South Africa 1.2 (Nature and Characteristics of Discrimination)

DF Malan

When the National Party won the general election in 1948, DF Malan became prime minister. The NP issued laws that became the foundation of the apartheid system in South Africa.

Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 1949

This act illegelized White South Africans marrying people of other races. Despite mixed marriages being a tiny percentage of the population, the act was still introduced.

Immorality Act 1950

The Immorality Act prohibited sex between Black and White races, illegalizing procreation and mixing of races. This was a law that the officials used essentialism to justify.

Population Registration Act 1950

The population government classified the South African population by race. It instigated a national population register that categorized each person by race, and was applied to their ID designation and status.

Group Areas Act 1950

The Group Areas Act states that cities were only meant for the residency of Whites, and that Blacks wouldn't be allowed to reside there any longer, despite being allowed to work there still.

Suppression of Communism Act 1950

The Suppression of Communism Act illegelized the Communist Party of South Africa, but stated that communism was any opposition to apartheid, allowing them to prosecute people who didn't actually identify as such.

Separate Representation of Voters Act 1951

The Separate Representation of Voters Act was created to address the issue of Coloureds who could still vote in the Cape. The law removed the right of Coloureds to vote to address this matter.

Bantu Authorities Act 1951

The Bantu Authorities Act created regional authorities for Africans and got rid of the previously created Natives Representative Council that represented African views.

SG Strijdom

Strijdom was a dominant National Party leader in the Transvaal. He was a radical leader that followed after Malan, and was seen as uncompromising and part of a faction even in the eyes of the NP members.

Policies of Forced Removals

The Natives Resettlement Board was created to remove Blacks from the inner suburbs of the cities (which authorities wanted to limit exclusively to Whites) and to the outer areas.

HF Verwoerd

Verwoerd instigated what is today known as grand apartheid. This constitutes a form of apartheid that is more sophisticated, leaving behind direct discrimination by painting the picture that apartheid was in the best interest of all communities.

Extension of University Education Act 1959

The Extension of University Education Act was made in order to keep the apartheid system running through higher education. It stopped allowing mixed student bodies — with universities only being allowed to admit Africans from one tribe.

Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act 1959

The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act split the African population into groups, allowing the government to claim that Black africans were not their responsibility and labelling them as "foreign" in their own homes.

Transkei Act 1963

The Transkei Act allowed for the election of people of the Transkei Legislative Assembly, in an attempt to bring an idea of democracy to the system and validate its "morality." But the tribal leaders were hand-picked allies.

Petty Apartheid Legislation

Petty Apartheid legislation was the name given to the beginning of the system of apartheid, when it was first incited in South Africa. It is a more direct approach to segregation and discrimination, with less sophisticated reasoning put into the rationalization of the laws. It mainly dealt with the segregation of public places/facilities and social interactions.

Grand Apartheid Legislation

Grand Apartheid came after, when Verwoerd came into power. He brought supposed sophistication to his legislation and leaned on Calvinist and essentialist ideals to justify the discrimination of races. Grand Apartheid legislation was mostly regarding separate housing and employment based on race.

Bantustan System

The Bantustan System was a part of Grand Apartheid in South Africa and it allowed the government to separate racial groups and control the populations. It created specific homelands known as Bantustans for Black Africans. The areas were meant to be self-governing but they were very badly managed. This was seen through the Bantu Authorities Act of 1951, which set up these Bantustans and began the system.

Creation of Townships

The creation of townships and forced removals followed Petty Apartheid legislation, and is usually grouped as Grand Apartheid. The aim was to separate Blacks and Whites in residency as much as possible, dividing cities and land by race and kicking Blacks out into rural areas called townships.