Apartheid South Africa
Segregation after the formation of the Union
Segregation in 1920s & 1930s
• In the first two decades of the union, segregation became
a distinctive feature of South African political, social, and
economic life as whites addressed the “native question.”
• Blacks were “retribalized” and their ethnic differences
highlighted.
•This barrage of legislation was partly the product of
reactionary attitudes inherited from the past and partly an
effort to regulate class and race relations during a period
of rapid industrialization when the black population was
growing steadily.
Segregation in 1920s & 1930s
•The 1911 Mines and Works Act and its 1926 successor reserved certain jobs
in mining and the railways for white workers.
•The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 defined less than one-tenth of South Africa as
black “reserves” and prohibited any purchase or lease of land by blacks
outside the reserves. The law also restricted the terms of tenure under which
blacks could live on white-owned farms.
•The Native (Urban Areas) Act of 1923 segregated urban residential space
and created “influx controls” to reduce access to cities by blacks.
•Hertzog proposed increasing the reserve areas and removing black voters in
the Cape from the common roll in 1926, aims that were finally realized
through the Representation of Natives Act (1936). Blacks now voted on a
separate roll to elect three white representatives to the House of Assembly.
The Pact years (1924–33)
• Hertzog’s Pact government strengthened South Africa’s autonomy
, aided local capital, and protected white workers against black
competition.
•White trade unions grew more bureaucratic and less militant,
although their members enjoyed at best modest material gains.
• Unskilled and nonunionized whites who received support through
sheltered employment in the public sector and through prescribed
minimum wages in the private sector gained more directly.
•Although the overall level of white poverty remained high, through
these policies the manufacturing sector absorbed white labour
nearly twice as fast as black.
The Pact years (1924–33)
•Blacks gained little during this period and continued to
lose earlier benefits.
•For them, segregation meant restricted mobility,
diminished opportunities, more-stringent controls, and a
general sense of exclusion.
•Economic conditions in the reserves continued to
deteriorate; the terms of tenancy became more onerous
on white-owned farms; and the urban slums provided a
harsh alternative for those who left the land.
The intensification of segregation in the 1930s
•The Hertzog government achieved a major goal in 1931 when the
British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, which removed
the last vestiges of British legal authority over South Africa.
•Three years later the South African Parliament secured that decision
by enacting the Status of the Union Act, which declared the country to
be “a sovereign independent state.”
• National Party of general J.B.M. Hertzog and the South African Party
of General Jan Smuts merged to form the United Party in 1934 with
Hertzog as prime minister and Smuts his deputy
• The segregation laws brought into effect by them laid the foundation
of Apartheid legislation which was passed from 1950 onwards
The intensification of apartheid in
the 1930s
• The two parties and the two leaders had a common interest in favouring
the enfranchised population, nearly all of whom were white, over the
unenfranchised, all of whom were black.
• They agreed to provide massive support
for white farmers,
to assist poor whites by providing them with jobs protected from black
competition, and to
curb the movement of blacks from the reserves into the towns.
• In the early 1930`s the earnings from South Africa’s gold exports increased
sharply after Britain and the United States abandoned the gold standard.
• White farmers prospered; new secondary industries were established; and
South Africans of all races continued to flock to the towns.
The intensification of apartheid in
the 1930s
• Although the standard of living for most whites
improved greatly from this expansion, the lives of
Coloureds, blacks, and Indians were hardly affected.
• The government did add some land to the reserves in
1936, but it never exceeded 13 percent of the area of
the country.
• Almost nine-tenths of South Africa—including the best
land for agriculture and the bulk of the mineral deposits
—belonged exclusively to whites.
The intensification of apartheid in
the 1930s
• Conditions on the native reserves became progressively worse through
overpopulation and soil erosion.
• The government attempted to resolve these problems through a series of
programs called Betterment Schemes, which involved
keeping tight control over land use in the reserves, often drastically culling cattle,
and
enforcing the building of contour ridges to reduce soil erosion.
• Overcrowding in the reserves made it necessary for a high proportion of the men to
work for wages elsewhere—on white farms or in the towns, where they lived in a
hostile world.
• Black and Coloured farm labourers, scattered in small groups throughout the
agricultural areas, were isolated, and in the towns life was insecure and wages low.
• In the gold-mining industry the real wages of blacks declined by about one-
seventh between 1911 and 1941; white miners received 12 times the salary of
blacks.
The intensification of apartheid in
the 1930s
• Education for blacks was left largely to Christian missions, whose
resources, even when augmented by small government grants, enabled
them to enroll only a small proportion of the black population.
• Missionaries did, however, run numerous schools, including some
excellent high schools that took a few pupils through to the university
level; and missionaries were the dominant influence at the
South African Native College at Fort Hare (founded 1916),
• Educated blacks were frustrated by the fact that whites did not treat
them as equals, and some of them took part in opposition politics in the
ANC.
• However, the ANC and two parallel movements—the
African Political Organization (a Coloured group) and the
South African Indian Congress—had little popular support and exerted
little influence during this period.
• Their leaders were mission-educated men who had liberal goals and
Major segregation laws between 1906 &
1948
DATE LAW REGULATING
1906 Transvaal Asiatic “Asiatics” in the Transvaal were required to register
registration Act their fingerprints and to carry certificate
1907 Transvaal Immigration Restricted the entry of Indian people into the
Restriction Act Transvaal
1910 South Africa Act Incorporated proposals for union put forward by the
four colonies and passed through British parliament
to found the Union. Only white men were given the
right to vote
1911 Mines and Works Act Job reservation reserved skilled work on the mines
and railways for white men
1911 Native Labour All male African workers were forced to carry
Regulation Act passes. Black men received less compensation in
industrial accidents than white men and could not
go to prison for breaking their contracts and for
striking
1912 Defence Act Black men were not allowed to do military training
Major segregation laws between 1906 & 1948
DATE LAW REGULATING
1913 Natives` Land Act Officially demarcated land for occupation and ownership
by African people. It set aside land in Zululand, Ciskei and
Transkei exclusively for African people and stopped them
from having land outside these areas. Share cropping and
labour tenancy was made illegal. Labour tenants were
forced to become wage labourers or leave farms and find
land in the reserves
1914 Indian Relief Act Abolished the $3 tax Indian people had to pay in Natal
and recognized the validity of Indian marriages. Indian
people were still not allowed to live in the Orange Free
State and they lacked political representation
1920 Native Affairs Act The creation of government-appointed, tribally-based
district councils
1923 Natives Urban Legalised segregation in towns, where municipalities
Areas Act could establish African ‘locations’ outside white areas and
provide housing, charge rent and carry out the pass laws.
Black people could not own land in towns
Major segregation laws between 1906 & 1948
DATE LAW REGULATING
1924 Industrial Enforced job reservation and the ‘colour bar’. Certain
Conciliation Act categories of jobs were reserved for white workers only
1926* Coloured Persons Extended political rights to coloured people outside the
Rights Bill Cape
(proposed)
1935 Areas Reservation, Secured residential and commercial segregation of the
Immigration and Indian population
Registration Act
1936* Representation of Removed African voters from the Cape voters` roll and
Natives in placed them on a separate roll to elect white
Parliament Act representatives to parliament. Used to create the
Native Representative Council (an advisory body)
* In1926 laws had been proposed by General J.B.M.
Hertzog, then Prime Minister of South Africa. Due to
strong opposition in parliament they were not passed
and only became law in 1936. The bill to extend
franchise to all ‘coloured’ people was not passed.
Major segregation laws between 1906 & 1948
DATE LAW REGULATING
1936* Natives Trust and Land Enlarged the areas set aside by the 1913 Land Act
Act for purchase by tribal councils and syndicates, but
not for individuals
1937 Native Laws Amendment Extended laws to enforce urban segregation and
Act influx control
1943 ‘Pegging’ Act Prevented Indian people in Durban from buying
property from white people
1946 Asiatic Land Tenure an Natal was divided into exempted and un-
Indian Representation Act exempted areas. Indian people could only own or
occupy property in exempted areas
* In1926 laws had been proposed by General
J.B.M. Hertzog, then Prime Minister of South
Africa. Due to strong opposition in parliament
they were not passed and only became law in
1936. The bill to extend franchise to all ‘coloured’
people was not passed.
