South Africa Act 1962

1 Nationality, etc.

(1) In subsection (3) of section one of the British Nationality Act, 1948 (which specifies the countries whose citizens are by virtue of that citizenship British subjects or Commonwealth citizens) the reference to South Africa shall be omitted; and accordingly any person who, immediately before the commencement of this Act, was a British subject by virtue only of his citizenship of the Republic shall cease to be a British subject at the commencement of this Act.

(2) The provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect for continuing, for the benefit of citizens of the Republic who make application, or give notice of intention to make application, before the end of the year nineteen hundred and sixty-five, certain provisions of the said Act of 1948 with respect to the acquisition by registration of citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies ; and in relation to an application for registration as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies made before the end of that year by a woman who is a citizen of the Republic, subsection (2) of section six of that Act shall apply as if she were a British subject.

(3) Until the end of the year nineteen hundred and sixty-five, a citizen of the Republic shall not be subject, in respect of any office, place or employment held by him at the commencement of this Act, or any qualification to act in any capacity in which he was acting at the commencement of this Act, to any disability imposed in the case of aliens by or by virtue of any of the following enactments, that is to say—

(a) section three of the Act of Settlement;

(b) sections four to six of the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act, 1919;

(c) section eighty-eight of the Patents Act, 1949, or any rules made for the purposes of that section ; or

(d) any Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, or any regulations in force under any such Act.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (3) of this section a person who at the commencement of this Act was on leave from or otherwise temporarily absent from employment in any capacity mentioned in subsection (1) of section five of the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act, 1919 (master, etc., of British merchant ship) shall be treated as if he were employed in such employment at the commencement of this Act; and where the said subsection (3) applies to any person in respect of any office, place or employment held by him at the commencement of this Act, it shall apply to him also in respect of any office, place or employment to or in which he may be appointed or employed thereafter by way of re-engagement or transfer.