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Y224: Apartheid and Reconciliation: South African Politics 1948–1999

Establishing Apartheid: South Africa before 1948, the 1948 election and racial classification

  • 2 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on black political rights and segregation before 1948, the Second World War, the Fagan and Sauer reports, the National Party’s 1948 victory, the meaning of apartheid and the Population Registration Act.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Why was racial classification so damaging in practice?

Who and when

What did the Fagan report of 1948 and the Sauer report of 1947 recommend?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Describe the political position of black South Africans in 1948.

    Model answer

    They had no vote in national elections outside a small qualified Cape franchise that had already been removed in 1936, and were represented in parliament only by a handful of white members.

  2. 2

    What forms of segregation already existed before 1948?

    Model answer

    Land acts confined African ownership to about a seventh of the country, pass laws controlled movement into towns, the colour bar reserved skilled mining jobs for whites, and townships were separated from white residential areas.

  3. 3

    How had the Second World War changed South African society?

    Model answer

    Wartime industry drew hundreds of thousands of black workers into the cities, where they filled semi-skilled jobs, crowded into squatter settlements and organised strikes, alarming white voters who feared the collapse of segregation.

  4. 4

    What did the Fagan report of 1948 and the Sauer report of 1947 recommend?

    Model answer

    The Fagan report concluded that black urbanisation was permanent and should be managed, while the Sauer report for the Nationalists argued for reversing it through total separation.

  5. 5

    Explain why the National Party won the 1948 election despite losing the popular vote.

    Model answer

    Rural constituencies were deliberately smaller than urban ones, so its Afrikaner farming base was over-represented, and its alliance with the Afrikaner Party gave it a narrow parliamentary majority.

  6. 6

    What arguments did the Nationalists use to win Afrikaner support in 1948?

    Model answer

    They warned of the black danger to white jobs and safety, appealed to Afrikaner nationalism and grievance against British influence, and promised to protect poor whites through job reservation.

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