Implementing apartheid: Strengthening the NP

• Development of National Party government control

  The National Party didn't have precise blueprints for the implementation of apartheid. They maintained their support and achieved apartheid by various strategies:

  • Making the state more dominated by Afrikaner people; e.g. as English-speaking civil servants retired, they were replaced by Afrikaner people.
  • All senior National Party officials were expected to have close ties with the Broederbund
  • They created new political constituences, e.g. in Namibia
  • In 1956 they disenfranchised coloured voters
• Grand apartheid

  This was the overall strategy of keeping the different races separated as much as possible, e.g. by ensuring they lived in separate areas.
• Petty apartheid

  This was the day-to-day restrictions such as separate facilities. Many African people found this more wearying than grand apartheid.
• Population Registration Act, 1950

  This Act designated the racial category of everyone, divided initially into black, white and coloured, with 'Indian' added later. It insisted the different groups be kept strictly separate. Husbands and wives in interracial relationships were expected to split up. Everyone was registered according to their racial group and issued with an identity card with their racial group appended.
• Group Areas Act, 1950

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

  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'. When Sophiatown was finally demolished it was replaced by a white suburb named Triomf.