Development of Apartheid and of its Laws Flashcards
(20 cards)
1
Q
What was the first major step Malan did to implement Apartheid?
A
- Appoint a white academic, Professor Tomlinson, to chair a commission of investigation into how system of Apartheid would work
- Him and his team worked hard for four years
2
Q
What did Tomlinson conclude about Apartheid?
A
- Could work but the systematic policy was expensive
3
Q
What were the first laws of Apartheid referred to as?
A
- ‘First phase’ of apartheid
- ‘baakskap’ (boss ship - white supremacy) in Afrikaans
4
Q
What was the Population Registration Act 1950?
A
- Identity cards identifying race was introduced
- Allowing government to relocate them, it happened to 1/10th of the population
5
Q
Why was the Population Registration Act significant?
A
- Made the system possible
- Tightened the government’s control over the population
- Ground level had vital consequences: forcible removal, established what rights the person was entitled to in any situation on the spot
6
Q
What were the prohibitions on mixed marriages?
A
- Relations between members of different ethnic groups were illegal
- Punishment could be as bad as imprisonment
- Laws involved: The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 1949 and Immorality Act 1950
- Sentence tended to be harsher for non-whites
7
Q
What was the Group Areas Act 1950?
A
- Most significant piece of early apartheid legislation because it had the most devastating consequences
- Divided S.A. into white and non-white areas
- Regime believed that it was impossible for the races to live together
8
Q
What were the impacts of the Group Areas Act?
A
- Forced removal of 3.5 million people
- Blacks driven ruthlessly into ‘Bantustans’
- Some had property that their ancestors had bought before the Native Land Act taken away
- Many forced to commute several hours a day to work
- Worsened living conditions though rent was higher
- Indians and Coloureds not sent to homelands but relocated forcefully to worse conditions
9
Q
What was the pass system?
A
- Became a nationwide standardised system that restricted black movement and residence in ‘white’ areas
- Did exist before but locally
- For the regime to decide where and how the blacks lived and to limit their status
10
Q
What was the Native Laws Amendment Act?
A
- Part of the pass laws
- Restricted rights of black people in urban areas
- Made black women subject to pass laws for the first time
- Had to carry their child with them at all times
- Could be deported to a homeland without the baby
11
Q
What effect did the pass laws have on the blacks?
A
- Process of obtaining the book was humiliating
- ‘Reference book’ was a euphemism
- Became a hated symbol as it showed the control and repressive power the regime had
- Hard to obey as it criminalised ordinary citizens as it was a criminal offence not to carry the bulky document
- Almost one million arrests, over 800,000 convictions
12
Q
What did the resentment of the pass laws lead to?
A
- PAC’s demonstration led to the ‘Sharpeville Massacre’
- ANC tried non-violent tactics i.e. burning the book, but it proved counter productive because the regime introduced harsher laws
13
Q
What was the Separate Amenities Act 1953?
A
- Prime example of ‘petty apartheid’
- The regime’s response to a defeat in the courts
- Stated that it was a principle that public amenities did not have to be equal for different races
- Often compared to ‘Jim Crow’ laws, but did not need to maintain the legal fiction that the amenities were equal
14
Q
How did the Separate Amenities Act come about?
A
- ‘Whites only’ notices sprang up
- South Africa’s proud tradition of an independent judiciary
- Ruled that segregation was unlawful unless public amenities were of the same quality for different races
15
Q
How significant was the Separate Amenities Act?
A
- Must be viewed in context of prohibition of mixed marriages
- Sought to reduce contact between races
16
Q
What was the Bantu Education Act 1953?
A
- Education of blacks was controlled by the Apartheid regime
- This meant that blacks would be taught little more than what they needed to know to join the unskilled labour market, run by whites
17
Q
What was education like for the blacks in this period?
A
- Involved the teaching of a racially motivated curriculum that discriminated against the pupils it sought to educate
- Huge difference in government funding (no playing fields, run down, poorly trained teacher, not much money for textbooks)
- Patronising nature of curriculum, old racist stereotypes persisted in textbooks
18
Q
What dramatic change occurred in the nature of schools?
A
- Church schools were closed as they no longer had government funding
- Some renamed themselves ‘Cultural Club’s but were forced to close due to lack of funding
- Unofficial black school opened but they were quickly shut down
19
Q
How did the ANC try to fix the education problem and what happened as a result?
A
- Boycott on government run schools
- Verwoerd hit back and announced that if there was no longer a demand, the schools would close
- This outmanoeuvred ANC because it could not be responsible for denying children education
20
Q
What was a major unintended long term effect of the Bantu Education Act?
A
- Politicised thousands of blacks
- Bright enough to realise Verowerd was keeping them uneducated to limit their chances
- Proof: black youths rioted in Soweto
