electoral history
How apartheid was entrenched
Everyone knows apartheid started with the Nats’ narrow victory in 1948. But few remember the effort South Africans of all races made in a bid to ensure the party served only one term. This month marks the 70th anniversary of the 1953 election — the moment apartheid really got going
On May 28 1948, South Africa woke up to the shocking news that DF Malan, leader of the Herenigde Nasionale Party, had slunk into presidential office, with his party winning just 70 of the 153 seats in South Africa’s House of Assembly.
Despite having only a nanoscopic parliamentary majority — together with the Afrikaner Party it had secured 79 seats — the Nats went on to pass four repressive laws in 1950 alone. The Population Registration Act required every South African to be registered as white, coloured, Indian or black. The Group Areas Act designated suburbs according to race. The Immorality Act forbade “carnal intercourse” between races. And the Suppression of Communism Act gave the government wide-reaching powers to arrest just about anyone for doing just about anything. ..
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