The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act No 46 of 1959 (commenced 19 June) was a piece of South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n apartheid legislation

Apartheid legislation in South Africa

The Apartheid Legislation in South Africa was a series of different laws and acts which were to help the apartheid-government to enforce the segregation of different races and cement the power and the dominance by the Whites, of substantially European descent, over the other race groups.Starting in...

 that allowed for the transformation of reserves into "fully fledged independent Bantustan

Bantustan

A bantustan was a territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa , as part of the policy of apartheid...

s" which would also divide Blacks into 'ethnically' discrete groups. It also resulted in the abolition of parliamentary representation for Blacks, an act furthered in 1970 with the passage of the Black Homeland Citizenship Act

Black Homeland Citizenship Act

The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, 1970 was a denaturalization law passed during the apartheid era of South Africa that changed the status of the inhabitants of the bantustans so that they were no longer citizens of South Africa...

.

Blacks were separated, or classified, into eight different ethnic groups, each of which was provided with a Commissioner-General who was entrusted with the development of their assigned Bantustan into a self-governing state.

The Act was repealed by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act No 200 of 1993.