Panorama - Union of South Africa
Woodrow Wyatt investigates the impact of new apartheid laws, such as the Group Areas Act. Wyatt interviews politicians from all parties, including Prime Minister JG Strijdom and the president-general of the ANC, Chief Albert Mvumbi Luthuli. Strident views on why different racial groups should be separated are expressed. There are short gaps between reports in the programme, and the film ends very abruptly.
Wyatt visits Sophiatown, which had been a suburb where Black, Coloured and Asian South Africans lived until the forced clearances of February 1955. The Group Areas Act compelled the different racial groups to live separately, and 65,000 people were forcibly removed to Soweto and Western Coloured Township (now Westbury).
This edition of Panorama resulted in protests from the South African government.
