The Central Pass Office was an infamous checkpoint of the influx control system under apartheid. The “Dompas” which controlled the movement of African people was issued here. Denied a place in the city, many were ordered to leave Johannesburg. This building opened in 1954 as the Non-European Affairs Department and was greatly enlarged in the 1960s. Converted into a women’ hostel in 1994, it was re-named the Usindiso Women’s Shelter.