What was the response to apartheid? c1948-59

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  • Created by: Lydia
  • Created on: 19-12-16 13:11

Why were the Nationalists able to come to power?

Growth of Afrikaner Nationalism 

  • The National Party held this ideology and promised their voters they would maintain the racial boundaries, they even published the Sawer Report which stated that racial segregation was the only way to deal with the 'problem'.

Impact of WWII

  • The National Party promised to uphold the urban pass system after the influx of blacks to cities, replacing white people's 'civilized' jobs while they were at war.

Failure of Smuts

  • Smuts was critized for not effectively dealing with post war problems and for putting SA in the war in the first place. The National Party appealed becuase they were anti- British, therefore against going to war altogether.

Electoral System

  • Because of the electoral system, the National Party won, even though they gaied less votes. The NP appealed to white rural voters and although there were less of them, they made up a big percentage of different constituencies.
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Apartheid Laws

1949- Prohibition of Mixed Marriage's Act and 1950- Immorality Act : Prevented marriage and sex between whites and other races.

1950- Population Registration Act : A national register that recorded the race of everyone in South Africa in an attempt to assaign everyone to one of the four races.

1950- Suppression of Communism Act : Banned the Communism Party and anyone with aims that the government thought aligned with Communist aims.

1950> - Group Areas Act : Three sepereate acts that assaigned racial groups to different sections in Urban Areas.

1951- Bantu Authorites Act : Establishment of Regional and Territorial Authorites for each ethnic group.

1952- Natives Abolition of Passes Act : Repealed the laws relatinng to caring passes by natives.

1952- Urban Areas Act : Amended the Group Areas Act and limited the category of blacks who had the right to permanent residence in Urban Areas.

1953- Reservation of Seperate Amenities Act : Legal to provide seperate public spaces that weren't of equal quality.

1953- Bantu Education Act : The government controlled black schools so they could introduce skills for labour working.

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Apartheid Laws in Practice- Separate Area Acts

Case Study; Sophiatown

  • A city where blacks could own their own property, it had issues with overcrowding and gang crime.
  • Because of the 1955 Group Areas Act, the black residents were forcibly relocated.
  • In response, the ANC launched the 18 month long campaign under he slogan 'WE WON'T MOVE'.
  • Two days before the removal date, 2000 armed police invaded Sophiatown unnanounced and there were no protests in response.
  • The new homes had no toilets, water or electricity. The townships were split by race and some families were split because they were classifed as different races.

Impact of Sophiatown

  • Led to the ANC becoming more violent as they realized that their tactics weren't working.
  • People now understood that the National Party's theories on apartheid were going to be put into action.
  • Segregation would be the main priority for the governement, not economic prosperity.
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Apartheid Laws in Practice- Pass Laws

The 1952 Natives Abolition of Passes Act made it so each African adult had to carry a reference book. This book contained their identity and whether or not they were allowed in a certain area.

The 1952 Urban Areas Act gave rights to some Africans who lived in towns and gave them the right to work, but not to buy houses or land.

Impact of Pass Laws

  • Increased harassment from police demanding to see passes.
  • Convictions increased drastically and the courts were dealing with arrests relating to pass laws constantly.
  • However, the pass laws didn't achieve their goal as the population in urban areas actually increased.
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Apartheid Laws in Practice- Education Acts

The 1953 Bantu Eduction Act's aim was to take the control of black education away from locals so that they could teach African children skills for labour jobs to create a generation of hard manual labour workers as well as a generation that wouldn't question apartheid.

The 1959 Extension of University Act meant that fewer white universities accepted black students. Fort Hare (highly politically black university which motivated and inspired many students inc. Sobukwe, Mandela and Tambo) came under government control.

Impact of Education Acts

  • Although the aim of the education acts was to create complient citizens, the first generation to come out of this system was the most politically motivated.
  • They understood that apartheid held no benefits for them and that they were being tricked into thinking that they were inferior.
  • Stephen Biko created the politically philosophy of 'Black Consciousness' in response.
  • Formation of the South African Students Organisation in 1968 (first wave of students coming out of repressive education system).
  • The educational issues led to many demonstations like the Soweto uprisings in 1976.
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How apartheid changed under Verwoerd

National Party strengthening its grip

Promoted Afrikaners to powerful jobs like judges, police and newspaper owners.

This meant that all areas of people's lives were biased and  in strong support of the National Party over anyone else.

Members of the Broederbond were promoted, particularly in departments that dealt in realtions with black Africans.

This way, white supremistst ideas were inflicted more closely on black Africans because people that dealt with all their affairs were Afrikaner Nationalists.

He increased the police force by 25%.

This shows that he was willing to crush opponents to apartheid with force and could have been anticipating backlash from his repressive laws he plans to enforce.

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How apartheid changed under Verwoerd

Creation of the Bantustans

  • The key to Verwoerd's vision of an all-white nation was the creation of homelands.
  • He asked Tomlinson to write a report about the impact of the creation of Bantustans.
  • The report stated that the black reserves should be increased in size and there should be major funding for rural industries to help the black majority.

However, Verwoerd rejected these ideas because he didn't think whites would support the large expenditure and didn't want to create subsidised black industries that might compete with white urban business.

The 1959 Bantu Self-Government Act created 8 self-governing homelands, each homeland was for a different ethnic group. This meant that in theory once black South Africans were divided into homelands, whites would be the largest racial group- Verwoerd's plan.

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