One of the most pernicious aspects of the old apartheid regime was the classification of people according to their skin colour. It was the foundation of the entire system. Added to compulsory identity books, it was how the apartheid government began the awful process of herding humans like sheep into their designated corrals.

To put it politely, the apartheid bureaucrats might just as well have tried herding cats. The task was impossible without draconian police powers. Attempting it soon earned the country the title of polecat of the world, one reason being that the last country that tried such social engineering was Nazi Germany...

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