apartheid

apartheid (‘apartness’) A racial policy which dominated South African culture, politics, society, and economics during the twentieth century. Officially established by Malan in 1948, it had emerged from policies of segregation which had been progressively introduced in the different parts of the country before the creation of South Africa, and were continued by the unified state from 1910, with the support of every Prime Minister and every White political party. It became a cornerstone of the politics of the National Party (NP) governments from 1948, taking segregation to new, unparalleled levels. Its official justification was that each race (White, mixed-race (Coloured), Indian, and Black (Bantu)) would prosper most if it developed separately. Harmony would be possible through the races living peacefully side-by-side, while tension would result from them being mixed together in the same environment, competing for the same resources.

In fact, apartheid served to maintain the political and economic supremacy of the White minority, which comprised less than 20 per cent of the total population. By keeping other races apart, poor, and uneducated, the system was designed to prevent them from developing a sense of solidarity and demanding the same rights and benefits which the Whites enjoyed from South Africa's natural wealth and industrialization. The enactment of apartheid was made possible through the 1950 Population Registration Act, which made compulsory the carrying of a pass to identify the racial group of each holder. In 1951, the Bantu Authorities Act was the first of a series of acts designed to create separate and distinct areas in which Blacks would live separately, without intruding into White neighbourhoods (see bantustans). The 1952 Native Law Amendment Act established the close control of the movement of urban Blacks in particular. The 1953 Bantu Education Act for the first time created a national education system for Blacks. Yet through taking education away from the independent churches this increased state control over Blacks, providing inferior education to prepare Blacks for an inferior role in apartheid society. Discrimination in the workplace was enhanced, and sexual relationships between Whites and non-Whites were forbidden.

In 1953 ‘petty apartheid’ began, whereby public amenities (restaurants, lavatories, beaches, post offices, etc.) were set apart for Whites. This was relaxed and gradually abolished under Vorster and P. W. Botha. Apartheid itself, however, did not come to an end until 1993, after a referendum in the previous year in which two-thirds of White South Africans approved its abolition. This was caused by a combination of the protest of the Black majority, international isolation, and the burden of a vast security apparatus on the resources of a White minority whose relative size was declining. (Comprising almost 23 per cent of the population in 1921, Whites made up 12.8 per cent of the population in 1994, as a result of a comparatively low birth-rate.) In 1996, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to deal with the moral and social effects of apartheid.

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