# South Africa Act Amendment Act, 1955

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Act No. 9 of 1955. First published on 25 March 1955 in Government Gazette Extraordinary No. 5441, and came into force upon publication. Amended on 9 March 1956 by the Official Languages (Local Authorities) Amendment Act, 1956, and on 12 April 1957 by the Official Languages (Local Authorities) Amendment Act, 1957. Repealed on 31 May 1961 by the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1961.
This is the text as originally enacted and does not incorporate any amendments. A series of other versions incorporating amendments are also available on Wikisource; the version as amended up to 12 April 1957 is the text of the act as it was immediately before it was repealed.
Act
To amend the South Africa Act, 1909, and to make further provision in regard to the use of the official languages of the Union.
(English text signed by the Governor-General.) (Assented to 18th March, 1955.)
Be it enacted by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate and the House of Assembly of the Union of South Africa, as follows:―
1. The following section is hereby inserted in the South Africa Act, 1909, after section one hundred and thirty-seven:
| “Equality of use of official languages by provincial councils and local authorities. | 137bis. All records, journals and proceedings of a provincial council shall be kept in both the official languages, and all draft ordinances, ordinances and notices of public importance or interest issued by a provincial administration, and all notices issued and all regulations or by-laws made by any institution or body contemplated in paragraph (vi) of section eighty-five, shall be in both official languages.”. |
2. (1) No regulation or by-law of any institution or body contemplated in paragraph (vi) of section eighty-five of the South Africa Act, 1909, made prior to the date of commencement of this Act in only one of the official languages of the Union shall be of any force or effect after the thirty-first day of March, 1956, unless it has been duly published in both the official languages or a translation thereof has at any time prior ​to the said date been duly published in the other official language by the authority charged by law with the publication of such a regulation or by-law.
(2) Where such a regulation or by-law has been published in both official languages or a translation thereof has been published as provided in sub-section (1), both versions thereof shall have equal force and effect as if the regulation or by-law had originally been made and published in both the official languages.
3. This Act shall be called the South Africa Act Amendment Act, 1955.
This work is in the public domain because it was created and first published in South Africa and it is an official text of a legislative, administrative or legal nature, or an official translation of such a text.
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