 36 of 1998.
- Transformation of Certain Rural Areas Act 94 of 1998. See also TRANCRAA and Farm 39 and its sources.
- Co-operatives Act 14 of 2005.
- Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act 3 of 2019.
Market signals:
- Rand Merchant Bank. RMB launches Africa’s first nature-linked outcomes-based bond (1 April 2026). Size, term, partners, and the outcomes that set investors’ returns.
- Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The JSE welcomes Africa’s first nature-linked performance-based bond. The listing of 17 April 2026 and the ticker FR31PB.
- Bioconomy Wiki. RMB Cape Water Bond launch. A summary of the bond, its funders, and its investors.
Other pages of this wiki give the sources for the rows drawn from them, especially The Caledon Code, Money and Banks, From the Farm to the Classroom, and History of Greyton.