The Group Areas Act (1950) destroyed communities across South Africa by zoning existing neighbourhoods to be inhabited by specific racial groups, so classified by the apartheid government. Newlands & Claremont were declared a White Group Area, and the mix of multi-ethnic, multi-religious inhabitants were systemically evicted and forced to live on the outskirts where they no longer had access to the public services, nature, schools, shops, and all else they had helped develop.