Status of the Union Act, 1934

Status of the Union Act, 1934
Parliament of South Africa
Long title Act to provide for the declaration of the Status of the Union of South Africa; for certain amendments of the South Africa Act, 1909, incidental thereto, and for the adoption of certain parts of the Statute of Westminster, 1931.
Citation	Act No. 69 of 1934
Territorial extent	Union of South Africa
Enacted by	Parliament of South Africa
Royal assent	22 June 1934
Commenced	22 August 1934
Repealed	31 May 1961
Legislative history
Bill title	Status of the Union Bill
Bill citation	A.B. 48 of 1934
Introduced by	Oswald Pirow, Minister of Railways and Harbours
Introduced	23 March 1934
Repealed by
Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1961
Related legislation
South Africa Act, 1909 Statute of Westminster 1931
Status: Repealed

The Status of the Union Act, 1934 (Act No. 69 of 1934) was an act of the Parliament of South Africa that was the South African counterpart to the Statute of Westminster 1931. It declared the Union of South Africa to be a "sovereign independent state" and explicitly adopted the Statute of Westminster into South African law. It also removed any remaining power of the British Parliament to legislate for South Africa, and ended the United Kingdom's involvement in the granting or refusal of royal assent.

The Statute of Westminster applied to South Africa without needing ratification from its Parliament (unlike the case in Australia and New Zealand), so the Status Act was not legally necessary to establish South Africa's full sovereignty. It was, however, seen as a symbolic action by the Pact government of Prime Minister J. B. M. Hertzog, coming as it did shortly before the merger of his National Party with Jan Smuts's South African Party to form the United Party.^[1]

The Status of the Union Act was repealed by the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1961, which ended South Africa's membership of the Commonwealth of Nations and transformed it into a republic.