APARTHEID AND DEMOGRAPHY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

The National Party came into power in 1948 with an election promise to safeguard the political, economic and social interests of minority whites In South Africa. Racial segregation was their major strategy for ensuring the supremacy of white racial group in the country. By the mid-1950s, major pieces of legislation which formed the pillars of apartheid such as the Immorality Act, Population Registration Act, Reservation of Separate Amenities Act and Black Education Act, were firmly in place. Apartheid policies were implemented with zeal by the minority white government to the social and economic detriment of the blacks who constitute the majority In South Africa. The dream of Institutionalized racial segregation met with Intensive Internal resistance and International pressures, and in 1991, the ruling National Party formally renounced apartheid and declared a commitment to the creation of non-raclal democracy In South Africa. By the end of the 1940s, distinct demographic regimes existed In South Africa with potentials for maximum exposure to alternative trends. The aim of this paper is to show briefly how these different regimes reacted to the realities of the Implementation of apartheid with particular reference to mortality, fertility and reproductive behavior, and population activities.