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Lecture Notes - Political Policy of Apartheid

The apartheid system in South Africa established racial stratification and separate development. It classified the population into racial groups including white, colored, Asian, and Bantu or black African. The Population Registration Act of 1949 required all residents to register by race. This led to the Group Areas Act which separated residences by race. Black people were restricted to live in designated homelands, making up only 14% of the land. Apartheid policies regulated all aspects of life from education and politics to personal relationships and the economy to enforce racial segregation.

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Lecture Notes - Political Policy of Apartheid

The apartheid system in South Africa established racial stratification and separate development. It classified the population into racial groups including white, colored, Asian, and Bantu or black African. The Population Registration Act of 1949 required all residents to register by race. This led to the Group Areas Act which separated residences by race. Black people were restricted to live in designated homelands, making up only 14% of the land. Apartheid policies regulated all aspects of life from education and politics to personal relationships and the economy to enforce racial segregation.

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Alifa Cantika
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NOTES WEEK 1

Political Policy of Apartheid

The essence of Apartheid according to Tony Beaumont in his book South Africa After Siege is
that each group should develop separately and achieve autonomy in its area (each group must
develop itself separately and must achieve its own regional autonomy). This is described in four
ways, namely in the stratification of the population in order of white skin, colored skin (mixed),
Asian descent (here are usually Indians), and Bantu people (black natives); whites are a civilized
race; white interests over black; and whites speak English.

The cornerstone for the establishment of the apartheid structure was the Population Registration
Act (1949) by which all South African residents were registered by race. Apartheid ideological
thinking as explained in the previous section underlies the Group Areas Act in 1950. Residences
are separated based on existing racial stratification. Many black people live in the northern
border area to the eastern border of South Africa. For black people who are outside their area for
more than 72 hours without special permission from the Native Labor Officer, they will be
jailed. In black areas, regional divisions were then carried out based on existing ethnic groups.
These areas were then called Homelands (homeland) or Bantustans (areas of the Bantu people).
Ten of these areas were eventually established, namely Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Gazankulu,
Kangwane, Kwandebele, Kwazulu, Lebowa, Qwaqwa, Transkei, and Venda. These areas make
up only 14% of the territory of South Africa and are reserved for 72% of the existing Bantu
people (Budiman, 2013: 19-20).

In its development, other regulations emerged that regulated personal relationships in a social
context, such as the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act and the Immorality Amendment Act in
the same year, which regulated the prohibition of sexual relations and mixed marriages between
black or colored groups and upper-class white people. Similar policies were also applied to other
more public aspects of life such as education and politics. Not all black people have an
education. Even if they do, the existing education is also differentiated in terms of lessons. This
is based on the Bantu Education Act. Black people and people of color do not have the right to
vote in elections so that political changes are difficult to implement (Pradhitama, 2011: 24).

Economic development in Homelands is not good, because it is regional autonomy. There are
also not many resources in the area so that they cannot meet the needs of the community. Not to
mention the population growth which is increasing every year, making Homelands crowded and
dirty. Unlike the conditions in areas belonging to white people. Their area is large with a small
population. Not to mention the abundant natural resources, such as diamonds and gold. White
skin at that time was very prosperous. Black people are generally only laborers, but because they
increase in number each year, they are gradually unemployed (Budiman, 2013: 20).
With the Apartheid system, every person with the law has been branded since birth based on skin
color. Black people, although they constituted the majority of the population of South Africa,
were not eligible to vote in general elections, could not enter cinemas or (non-fancy) restaurants
frequented by whites, could only use the restrooms reserved specifically for that color, and were
not can ride the same bus as white people. They were also excluded from work areas or
residential areas by residents of white color, unless they had a permit. The racial segregation
carried out by the South African government against black people is carried out in all areas of
life. This process of racial segregation began with segregation in public places such as beaches,
trains, buses and other forms of transportation. Black and white transportation facilities are also
distinguished (Haba, 2007: 7-8).

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