Setting Up Apartheid, 1948-54

Question 1

Segregation before 1948

Answer 1

• Only white South Africans had voting rights
• Black South Africans could only own 7% of the land in the country despite being the majority population

Question 2

Election of 1948

Answer 2

• National Party won the election despite having less voters overall
• Due to big support in rural areas and votes being wasted for the United Party in urban areas
• Rural areas more supportive of apartheid as they wanted cheap labour with slaves
• Played on the fears of the black surge into towns
• Afrikaaners outnumbered the English 3:2 and more threatened by blacks and so the NP got their vote

Question 3

Tomlinson report - 1955

Answer 3

• Recommended that the government to separate reaches and that it could work, as long as it was willing to pay
• It should divide the reserves up into 7 areas, each the ‘homeland’ of separate black people
• White and blacks now longer lived together

Question 4

Defects of the Tomlinson proposals

Answer 4

• Neat and comforting for the white population,however blacks made up 70% of the population and yet received only 13% of the land
• Government refused to spend money on farming improvements or on businesses like the report advised

Question 5

Apartheid Laws, 1948-54, big list

Answer 5

• Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949 - Marriages between people of different races were made illegal, black, mixed, white or Indian
• Immorality Act, 1950 - Sexual relations between different races were made illegal
• Population Registration Act, 1950 - Defined which race every South African belonged to, people could be reclassified if they wanted to, measured in many different ways like skin, nails and hair
• Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 - Defined communism as any form of unrest/protest, gave the government powers to arrest and hold people without charge
• Group Areas Act, 1950 - Each town was separated into, ‘White’, ‘Coloured’ or ‘Black’ areas. Forcibly evicted those in ‘wrong’ areas
• Bantu authorities Act, 1951 - Black South Africans could only live in their tribal reservations
• Abolition of Passes Act, 1952 - Rewrote pass laws, making it so that all non-white people had to carry their pass book to enter ‘white’ areas
• Bantu Education Act, 1953 - Moved control of black South African education to Ministry of Native Affairs
• Separate Amenities Act, 1953 - Divided public services and spaces according to European and non European areas, different parks, benches, cinemas, etc…

Question 6

Opposition and resistance

Answer 6

• ANC leader changed with big figures like Sisulu, Mandela and Tambo stepping up and immediately tarted to set up strikes, demonstrations and non-corporations with the government
• Defiance Campaign, 1952 - ANC led and black South Africans ignored ‘European only’ signs and 8,000 arrested with the plan to overflow jails
• By end of 1952 ANC membership had risen from 7,000-100,000