The Riekert Commission was appointed in the 1970s to investigate the employment conditions of blacks in South Africa. The commission's final report published in 1979 recommended that those blacks already living in urban areas (and who had residential rights to do so) should receive 'preferential treatment' when seeking employment – and hence develop a 'black middle-class'. Those blacks who did not have residential rights were to be kept out of urban areas by a stricter enforcement of influx control.

The Riekert Commission report also recommended the removal of the '72–hour' rule (the period during which a black man could look for work in urban areas) for 'qualified' blacks, whilst non-qualified, or migrant, workers would be required to pass through 'assembly centers' along the border of their homelands.