setting up of apartheid Flashcards
1948-54, original policies and election of the nationalist party
context - before nationalist party elected
context of segregation
- black south africans and indians disenfranchised (not allowed to vote)
Laws in place to restrict their. movement, employment, land ownership
Movement: Pass Laws - they had to carry documents authorizing their presence in restricted areas
Employment: 1911 mines and works act – reserved skilled and well paid jobs for the whites
Land owndership: 1913 natives land act – restricted black ownership of land (ie land that was good for farming)
Employment: 1924 industrial conciliation act – denied blacks trade unions and worker’s rights (taking away power from black workers, making them unable to synthesise any real change)
Voting: 1936 representation of the natives act – removed voting rights from 10k blacks that met the qualification (property/earning)
Election and Nationalist Party Victory
1948 election - NP won due to their racial policies and popularity among white population
- did not expect to win, draft and enforcement of stratedgies was rushed
Context to their win:
White (Afrikaners) were afraid of losing their jobs (policies & employment was relaxed during the war due to labour shortages), and wanted to crack down so that they would have more power / less threat
White voters were attracted by the slogan “separateness”, did not like Smuts’ (United party )policy of allowing black workers to fill white vacancies
Electoral system gave 15% more weighting tor rural constituencies rather than urban ones therefore NP was more popular in countryside, and they were able to win more votes
Problem with the United Party
- people believed that Smuts was old and out of touch, and almost was a ‘traitor’ to his race
Pieces of Legislation in the apartheid act (list/timeline)
1949 Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act
1950 Immortality Amendment act
1950 Group Areas Act
1950 Population Regristration Act
1950 Suppression of communism act
1953 Bantu Education Act
1953 Seperate Amenities Act
1953 Native Resettlement Act
Removing multiracial relationships
The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 1949/The Immorality Amendment Act 1950: mixed marriages and sexual relations made illegal, both could be persecuted for breaking the laws
to give the government more power and control over the nation and its numbers
The Population Registration Act 1950: needed to control the nation, so the government could relocate or move them. Identity cards with their race were issued, and established the rights that people were allowed in the situation on the spot.
seperation of south africa into different areas, controlling where the population lived
Group Areas Act 1950: zoning of south Africa into white / non white areas, claiming that it was ‘impossible for races to live together’. Devastating consequences – blacks were driven into homelands (bantusans) away from where they used to live, and living conditions were worse despite higher rent
-Zones like Sophiatown were thriving (mixed race), threat to regime
- Only givene 13% of land despite the fact that blacks made up 70% of the population
related to the cold war and communist acts
Suppression of Communism Act 1950: persecuted people for being communist and allowed imprisonment of these individuals
Meant that government were eventually able to arrest pretty much anybody for any reason
related to education and the implications of race in the system
Bantu Education Act 1953: segregated education, meant that black children had different education (worser quality, less funding), meaning that in the future they would lack the skill to be given high-paying jobs.
There were boycotts against these system and unofficial schooling for blacks, but they were banned and the boycotts were unsuccessful because the system would’ve been shut down instead of changed
policy of petty apartheid, segregating public places
Separate Amenities Act 1953: legalized racial segregation in public places, vehicles, services
Exclusion of only public roads and streets
Quality of facilites did not have to be equal (despite opposition from chief of justice) - black facilities inferior
It was legal to completely exclude people based on their race from public premises, vehicles, services
Moving blacks away from economically prosperous areas
Native Resettlement Act 1953: to remove blacks from areas within or next to Johannesburg
Remove blacks from Sophiatown to the Meadowlands
Sophiatown changed name to a white only area called Triomf (triumph)
Growth of ANC and resistance after 1948
members initially did not pay much attention to 1948 election, believed it was ‘white man politics’
Only started focusing on this after Oliver Tambo was spat on by a white youth
Was difficult to resist ∵ suppression of communism act (1953), essentially allowed gov to arrest anyone, interpret opposition differently
Creation of the youth league in 1949 – contained Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu
Defiance Campaign
(1952) - nonviolent, civil disobedience
Law breaking on a large scale, meant that the goverment woudl not be able to cope with it, Ie. Travelling without passes
Nationwide strikes and protests
Tens of thousands of people participated, ANC membership increased to 100,000
Impacts of defiance campaign
1952
- limited, there were not enough participants (would need millions of people for this to work but they only had a few hundred thousand
- Nelson Mandela and other leaders of the ANC arrested, and they were banned from public speaking from 1953 onwards
