Response to apartheid:
- 1948: national party wins with apartheid campaign (DF Malan becomes prime
minister)
- 1951 census: 8.1 million africans, 1 million whites, 1.1 million coloured people
- 1948 election was only decided by white population (abt 21%)
- Africans were disenfranchised in 1936
- Following ww2, there were more jobs for black south africans, also there was a
poor white problem
- By 1948 whites owned about 80% of land
- Growing pride in Afrikaner culture in the 20s and 30s -> growing nationalism,
centenary of the great trek, voortrekker monument 1949, sense of self appealed
to by politicians
- South africa is a self governing part of british empire in 1948
- Creation of broederbond in late 1930s/40s: nationalist group promoting afrikaner
business interests
- Religious nationalism: Dutch reformed churches supported the idea of a volk
- Afrikaner nationalists were very anti war, as they didnt want to fight for the british
empire, mass antiwar movement (Ox wagon guard had 300,000 members) put
lots of pressure on govt and later on many joined the national party
- Smuts was pragmatic: United Party was putting forward some more liberal
policies, this was unpopular with afrikaners- so as part of their campaign, they
put out lots of racist propaganda and tried to paint Smuts as sympathetic to black
people (he wasnt)
- Smuts got more votes but Malan and the national party were the ones that ended
up forming the government in 1948
- Poor black opposition also contributed: ANC, ICU and CPSA -> ANC and ICU
disagreed on issues surrounding protests, and ICU kicked out any members
which were found to be supportive of the CPSA, these internal disagreements
meant it was difficult to provide a united front and provide an adequate black
opposition to the apartheid regime -> along with the fact that black people (who
made up majority) were disenfranchised after 1936
- 1951 Separate Representation of Voters act - removed the rest of the coloured
vote, which helped to strengthen the majority of the national party
- First proper apartheid law was Bantu Authorities Act (1951)
- 1959: Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act, gave afrikaners hope that the
black south africans would live in seperate communities (goal of apartheid)
- Mixed marriages act 1949 and immorality act 1950 -> prohibited relationships
between black and white people
, - Population Registration Act 1950 -> assigned everyone in south africa to one of
four racial categories
- Group Areas Acts 1950 onwards, damaging as allowed black owned areas to be
eradicated
- Sophiatown housed 60,000 and was eradicated in 1950
- District 6: 60,000 people forcibly removed in 1960
- Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 1953 -> allowed people to provide
inadequate supplies for black people
- Convictions under pass laws increased from 165,000 in 1952 to 380,000 in 1962
-> pass law cases clogged up crown court (were also very ineffective)
- Less than ¼ of black people in south africa were literate in the 1951 census, so
the system was clearly ineffective
- Bantu Education Act 1953 and Extension of University Act 1959:
- BEA allowed them to segregate education as they brought it under state control
- Also wanted to stop black children joining street gangs, and putting them in
school could help w this
- SA’n economy required a skilled black workforce, so the BEA and EUA helped
- Bantu education only provided black people for limited positions and employment
after it
- The EUA allowed the government to control the higher education of black people
and fort hare
- Tomlinson report 1955: said that, there should be major funding in rural
industries, advocated for pushing families out of land to create economic units for
farming (these were rejected) didnt allow investment in the bantustans bcs he
didnt want the development of the bantustans to rival white south africas
development
- Betterment: allowed Africans to intensify farming without destroying soil and
vegetation
- People were forced into villages (over a million in the 1950s) and some were
forced to sell their livestock
- National Party was not prepared to equally divide south africa
- Black south africans lived in a very limited percentage of south africa
- By the 1950s govt was becoming increasingly concerned about the ANC
- In 1956, 156 members of the congress alliance were arrested
- They were accused of high treason and the trial lasted 5 years
- All the defendants in the treason trial were acquitted in 1961, had both good and
bad impacts while it was going on
- ANC was established in 1912