The Rise and Fall of Apartheid: A Report on South Africa's History

This report provides an overview of South Africa's Apartheid policy, which began in 1910 but was officially implemented as law in 1948 by the Reunited National Party. The policy, based on racial segregation, led to separate development for different racial groups, including whites, locals, Asians, and coloured groups, enforced through various laws. Key legislations like the Bantu Authorities Act of 1951, The Land Acts of 1954 & 1955, and The Group Areas Act of 1950, along with The Public Safety Act & Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1953, are discussed. The report also touches upon the global response, including boycotts, that eventually led to the annulment of some segregation laws. The assignment includes references to academic sources that provide further context and research on this historical period. The report is a contribution to Desklib, a platform offering study resources.

PROJECT SOUTH AFRICA'S APARTHEID POLICY

In the year 1910, Apartheid policy was initiated in South Africa but it comes to play at
the time of the election. On the date of 28th May 1948, the party of white minority named
Reunited National Party won the election. After winning the election; the party officially
declared the Apartheid policy as a law in South Africa. According to Amodio & Chiovelli
(2016), the term "apartness" was the fundamental for the word Apartheid. It was basically a
system that governs as well as looks out for racial activities in South Africa. In simple words, it
followed the officially recognized racial segregation in South Africa. The racial segregation
stands for separate development of all the groups. Thus, different-different social amenities as
well as residential areas had been developed for whites, locals, Asian and the coloured groups in
South Africa. In addition to the policy, prevention of racial discrimination was also established in
practice. The reason was that before legalization of this policy; the transitory urban location was
assigned to the African's black colour and they were simply considered as labours for white
coloured South African people. Therefore, in order to stop this; prevention of racial
discrimination was established in practice as soon as possible.
Now, during the 1950's, various laws were passed in South Africa in order to keep apartheid
policy system running for the benefits of its people. One of the laws was the Bantu Authorities
Act in the year 1951, according to this law; a nominated mother land was allocated to Africans
and all their rights including voting rights were constrained to their new designated mother land
and they even lost their citizenships. Apart from it, the other two main laws that initiated in the
year 1950's were The Land Acts of 1954 & 1955 and the other one was The Group Areas Act of
1950. According to these laws, different sectors including housing and industrial sectors are
allocated to races in the city. This comes under the group areas act and restriction of black colour
Africans residence to some specific areas, and this comes under the land acts (Clark, & Worger,
2016).
Another law was passed in the year 1953; the name of law was the Public Safety Act & Criminal
Law Amendment Act. With the help of this law, government can now apply state of emergency
as well as impose penalties like sentence, beating and fine for protesting in opposition to the law.
And the first state of emergency was declared in March 1960 when well-organized non-violent
movement was conducted for 5 days by the leader of Pan African Congress.
In the year 1976 and 1977, the apartheid education was protested by entire young students
worldwide. However, the limit crossed when the Black Consciousness leader was murdered and
then the entire world had decided to take strict action against South Africa. Consequently, South
Africa was boycotted by entire world including ban of goods and services imported from South
Africa and thus government had to annul their some racial segregation laws because of growing
pressure (Maylam, 2017).

REFERENCES
Amodio, F., & Chiovelli, G. (2016). Ethnic Favoritism in Democracy: The Political
Economy of Land and Labor in South Africa. Retrieved 6 October 2017 from
https://a30dbce8-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/fscoamodio/home/
za_lm_jmp.pdf?
attachauth=ANoY7cqyh8si4ip5hK__oATKIXDssMWWTtD4vBKvhxQIShZC8DRPQBwb
Mm-iv37mwSRIieorLVz5YEx0L8mix7AQPC76QBho5Hnaua5PIwYkL7WfGqy-
sJ7nwhCQKiQCjiPpNBcFhBlL-Y5rhzvMJrs2eE_NaqNS9P1-
uxdWv5yzq6lUOuwRNiIQQE8aE0gDOSGBvj1VCPzqlq41dWhS_NhmZHX_MBs1yA
%3D%3D&attredirects=0
Clark, N. L., & Worger, W. H. (2016). South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid.
Routledge.
Maylam, P. (2017). South Africa's racial past: The history and historiography of racism,
segregation, and apartheid. Routledge.