Implementing apartheid - strengthening the National Party

Question 1

Development of National Party government control

Answer 1

• The NP didn’t have precise blueprints for the implementation of apartheid.
• They main ambition in the early years of government was to stay in power.
• However, apartheid was the center of their platform.
• They maintained their support and achieved apartheid via various strategies:
  1. Making the state more dominated by Afrikaner people; for example, as English speaking civil servants retired, they were replaced by Afrikaner people.
  2. All senior national party politicians and government officials were expected to have close ties with Broderbund.
  3. They created new political constituencies for example In South West Africa (Nambia).
  4. In 1950 they disenfranchised colored votes.

Question 2

Growth in National Party support

Answer 2

• The party grew in support: by the election of 1950 and 61 it had a majority of over 50 seats which it was able to retain throughout the apartheid period.
• This was due to both party organization and control, and the development of a bureaucracy which became dominated by Afrikaner people.
• Many Afrikaner people quite simply were tied to the continuation of the NP gov since they relied on it for their livelihoods.

Question 3

Grand and petty apartheid

Answer 3

• The NP strategy envisaged a total system of apartheid.
• Many examples of segregation had preceded their electoral victory, for example the carrying of passes. Now however, it was all formalized in national law.
• There were two broad types of apartheid:
  1. Grand apartheid: this was the over all strategy of keeping different races separated as much as possible, for example, by ensuring they lived in separate areas.
  2. Petty apartheid: this was the day-to-day restrictions, such as separate facilities. Many African people found thus worse than grand apartheid.

Question 4

What was the Population Registration Act 1950?

Answer 4

• This act designated the racial category of everyone, divided initially into black, white, and colored, with Indian added later.
• It insisted that the different groups be kept strictly separate.
• Husbands and wives in interracial marriages were expected to split up.
• Everyone was registered according to their racial group and issues with an identity card with their racial group appended.
• There were tests created and carried out to determine which category a person belonged to.
• One significant effect of this act is that it put an end to mixed marriages and relationships.

Question 5

What was the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949 + Immorality Act 1950?

Answer 5

• In 1949 and 1950 respectively, mixed marriages and sexual relations between members of different racial groups were made illegal.
• White people could be imprisoned for disobeying the latter, although their punishment was not usually as severe as for members of other groups, including their sexual partners.

Question 6

What was the Group Areas Act, 1950?

Answer 6

• This required the registration of all land ownership and authorized the government to designate a particular area for occupation by one particular racial group.
• Members of other groups in this area were to be forcibly evicted.
• This Act was responsible for the forcible eviction of 3.5 million African people between 1951 and 1986.

Question 7

Destruction of Sophiatown

Answer 7

• Sophiatown was a mixed-race blackspot noted for its vibrant culture, in 1953, forced removals began, with African people being moved to a new township ‘Meadowlands’.
• Wen Sophiatown was finally demolished it was replaced with a white suburb.