What was Apartheid in South Africa?

How it came about, how it was applied and how the law that institutionalized racial prejudice in South Africa was closed




1) Since 1795, the English and the Dutch alternated in control of the region that is now South Africa. The fight for possession only ended with the Boer Wars (1880-1902), won by the United Kingdom. The country recognized South Africa's independence on May 31, 1910, and officialized sovereignty in 1931 - but it maintained laws that, informally, preserved racial segregation.


2) In 1947, the South African National Party won the elections and in 1948 consolidated segregation with laws that limited the rights of the black population and favored the white minority (less than 20% of the population at that time). Apartheid was born, the institutionalization of racial prejudice, granting whites only a standard of living on the level of First World nations.



3) Laws affected all aspects of the life of blacks. As of 1949, they were forbidden from marrying or having sex with whites. In 1950, an obligation arose to carry identification of his racial group. As the authorities made mistakes in the classifications, especially in relation to the mestizos, members of the same family were separated.

4) Until 1950, several settlements were inhabited by varied ethnic groups. But that year, the Group Areas Act delimited specific sectors for blacks - usually in rural areas with little infrastructure and sanitation. This law also served as an excuse when the government wanted to carry out forced removals - which would become frequent in the years to come.


5) Apartheid victims studied in a different school from whites, with content planned to keep them in the working class. Attending universities was forbidden. And, from 1953 onwards, several other milieus were demarcated as "white only", such as municipal areas, pews, buses, restaurants and hospitals.



6) Groups of resistance to apartheid began to emerge from 1949 and have always been met with violence by the authorities. On March 21, 1960, at a protest in Shapeville, 69 protesters were killed by the police. In the following days, the government declared a state of emergency. Some 18,000 people were detained and the resistance groups dismantled.

7) Resistance factions formed by different ethnic groups began to organize strikes on basic services. One of the organizers was a leader of the thembu people: Nelson Mandela. The government reacted brutally. Mandela was arrested several times and, in 1964, sentenced to life imprisonment. He went through three penitentiaries, where he suffered verbal and physical violence.

8) Apartheid overthrew the economy - it lacked skilled labor, for example. The government still spent a lot to contain the rebellions (and yet the threat of a civil war was permanent). To make matters worse, in retaliation for the policy of racial segregation, the UN imposed serious economic sanctions on the country in 1962 and an arms embargo in 1980. The International Olympic Committee also banned South Africa from the 1964 Olympics.


9) In February 1989, F.W. de Klerk took over the presidency. Under national and international pressure, it initiated political work to reverse apartheid and release prisoners who were victims of segregation. Mandela was pardoned on February 11, 1990, and when the new constitution of 1993 secured the right to vote for blacks, he gave no other: he was elected president the following year.

The numbers of inequality

South Africa's statistics in 1978 opened up segregation

Population
BLACK: 19 million
WHITE: 4.5 million

Allocation of land
BLACK: 13%
WHITE: 87%

Government Tax Benefits
BLACK: less than 20%
WHITE: 75%

Proportion of doctors for the population
BLACK: 1 to 44 mill
WHITE: 1 to 400

Annual expenditure on education
BLACK: US $ 45 per student
WHITES: US $ 696 per student

Proportion of teachers for the population
BLACK: 1 to 60
WHITES: 1 to 22

Child mortality
BLACK: 40% (field) / 20% (city)
WHITE: 2.7%




SOURCES BBC News World News Sites, History, The New York Times, Independent, Apartheid Museum and Reuters; Books Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, South Africa - The Rise and Fall of Apartheid and Apartheid: An Illustrated History, various authors; Documentary Roadmap to Apartheid