<P> This land was in "native reserve" areas, which meant it was under "communal" tenure vested in African chiefs: it could not be bought, sold or used as surety . Outside such areas, perhaps of even greater significance for black farming was that the Act forbade black tenant farming on white - owned land . Since so many black farmers were sharecroppers or labor tenants, that had a devastating effect, but its full implementation was not immediate . The Act strengthened the chiefs, who were part of the state administration, but it forced many blacks into the "white" areas into wage labour . </P> <P> The Act created a system of land tenure that deprived most South Africans of the right to own land . That had major socio - economic repercussions . Had the Supreme Court of South Africa not rendered the Act's application void for a few years, it also would have disenfranchised all "natives" in the Cape Colony, where blacks and people of mixed race (Cape Coloureds) had greater political rights than in the other provinces as a legacy of British rule . It had a property (and education) - based franchise . The Act continued in force 40 years . </P> <P> The opposition was modest but vocal . John Dube used his newspaper to create an issue . As president of what would become the African National Congress, he supported whites like William Cullen Wilcox, who had created the Zululand Industrial Improvement Company . That had led to them supplying land to thousands of black people in Natal . Dube was one of five people who were sent to Britain to try and overturn the law once it came into force in South Africa . </P> <P> Sol Plaatje traveled to Britain with the SANNC (later the African National Congress) to protest the Natives Land Act but to no avail . He collected transcripts of court deliberations on the Natives Land Act and testimonies from those directly subject to the act in the 1916 book Native Life in South Africa . </P>

What was the economic and social impact of the natives land act of 1913