Topic 1

• Factors that led to apartheid becoming law

  • African urbanisation
  • Widespread discrimination
  • Afrikaner culture
• African urbanisation

  • Growth in the mining industry → white South Africa grew much more urban and relied on it for much of its wealth
  • Great labour demand → Africans as the main source of cheap labour would have been the best solution to fill up the demand
  • Tension between the desire to prevent Africans moving into areas reserved for white people and the need for cheap labour
  • Africans had to return to the tribal areas allocated to them when the temporary contracts ended
  • By 1946, 23% of Africans were living in urban areas
  • Most transient workers lived in townships: special settlements on the edge of urban areas for urban African workers
• Afrikaner culture

  • Stern puritanical Christianity
  • The Covenant of 1838 was the basis of the Boer belief that God had granted them the land of South Africa
  • Extreme racism and belief that people of colour were inferior
  • Belief that these people had been cursed by God, which was reinforced by the teaching of the Dutch Reformed Church
  • Laager mentality (stick together in the face of outside criticism), which can be exemplified by their determination to proceed with apartheid and white supremacy → the greater the opposition, the greater the determination
• Widespread discrimination

  • In 1948, all political and economic power was effectively monopolised by white people → all non-white groups faced discrimination
  • Most white people had racist views which varied between Africans being lazy, untrustworthy and, if given the opportunity, dangerous
  • They considered black people most content in rural areas, tending to their farms and cattle, away from the temptations of urban life
• Factors that led to the National Party victory in 1948


  • Weighting of the constituencies
  • Impact of WW2
  • Weaknesses of the UP
  • Growth of Afrikaner nationalism
• Weighting of the constituencies

  • Popular vote → 40% (NP) vs 50% (UP) but electoral vote → 79:71
  • Rural constituencies, where most of National Party's supporters lived, were weighted 15% more
• Growth of Afrikaner nationalism

  • Post-war reunity among Afrikaners under the National Party banner
  • Didn't trust the English-speaking parties
  • Voortrekker Monument (1938) created a real sense of Afrikaner identity
  • Broederbond, a hugely influential movement set up in 1918, dedicated to promoting Afrikaner interest
  • Afrikaner finance concerns set up to help Afrikaners start their own businesses
  • The Dutch Reformed Church provided Afrikaner schools and cultural activities to develop a pride in Afrikaner identity
• Weaknesses of the UP

  Discontent amongst the white electorate with aspects of the United Party's policies, e.g. in 1946, a non-discriminatory healthcare system recommended in a Commission, although this was not taken any further
• Impact of the WW2

  • ½ of white of military age joined allied forces
  • 125,000 extra workers employed in manufacturing during the war years, just 25% were white people (Africans received much less pay) → fear of black urbanisation
  • To meet the needs of a war-time economy during the Second World War, the United Party had allowed a relaxation of segregationist policies
  • White opposition to this was exploited by the National Party
  • White people feared "swart gevaar", which meant black threat, and miscegenation
• Opposition groups, e.g. the Defiance Campaign, anti-pass law protests at Sharpeville, suggest apartheid policies had not been fully implemented
• However, opposition to the policy of apartheid was suppressed by the National Party, e.g. arrests of leading Congress Alliance members and the Treason Trial
• Native Laws Amendment Act 1952

  • Africans' lives were hugely inconvenienced
  • While other groups had to carry identity cards, Africans needed this complex and bulky document with them all the time
  • Stated specifically that neither African men nor women could remain in urban areas for 70 hrs after their permits had expired
  • The pass system was also so complex that no African could obey even if he had wanted to
• Although the pass laws were so central an issue for the African political oppositions, it might not have been as effective as thought
• The African urban population of South Africa rose from 1.8 mil. (1946) → 3.5 mil. (1960), showing how the pass laws failed to keep African out of the cities
• Group Areas Act 1950


  • Authorised the government to designate a particular area for one particular ethnic group and members of other ethnic groups in this area were to be forcibly removed
  • This Act was responsible for forcible eviction of 3.5 mil. Africans between 1951 and 1986
  • One of the most noted results of this Act was the destruction of the mixed race suburb of Sophiatown in Johannesburg, which housed 60,000
  • In Sophiatown, Africans were allowed to own property → later became an all-white suburb called Triomf
  • Nelson Mandela: 'many tenants moved willingly for they found they would have more space and cleaner housing in Meadowlands' in comparison with the slums in Sophiatown → resistance failed
• Bantu Education Act 1953


  • An end to state subsidies for mission schools, so most were forced to close
  • Education before National Party → vast majority of education for Africans was provided by Church-run mission schools
  • In 1945, there were 4360 mission schools and 230 government-run ones
  • An expansion of the government-run system and setting of a limited vocational-based curriculum
• The annual ANC conference in December 1954 voted for an indefinite boycott of the new government-run schools
• In the East Rand in Johannesburg, where ANC support was particularly strong, thousands stayed home
• In most areas, however, the schools continued as normal → potential consequences of a boycott were too severe, which was evident in Verwoerd's response which made clear that all schools affected by a boycott would be closed on the grounds that if children did not want to attend, the schools were unnecessary
• Governance of the NP


  The National Party manipulated the political and legal system to enact the policy of apartheid
• Extension of voters


  • In 1949, six members of Parliament were added for whites in Namibia where the Nationalists had support
  • Each of the new six seats contained 9000-12,000 voters → nationalist stronghold twice the number of seats it would have otherwise been entitled to
  • By 1953, the National Party increased its vote from little more than 40,000 to nearly 600,000
  • However, the party only narrowly outpolled the United Party and still did not win a majority of white vote → oppositional voices within the parliament affecting enacting new legislations?
• Broederbond


  • A hugely influential movement set up in 1918, dedicated to promoting Afrikaner interest
  • During the 1950s, it grew in influence to such an extent that it almost became a government
  • All senior National Party politicians and government officials were expected to maintain close ties with it
  • Its policy documents effectively became government thinking
• Disenfranchisement of coloured voters

  • The government sought an all-white electorate in order to successfully implement apartheid
  • However, the coloured vote in Cape was specially protected by the 1910 Constitution and required a two-thirds majority of parliament to change it
  • Against the rules of the court, the National Party introduced the Separate Representation Bill in 1951, which later became law, with coloured Cape voters disenfranchised in February 1956
• Anti-apartheid campaigns


  • The Defiance Campaign of 1952
  • Women's pass protest
• The Defiance Campaign of 1952


  • First large-scale example of direct action by the ANC
  • Initial stage: local protest → supporters would break the law, e.g. refuse to carry asses + invite themselves for arrest
  • Extension: mass defiance w/ nationwide strikes and protests
  • Over 10,000 people attended the inaugural meeting in Durban
• Despite the 8500 participants arrested, the vast majority of 8 mil. Africans did not become involved
• The ANC had become a mass organisation led by committed and experienced activists → its membership rose from an estimated 4000 to over 100,000 after the campaign
• Women's pass protest


  • Experienced some degree of success, it slowed down the process of the extension of the Pass laws to women
  • On 9 August 1956, now known as Women's Day in South Africa, 20,000 women marched on Pretoria w/ a petition bearing 100,000 signatures
  • Regardlessly, by March 1960, 75% of the total African female population had been issued with passes
• Internal conflicts of the ANC over Africanism

  • Some leaders suggests the ANC should only recruit Africans, other leaders like Mandela and Tambo suggests that the ANC should be multi-ethnic thus welcome support from all groups — notably the Communists
  • The disagreements over the concept of africanism meant that the ANC was not united, thus was to be vital in the development of the anti-apartheid struggle
• South African Indian Congress (SAIC)


  • Founded in 1919 to support the promotion of rights of Indians and oppose segregation
  • Advocated passive resistance and sought to work w/ other groups in a common front
• Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA)


  • A multi-ethnic party founded in 1921 with the aim of organising Africans into trade unions on the basis of class rather than race
  • Facing the Suppression of Communism Act 1950, the CPSA dissolved itself and became an illegal organisation, renaming itself the South African Communist Party (SACP)
  • The SACP's policy was that South Africa must become a state where all races were treated equally before communism could be successful there
• Black Sash


  • A white protest group created in response to the women's protest against the new amendment to the pass laws in 1952
  • The group arranged bail for arrested woman who otherwise would not be allowed to return home to look after their child and built up a pool of lawyers who would represent African women for minimal fees
• Freedom Charter


  On 25 and 26 June 1955, 3000 representatives of all the opposition grps came tgt (Congress Alliance) and ratified the Freedom Charter (a charter of rights SA ppl wanted)
• Arrested 156 leading members of the Congress Alliance after the publication of the 1956 Freedom Charter
• Government repression


  • Passed assed Acts of repression to make civil disobedience a crime
  • E.g. the Riotous Assemblies Act in 1956, outlawed any meetings which might engender hostility between the races
  • Effectively isolated would-be protesters and prevented seditious material from reaching their potential audience
  • Campaign organisers including Nelson Mandela were arrested, led to their opposition power being weakened
• Rural resistance


  • Spontaneous and unplanned rural unrest → difficult to control/suppress
  • E.g. the potato boycott, 1957-59 → an ANC sponsored boycott on buying potatoes because of the harsh conditions endured by potato workers
  • Potatoes rot quickly + stocks piled up as ppl refused to buy them
  • In August 1959, farmers began to improve working conditions
• Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC)


  • Formed in 1957
  • With the support of Robert Sobukwe, a former ANCYL leader → disagreed w/ the integrationist approach + a firm supporter of Africanism
  • A simple philosophy, which was easily understood → gained a great deal of support
  • Africa belonged to black Africans who must fight alone for their liberation → rejected the Freedom Charter, equal rights for whites, working w/ other grps, and opposed communism
  • By 1959, its memberships exceeded the ANC by 25,000
• Laager mentality


  Determination to proceed with apartheid and white supremacy
• Reasons for the National Party victory, 1948

  1. Weighting of the constituencies

  2. Impact of the Second World War

  3. Weaknesses of the United Party

  4. Growth of Afrikaner nationalism
• Weighting of the constituencies

  • Popular vote → 40% (NP) vs 50% (UP) but electoral vote → 79:71
  • Rural constituencies, where most of National Party's supporters lived, were weighted 15% more