apartheid

 APARTHEID

During the 20th century, South Africa's white minority and nonwhite majority were separated by a

policy known as apartheid (Afrikaans: "apartness"). Although racial segregation had long been a

reality there, the term apartheid was only originally applied to the government's adoption of racial

segregation practises by the white minority in about 1948. Based on their race, South Africans were

limited in where they could live, work, acquire an education, and exercise their right to vote. The

legalisation of apartheid was ended by events in the early 1990s, but its impacts on society and the

economy persisted. Racial segregation, sanctioned by law, was widely practiced in South Africa

before 1948. But when the National Party, led by Daniel F. Malan, gained office that year, it

extended the policy and gave it the name apartheid. The implementation of apartheid, often called

“separate development” since the 1960s, was made possible through the Population Registration

Act of 1950, which classified all South Africans as either Bantu (all Black Africans), Coloured (those of

mixed race), or white. A fourth category—Asian (Indian and Pakistani)—was later added. One of the

other most significant acts in terms of forming the basis of the apartheid system was the Group

Areas Act of 1950. It established residential and business sections in urban areas for each race, and

members of other races were barred from living, operating businesses, or owning land in

them—which led to thousands of Coloureds, Blacks, and Indians being removed from areas classified

for white occupation. In practice, this act and two others in 1954 and 1955, which became known

collectively as the Land Acts, completed a process that had begun with similar Land Acts adopted in

1913 and 1936: the end result was to set aside more than 80 percent of South Africa’s land for the

white minority. To help enforce the segregation of the races and prevent Blacks from encroaching on

white areas, the government strengthened the existing “pass” laws, which required nonwhites to

carry documents authorizing their presence in restricted