This Act replaced the Industrial Conciliation Acts of 1924 and 1937. The main purpose of the law was to divide the trade union movements along racial lines in order to weaken them. The law ended the recognition of white, colored and Indian unions. It stipulated that mixed unions should serve a single racial group or split into exclusively racial sections, each headed by a white-controlled executive. At that time, Africans had not yet been allowed to belong to a registered trade union. The law also gave the minister additional powers to announce illegal strikes in key industries. Whites benefited from this law because it gave legal force to white job reservation practices. The Great Depression and World War II caused South Africa to worsen economic problems and convinced the government to reinforce its policy of racial segregation. In 1948, the African National Party won the general election under the slogan „apartheid” (literally „apartheid”). Their aim was not only to separate South Africa`s white minority from their non-white majority, but also to separate non-whites and divide black South Africans along tribal lines in order to reduce their political power. Sidelined apartheid school systems in South Africa and provided education and subsidies to blacks.
Start: April 1, 1965 In 1948, racial segregation had long been the norm. But, as journalist Allister Sparks noted, apartheid, based on racial anthropology and theology, „replaced the application of conventions. What used to be done automatically has now been codified by law and, if possible, intensified. [Racism] has become a matter of doctrine, ideology, theologized faith, imbued with a particular fanaticism, a religious zeal. 2 Mixed Marriage Prohibition Act No. 55 of 1949 The National Party, in its early efforts to introduce social apartheid, introduced the Mixed Marriages Act in 1949. This law prohibited marriage between whites and any other racial group. Nationalists have shown in the parliamentary debate on this issue that they are concerned about the increasing infiltration of Coloureds into the white group.
When this law was enacted in 1949, there were about 75 mixed marriages versus 28,000 sham marriages. Under the administration of South African President F.W. De Klerk, pro-apartheid legislation was repealed in the early 1990s, and in 1993 a new constitution was adopted, giving blacks and other racial groups the right to vote. All national elections in 1994 resulted in a predominantly black government led by prominent anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress Party. Although these developments marked the end of legal apartheid, the social and economic effects of apartheid remained deeply rooted in South African society. Although their role has often been overlooked in historical narratives of resistance to apartheid, black South African women have played an important role in resisting the system of racial segregation. (White and „colored” women were part of the resistance, but the vast majority were black South Africans.) In the early 1900s, black South African women successfully opposed a bill that would require them to have savings accounts. After a setback in 1918, women reorganized to end the practice under the leadership of Charlotte Maxeke, a gifted singer, social worker, and activist—a heroine of the early days of the protest. She was described by A. B. Xuma, who was president of the ANC in the 1940s, as the „mother of African freedom in this country.” 12 Police raided black apartment buildings daily, broke in at midnight, forced residents to show their passports, and arrested those who did not have them.
Police brutality was widespread; Hundreds of thousands of black South Africans have been arrested, thousands have disappeared from their homes without a trace, and hundreds have lost their lives at the hands of law enforcement and batons.