Before South Africa became a republic

Before South Africa became a republic, politics among white South Africans was typified by the division between the chiefly Afrikaner pro-republic conservative and the largely English anti-republican liberal sentiments,^[44] Sony  VAIO VGP-BPS13B/S Battery

 with the legacy of the Boer War still a factor for some people. Once the status of a republic was attained, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd called for improved relations and greater accord between those of British descent and the Afrikaners.^[45] He claimed that the only difference now was between those who supported apartheid and those in opposition to it. Sony  VAIO VGP-BPS13/Q Battery

The ethnic divide would no longer be between Afrikaans speakers and English speakers, but rather white and black ethnicities. Most Afrikaners supported the notion of unanimity of white people to ensure their safety. White voters of British descent were divided. Many had opposed a republic, leading to a majority "no" vote in Natal.^[46] Sony  VAIO VGP-BPS13A/Q Battery

 Later, however, some of them recognised the perceived need for white unity, convinced by the growing trend of decolonisation elsewhere in Africa, which concerned them. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's "Wind of Change" speech left the British faction feeling that Britain had abandoned them.^[47] Sony  VAIO VGP-BPS13B/Q Battery

The more conservative English-speakers gave support to Verwoerd;^[48] others were troubled by the severing of ties with Britain and remained loyal to the Crown.^[49] They were acutely displeased at the choice between British and South African nationality. Although Verwoerd tried to bond these different blocs, the subsequent ballot illustrated only a minor swell of support,^[50] Sony  VGP-BPS21 Battery

indicating that a great many English speakers remained apathetic, and that Verwoerd had not succeeded in uniting the white population, and a divide between Anglo and Afrikaner whites remained. Sony  VGP-BPS21A Battery

Under the homeland system, the South African government attempted to divide South Africa into a number of separate states, each of which was supposed to develop into a separate nation-state for a different ethnic group.^[15]

Territorial separation was not a new institution. Sony  VGP-BPS21B Battery

There were, for example, the "reserves" created under the British government in the nineteenth century. Under apartheid, some thirteen per cent of the land was reserved for black homelands, a relatively small amount compared to the total population, and generally in economically unproductive areas of the country. Sony  VGP-BPS21/S Battery

The Tomlinson Commission of 1954 justified apartheid and the homeland system, but stated that additional land ought to be given to the homelands, a recommendation which was not carried out.^{[citation needed]}

When Hendrik Verwoerd became Prime Minister in 1958, the policy of "separate development" came into being, with the homeland structure as one of its cornerstones. Sony  VGP-BPS21A/b Battery

Verwoerd came to believe in the granting of independence to these homelands. The government justified its plans on the basis that "(the) government's policy is, therefore, not a policy of discrimination on the grounds of race or colour, but a policy of differentiation on the ground of nationhood, Sony VGP-BPS26 Battery

of different nations, granting to each self-determination within the borders of their homelands – hence this policy of separate development".^]Under the homelands system, blacks would no longer be citizens of South Africa; they would instead become citizens of the independent homelands who merely worked in South Africa as foreign migrant labourers on temporary work permits. Sony VGP-BPL26 Battery

In 1958 the Promotion of Black Self-Government Act was passed, and border industries and the Bantu Investment Corporation were established to promote economic development and the provision of employment in or near the homelands. Many black South Africans who had never resided in their identified homeland were nonetheless forcibly removed from the cities to the homelands. Sony VGP-BPS26A Battery

Ten homelands were ultimately allocated to different black ethnic groups: Lebowa (North Sotho, also referred to as Pedi),QwaQwa (South Sotho), Bophuthatswana (Tswana), KwaZulu (Zulu), KaNgwane (Swazi), Transkei and Ciskei (Xhosa), Gazankulu(Tsonga), Venda (Venda) and KwaNdebele (Ndebele). Sony VGP-BPS22 Battery

Four of these were declared independent by the South African government: Transkei in 1976, Bophuthatswana in 1977, Venda in 1979, and Ciskei in 1981 (also known as the TBVC states). Once a homeland was granted its nominal independence, its designated citizens had their South African citizenship revoked, replaced with citizenship in their homeland. Sony VGP-BPL22 Battery

These people were then issued passports instead of passbooks. Citizens of the nominally autonomous homelands also had their South African citizenship circumscribed, meaning they were no longer legally considered South African.^[51] The South African government attempted to draw an equivalence between their view of black citizens of the homelands and the problems which other countries faced through entry of illegal immigrants. Sony VGP-BPS22A Battery

International recognition for these new countries was extremely limited. Each TBVC state extended recognition to the other independent Bantustans while South Africa showed its commitment to the notion of TBVC sovereignty by building embassies in the various TBVC capitals. Sony VAIO PCG-3B1M Battery

 Israel was the only internationally recognised country and UN member to afford some sort of diplomatic recognition to any of the Bantustans, though formal acknowledgment of the Bantustans as full-fledged countries never occurred.^[52] In late 1982, the Ciskei Trade Mission opened in Tel Aviv, flying its own flag and staffed by two Israelis, Sony VAIO PCG-3D1M Battery

Yosef Schneider and Nat Rosenwasser, who were employed by the Ciskei Foreign Ministry. Bophuthatswana also had a representative in Israel, Shabtai Kalmanovich,^[52] who in 1988 was sentenced by Israel to seven years in jail for spying for the KGB.^[53] In 1983 Israel was visited by the presidents of both Bophuthatswana and Ciskei, as well as by Venda’s entire chamber of commerce.^[52] Sony VAIO PCG-3G2M Battery

During this visit Lennox Sebe, the Ciskeian President secured a contract with the Israeli government to supply and train his armed forces.^[52] Initially, six planes – at least one a military helicopter – were sold to Ciskei, and 18 Ciskei residents arrived in Israel for pilot training.^[52] In 1985 Israel received Buthelezi as Chief Minister of KwaZulu during an unofficial visit in 1985. Sony VAIO PCG-5R1M Battery

During the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, the government implemented a policy of 'resettlement', to force people to move to their designated "group areas". Millions of people were forced to relocate during this period. These removals included people relocated due to slum clearance programmes, labour tenants on white-owned farms, the inhabitants of the so-called 'black spots', Sony VAIO PCG-7162M Battery

areas of black owned land surrounded by white farms, the families of workers living in townships close to the homelands, and 'surplus people' from urban areas, including thousands of people from the Western Cape (which was declared a 'Coloured Labour Preference Area'^[54]) who were moved to the Transkei and Ciskei homelands. Sony VAIO PCG-7181M Battery

The best-publicised forced removals of the 1950s occurred in Johannesburg, when 60,000 people were moved to the new township of Soweto (an abbreviation for South Western Townships).^[55][56]

Until 1955 Sophiatown had been one of the few urban areas where blacks were allowed to own land, and was slowly developing into a multiracial slum. Sony VAIO PCG-41112M Battery

As industry in Johannesburg grew, Sophiatown became the home of a rapidly expanding black workforce, as it was convenient and close to town. It could also boast the only swimming pool for black children in Johannesburg.^[57] As one of the oldest black settlements in Johannesburg, Sophiatown held an almost symbolic importance for the 50,000 blacks it contained, Sony VAIO PCG-7153M Battery

both in terms of its sheer vibrancy and its unique culture. Despite a vigorous ANC protest campaign and worldwide publicity, the removal of Sophiatown began on 9 February 1955 under the Western Areas Removal Scheme. In the early hours, heavily armed police entered Sophiatown to force residents out of their homes and load their belongings onto government trucks. Sony VAIO PCG-71312M Battery

The residents were taken to a large tract of land, thirteen miles (19 km) from the city centre, known as Meadowlands (that the government had purchased in 1953). Meadowlands became part of a new planned black city called Soweto. The Sophiatown slum was destroyed by bulldozers, and a new white suburb named Triomf (Triumph) was built in its place. Sony VAIO PCG-7144M Battery

This pattern of forced removal and destruction was to repeat itself over the next few years, and was not limited to people of African descent. Forced removals from areas like Cato Manor (Mkhumbane) in Durban, and District Six in Cape Town, where 55,000 coloured and Indian people were forced to move to new townships on the Cape Flats, were carried out under the Group Areas Act of 1950. Sony VAIO PCG-7191L Battery

Ultimately, nearly 600,000 coloured, Indian and Chinese people were moved in terms of the Group Areas Act. Some 40,000 white people were also forced to move when land was transferred from "white South Africa" into the black homelands.

The National Party passed a string of legislation which became known as petty apartheid. Sony VAIO PCG-3C1M Battery

The first of these was the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 55 of 1949, prohibiting marriage between white people and people of other races. The Immorality Amendment Act 21 of 1950 (as amended in 1957 by Act 23) forbade "unlawful racial intercourse" and "any immoral or indecent act" between a white person and an African, Indian or coloured person. Sony VAIO PCG-3F1M Battery

Blacks were not allowed to run businesses or professional practices in those areas designated as "white South Africa" unless they had a permit. They were required to move to the black "homelands" and set up businesses and practices there. Transport and civil facilities were segregated. Black buses stopped at black bus stops and white buses at white ones. Sony VAIO PCG-3H1M Battery

Trains, hospitals and ambulances were segregated.^[58] Because of the smaller numbers of white patients and the fact that white doctors preferred to work in white hospitals, conditions in white hospitals were much better than those in often overcrowded and under staffed black hospitals.^[59]

 Blacks were excluded from living or working in white areas, unless they had a pass—nicknamed the dompas ("dumb pass" in Afrikaans). Only blacks with "Section 10" rights (those who had migrated to the cities before World War II) were excluded from this provision. A pass was issued only to a black person with approved work. Sony VAIO PCG-3J1M Battery

Spouses and children had to be left behind in black homelands. A pass was issued for one magisterial district (usually one town) confining the holder to that area only. Being without a valid pass made a person subject to arrest and trial for being an illegal migrant. This was often followed by deportation to the person's homeland and prosecution of the employer (for employing an illegal migrant). Sony VAIO PCG-8141M Battery

Police vans patrolled the white areas to round up illegal blacks found there without passes. Black people were not allowed to employ white people in white South Africa.^{[citation needed]}

Although trade unions for black and coloured (mixed race) workers had existed since the early 20th century, it was not until the 1980s reforms that a mass black trade union movement developed. Sony VAIO PCG-8161M Battery

The trade unions which existed under apartheid were racially segregated, with 54 unions being white-only, 38 for Indian and coloured and 19 for African people. The Industrial Conciliation Act (1956) legislated against the creation of multi-racial trade unions and attempted to split existing multi-racial trade unions into separate branches or organisations along racial lines.^[60] Sony VAIO PCG-3C2M Battery

In the 1970s the state spent ten times more per child on the education of white children than on black children within the Bantu Education system (the education system practised in black schools within white South Africa). Higher education was provided in separate universities and colleges after 1959. Eight black universities were created in the homelands. Sony VAIO PCG-5N2M Battery

 Fort Hare University in the Ciskei (now Eastern Cape) was to register only Xhosa-speaking students. Sotho, Tswana, Pedi and Vendaspeakers were placed at the newly founded University College of the North at Turfloop, while the University College of Zululandwas launched to serve Zulu scholars. Coloureds and Indians were to have their own establishments in the Cape and Natalrespectively.^[ Sony VAIO PCG-5P1M Battery

In addition, each black homeland controlled its own separate education, health and police system. Blacks were not allowed to buy hard liquor. They were able only to buy state-produced poor quality beer (although this was relaxed later). Public beaches were racially segregated. Public swimming pools, some pedestrian bridges, drive-in cinema parking spaces, graveyards, parks, and public toilets were segregated.Sony PCG-31211T Battery

Cinemas and theatres in white areas were not allowed to admit blacks. There were practically no cinemas in black areas. Most restaurants and hotels in white areas were not allowed to admit blacks except as staff. Black Africans were prohibited from attending white churches under the Churches Native Laws Amendment Act of 1957. Sony PCG-31311T Battery

This was, however, never rigidly enforced, and churches were one of the few places races could mix without the interference of the law. Blacks earning 360 rand a year, 30 rand a month, or more had to pay taxes while the white threshold was more than twice as high, at 750 rand a year, 62.5 rand per month. On the other hand, the taxation rate for whites was considerably higher than that for blacks.^[ Sony PCG-51111T Battery

Blacks could never acquire land in white areas. In the homelands, much of the land belonged to a 'tribe', where the local chieftain would decide how the land had to be used. This resulted in white people owning almost all the industrial and agricultural lands and much of the prized residential land. Most blacks were stripped of their South African citizenship when the "homelands" became "independent".Sony PCG-81111T Battery

Thus, they were no longer able to apply for South African passports. Eligibility requirements for a passport had been difficult for blacks to meet, the government contending that a passport was a privilege, not a right. As such, the government did not grant many passports to blacks. Apartheid pervaded South African culture, as well as the law, and was entrenched by most of the mainstream media. Sony PCG-81311T Battery

The population was classified into four groups: Black, White, Indian, and Coloured. (These terms are capitalised to denote their legal definitions in South African law). The Coloured group included people regarded as being of mixed descent, including people of Bantu, Khoisan, European and Malay ancestry. Sony VPCF138FC Battery

Many were descended from people brought to South Africa from other parts of the world, such as India, Madagascar, China and the Philippines, as slaves and indentured workers.^[61]

The Apartheid bureaucracy devised complex (and often arbitrary) criteria at the time that the Population Registration Act was implemented to determine who was Coloured. Sony VPCF219FC Battery

Minor officials would administer tests to determine if someone should be categorised either Coloured or Black, or if another person should be categorised either Coloured or White. Different members of the same family found themselves in different race groups. Further tests determined membership of the various sub-racial groups of the Coloureds. Sony VPCS135EC Battery

Many of those who formerly belonged to this racial group are opposed to the continuing use of the term "coloured" in the post-apartheid era, though the term no longer signifies any legal meaning. The expressions 'so-called Coloured' (Afrikaanssogenaamde Kleurlinge) and 'brown people' (bruinmense) acquired a wide usage in the 1980s. Sony VPCS136EC Battery

Discriminated against by apartheid, Coloureds were as a matter of state policy forced to live in separate townships—in some cases leaving homes their families had occupied for generations—and received an inferior education, though better than that provided to Black South Africans. Sony VPCS138EC Battery

They played an important role in the anti-apartheid movement: for example the African Political Organization established in 1902 had an exclusively coloured membership.

Voting rights were denied to Coloureds in the same way that they were denied to blacks from 1950 to 1983. Sony VPCS139GC Battery

However, in 1977 the NP caucus approved proposals to bring Coloureds and Indians into central government. In 1982, final constitutional proposals produced a referendum among white voters, and the Tricameral Parliament was approved. The Constitution was reformed the following year to allow the Coloured and Asian minorities participation in separate Houses in a Tricameral Parliament, Sony VPCYA15EC Battery

and Botha became the first Executive State President. The idea was that the Coloured minority could be granted voting rights, but the Black majority were to become citizens of independent homelands. These separate arrangements continued until the abolition of apartheid. The Tricameral reforms led to the formation of the (anti-apartheid) UDF as a vehicle to try to prevent the co-option of Coloureds and Indians into an alliance with white South Africans. Sony VPCYA16EC Battery

The subsequent battles between the UDF and the NP government from 1983 to 1989 were to become the most intense period of struggle between left-wing and right-wing South Africans.

Colonialism and apartheid had a major impact on women since they suffered both racial and gender discrimination. Oppression against African women was different from discrimination against men. Sony VPCYA25EC Battery

They had very few or no legal rights, no access to education and no right to own property.^[62] Jobs were often hard to find but many African women worked as agricultural or domestic workers though wages were extremely low, if existent.^[63] Children suffered from diseases caused by malnutrition and sanitary problems, and mortality rates were therefore high. Sony VPCYA26EC Battery