The nature of the apartheid system

Racial distribution of South Africa’s population in 1911

• Asians 2.5%

• Coloured 8.8%

• Whites 21%

• Africans 67.7%

• Despite Whites being 20% of the population, they controlled most of the country’s resources and wealth due to the use of African labour

The apartheid system was established in 1948, and was based on widespread policies of segregation which were rigidly enforced after 1910

• Segregation policies implemented after 1910 had several aims such as

• Protect white economic interests and use cheap African labour

• Maintain white political control of the country

• Maintain white supremacy and sustain Afrikaner nationalism

Areas affected by post-1910 segregation laws

• erritorial separation of the races

  • In 1913, the government passed the Natives’ Land Act

    • Africans were restricted to 8% of the country’s land and were no longer allowed to pay rent

    • Africans living on white farms had to work for wages or provide 90 days of free labour to use a piece of land

  • 1936 Natives Trust and Land Act modified the 1913 law

    • Land available for Africans was increased to 13%, keeping Africans in their reserves so they did not move into urban areas

• Residential separation of the races

  • By the 1920s, the white population was concerned about the number of Africans moving into larger towns

  • The 1909 Urban Areas Native Pass Act gave Africans a six-day permit to seek work in urban areas, and if they failed they were forced back into rural areas

    • Even before the Union, laws had restricted African movement in urban areas

  • Native (Urban Areas) Act of 1923

    • Local governments could clear slums and force Africans to live on the edges of towns

    • Police carried ‘pass raids’ to enforce these laws, and not having a pass led to ejection

    • Majority of Africans at some time have been arrested for pass violations

• Political separation of the races

  • After 1910, most Africans did not have the vote, as Hertzog’s system of white domination extended into politics

    • In the Cape region, some African and coloured men could vote provided they had a certain level of education and property, known as qualified franchise

  • Native Representation Act of 1936 aimed to remove Africans from the Cape electoral roll

    • Africans had a separate institution, the Native Representation Council (NRC) which could offer suggestions to parliament regarding issues

  • Under Hertzog, whites were given preference for better mining jobs, a Land Bank was established for white farmers, and the ISCOR gave jobs to Afrikaners and protected them from African competition

• Workplace separation of the races

  • In 1911, the Mines and Works Act excluded Africans from skilled types of mine work, which was reserved for whites

  • In 1911, the Natives’ Labour Regulation Act established rules under which Africans could work

    • Workers were recruited from rural areas, who were fingerprinted and issued with a pass to enter cities, and remaining too long in an urban area could lead to arrest or hard labour

The impact of the Great Depression and the Second World War on the South African economy, policy of segregation and political life

• Although suffering was widespread, Africans were often fired first, could not sell their produce and thousands moved to the cities hoping for domestic servant jobs

  • Afrikaner bywoners, poor white farmers, also moved to the cities in search of employment opportunities

    • Poor white Afrikaners and poor Africans lived together in city slum areas, causing distress for the government

      • Pass laws were enforced with greater diligence and force, driving unemployed Africans back to rural areas

  • As the economy recovered with the rise in gold prices, the government was able to assist white farmers and demand for labour increased, seeing more Africans move to the cities

• The war boosted the economy through mining and manufacturing industries, increasing the demand for labour, and as rural areas deteriorated, more Africans moved towards the cities

  • This made it difficult to enforce segregation, and a more racist and extreme form of politics appeared in the Afrikaner community

    • Hertzog’s party was split when Daniel Malan formed the Purified National Party

      • Smuts power was weakening with age, and Malan’s nationalistic vision of the ‘pure’ Afrikaners gained the support of the Dutch Reformed Church and secret society known as the Broederbond

      • Black opposition to government policies was increasing, and although Smuts had some sympathy, he maintained a hard line against protests and used police and army to defeat miner’s strikes in 1946

Since the establishment of the Union of South Africa, its governments had endeavoured to enforce segregationist policies, leading to the development of apartheid after the 1948 election

What factors led to apartheid?

• The intensification of Afrikaner nationalism

  • Afrikaners believed they were chosen by God to rule South Africa, and such racist thinking would lead to the development of apartheid

• Rapid and large-scale African urbanisation

  • Afrikaner nationalist feeling occurred at the same time black urbanisation was increasing, due to the rapid expansion of industry during the war

• Afrikaner perceptions of the failure of the Smuts government

  • Smuts was viewed as being too liberal, pro-British during the war and unwilling or unable to take action against black urbanisation

  • Smuts believed that segregation was failing and black urbanisation was inevitable

    • Although Smuts took a hard line with African dissent, such as the 1946 miner’s strike, many Afrikaners wanted a radical solution

• The Fagan and Sauer Reports of 1948

  • The main parties, Smuts United Party (UP) and Malan’s Herenigde National Party (HRP) both accepted the necessity of African labour for South African industry, and that African migration to towns was an issue

  • In 1946, Smuts’ government established the Fagan Committee to investigate and suggest solutions, and Malan’s HRP appointed the Sauer Committee to do the same, each reporting eight weeks before the election

    • The UP’s Fagan Report

      • Total segregation was impossible and industry needed black workers to be permanently settled

      • It was not possible for black workers to be returned to reserves and the migrant system of labour should end

      • African workers and their families should be encouraged to settle in locations under strict control

    • The HRP’s Sauer Report

      • Africans belonged in reserves and permanent black settlement was a dangerous development

      • Urban Africans must only be considered as visitors and the migrant system of labour must continue

      • There had to be strict policy of separating black locations from white towns

• The 1948 election

  • The HRP renamed itself ‘The National Party’ (NP) and the choice between them and the UP was stark

    • Malan’s NP offered white voters an extreme and repressive set of policies, compared to Smuts UP’s equivocal proposals

  • The NP won a momentous victory, although was this a turning point

    • Some would argue no, as apartheid was inevitable regardless of which government was in power

    • Some argue yes, as the NP proceeded to implement a series of rigid apartheid measures, and remained in power for 46 years

When the National Party came into power in 1948, it was committed to the Sauer Committee and the implementation of apartheid, although they did not have a plan established

• The basis of apartheid was set up in the 1950s, and would continually evolve when faced with three main challenges

• Ensure economic growth and stability

• Ensure the continuation of white privilege and power

• Ensure the suppression of black protest

The aim of apartheid was not to separate the races, but

to ensure whites were treated more favourably and denied blacks any opportunity to oppose the system legally

Clark and Worger: “By the end of the apartheid era, the South African legal system vested so many powers of surveillance and enforcement of the police - as opposed to the courts - that the country operated for most of its inhabitants as a police state”

The key pieces of legislation of the 1950s and the basis of the apartheid system, known as the “baaskap” or “white supremacy” which included

• Passes

  • Population Registration Act (1950) ensured all South Africans were classified on the basis of race: white, coloured or Native (later called Bantu)

    • Apartheid determined race on the basis of cultural and civilisational difference in everyday life

      • Thus, ordinary people with no qualifications determined a person’s race based on their actions and appearance ended

  • Abolition of Passes Act (1952) combined previous passes/permits into a reference book, a dompas

    • Natives without a dompas living or working in white areas were illegal

    • Police often carried out pass raids and in 1956, women also had to carry a pass

• Location laws

  • Group Areas Act (1950) saw residential areas be declared as black or white only, moving blacks out of their homes

  • Native Laws Amendment Act (1952) controlled the movement of blacks in and out of towns

  • Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act (1951) allowed for the construction of black townships away from white areas

• Separation

  • Separate Amenities Act (1953) designated public spaces and facilities for ‘Europeans’ or ‘Non-Europeans’ only

    • Parks, beaches, post offices, trains, toilets, entrances to buildings were all included, and European counterparts were superior

    • Africans could be arrested and imprisoned for using European facilities

• Morality

  • Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949) made it illegal for different races to marry

  • Immorality Amendment Act (1950) made sexual relations between white and blacks forbidden

    • Deborah Posel: “Strict media censorship restricted the circulation of images and text deemed immoral; the introduction of television was delayed by fears that this would contaminate the nation’s morality with decadent/subversive programmes from abroad”

• Other issues

  • The Separate Representation of Voters Act (1956) banned Cape Coloureds from voting in white elections

  • Bantu Education Act (1953) ensured Black children were taught about their culture in separate schools and were prepared for a life of labour

  • Suppression of Communism Act (1950) prevented any groups from changing the apartheid status quo

  • Promotion of the Bantu Self-Government Act (1959)

• Verwoerd is widely regarded as the chief ideologue of apartheid

  • International attacks on apartheid increased from the new independent Asian and African nations of the Commonwealth

What action did Verwoerd take in response?

• Verwoerd offered the white South African people the proposal to become a republic, and met with overwhelming support, South Africa departed the British Commonwealth in 1961

The post-1948 Afrikaner government was aimed at separating races in urban communities, while balancing the desire for economic growth

How did legislation impact blacks in urban communities?

• The most significant piece of apartheid legislation was the Native Abolition of Passes Act (1952)

  • Every African carried a dompas and in 1956, African women did as well

  • Frequent and violent passes were carried out by police, and failure to have a properly stamped one would lead to imprisonment or expulsion to rural reas

• The purpose of the Group Areas Act of (1950) was to enforce racial segregation, and large numbers of blacks were moved to areas designated for black occupation

  • Townships were set up far away from white areas to avoid being swamped

  • Some townships were destroyed for Afrikaner occupation

    • Sophiatown was destroyed in the 1950s, and blacks were piled on trucks so it could be reoccupied by Afrikaners, renaming it Triomf

• Although the Bantu Education Act ensured African children received inferior education to white children, it was even worse in rural reas

• Apartheid legislation had a greater impact on urban communities as there was more chances of interaction between blacks and whites, such as Separate Amenities Act (1953)

  • Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949) and Immorality Act (1950) prevented marital and sexual relations

    • The well-known relationship between Professor John Blacking and Dr Zarina Desai, who fled to Britain before being imprisoned

• In the 1960s and 1970s, the South African economy grew with many foreign businesses taking advantage of low African wages

  • By the 1980s, there was 2500 foreign businesses that were investing $30 billion

    • South Africa’s white population had a higher standard of living than most western industrialised countries

    • African wages did not increase, and the real value was lower in 1971 than in 1911

    • By the 1980s, South Africa was one of the most unequal societies, with the bottom 40% of the population earning 6% of national income

• Urban inequality also impacted health standards

  • Infant mortality for Africans and Coloured was 13x whites

    • 25% of African and Coloured children died before their 1st birthday

  • In Pretoria, between 1967 and 1976, not a single house was built for African families

• Police controlled the boundaries between the races, and the intensity of police violence against Africans expanded

Apartheid also had a significant impact on life in rural communities

• The Population Registration Act (1950) classified people along racial lines

  • Parents that are declared African could have their children declared coloured

• 13% of the country’s land was given over to Africans, later organised into the Bantustans

  • Africans were systematically removed from urban areas to ‘homelands’

    • Some Africans sold their land to whites at very low prices

    • Rural areas were often inadequate housing, poor employment opportunities and lacked basic facilities

  • These forced removals became more inhumane

    • In 1968, 7000 Africans in the township of Schmidtsdrift were driven out to an African reserve near the edge of the Kalahari Desert

      • The area was not suitable for crop growing and the population starved

  • The Bantu Resettlement Act (1954) destroyed western Johannesburg townships such as Newclare and Martindale

    • Black residents had been there since 1900 and had even gained freehold rights over some land

    • In the name of ‘sum clearance’, townships were destroyed and residents moved to rural homeland areas for their benefit

      • Homelands were isolated, and often comprised of scattered bits of land

• Overcrowding in inhospitable regions became an issue

  • Homelands populations increased to 53% by 1980 and 11 million black people lived there, from 4.4 million

  • Population density for whites was two people per square kilometre, whereas blacks in their homelands was 298 per square kilometre

    • Agricultural cultivation was impossible under these conditions

Impact of apartheid on urban communities

Gail Nattrass

Deborah Posel

• “White children grew up in isolation from their black peers, and few whites ever learnt an African language. Black and coloured people did not come into contact with white people except in the workplace, and then in generally subordinate positions”

• “The figure of the unscrupulously violent black criminal kept white fears of black menace alive, which sustained support for the rigid racial segregation that the apartheid state promised to sustain”

Impact of apartheid on rural communities

Anne Kelk Mager and Maanda Mulaudzi

 “African resentment of the entrepreneurial power of the Indian-owned businesses…frustration at economic contraction as the Second World War came to an end…and exacerbated by a desperate need for space in the city”