What Was Apartheid?

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Apartheid was the political system in place under the rule of the white nationalist party before the democratic elections of 1994. The national party had been in power since 1948. The system was one of forced racial segregation and of unequal distribution of social and other resources between the race groups. The race categories that were used under apartheid were African, white, coloured and indian. In the later years of apartheid, not only were the races separated but there was an attempt to keep so-called tribes of African people apart.

A range of laws were passed from 1948 onwards to bolster apartheid. These included an Immorality Act to prevent "mixed" marriages; the pass laws that prevented African people from living in the cities unless they had a permit to work there; the Group Areas Act which designated different residential and business areas to specific race groups; and laws to prevent racial integration in schools and social amenities. For example, the beaches and amusement park that you see opposite the Tropicana were restricted to the use of white people only. Buses, schools, cinemas, swimming pools, park benches - you name it! - they were all segregated. Not only were they segregated, but white people always got more of the amenity or service than people of the other three race categories.

Apartheid started to break down in the late 1980's. This was mainly as a result of sustained anti-apartheid struggle on the combined part of the banned African National Congress and its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, the trade union movement and civic organisations. The support of the international trade union movement and anti-apartheid organisations world-wide was critical. The Nationalist party was forced to concede defeat and to release Nelson Mandela and other long-term political prisoners in 1990. Negotiations for a democratic constitution followed, and the first democratic elections were held in April 1994.

Since the dawn of democracy, many things have changed in South Africa. The legacy of apartheid will take many years to eradicate however. You will still notice that the majority of black working class people are confined to a ghetto-like existence in the townships built under apartheid. The majority of white people remain well resourced in wealthier residential areas.

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